GASTEROPODA OF THE LOWER GREEN MARLS. "5 
VOLUTOMORPHA (PIESTOCHILUS) MUCKONATA. 
Plate vi, Figs. 12-14. 
Voluta mucronata Gabb: Proce. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1861, p. 323; Meek, Check 
List Cret. and Jur, Foss., p. 21. 
Volutilithes mucronata (Gabb) Meek: Geol., N. J., Newark, 1868, p. 730. 
Volutilithes nasuta (Gabb) Meek, loc. cit., not of Gabb. 
Volutomorpha mucronata Gabb: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1876, p. 293. 
Shell, as exhibited in the casts, slender, with an elevated and slender 
spire and prolonged rostral beak, giving an elongate, fusiform outline; 
volutions five or more, moderately convex and with strongly marked suture 
lines; body volution, as seen from the front, forming considerably more 
than half of the length of the entire shell, and the aperture two-thirds as 
long as the body volution; elliptical in outline, angular above and. pro- 
longed below; columella slender, marked by two very oblique folds, which 
are situated somewhat below the middle of its length, the lower being 
much the stronger of the two; surface features unknown. There is the 
slightest evidence on two individuals of distant longitudinal folds on the 
second volution, but not sufficiently distinct to give grounds for a positive 
assertion that such characters existed. 
This species can be confounded only with V. bella, and not very easily 
with that one, when the proportions of parts are taken into consideration. 
In that one the aperture will form fully or more than one-half of the 
length of the shell, while on this one it will not exceed one-third, and 
together with the half of the body volution above it, as seen in front, forms 
only about the same proportion of the whole as the aperture does in that 
species. The volutions are also less compact, and the general form more 
slenderly fusiform, so there is but little danger of any confusion in regard 
to the two species. In general form these shells would seem to be more 
properly related to the Mitras than to the Volutes, but on all specimens 
on which I have found the impressions of the columellar folds the lower or 
anterior one has been the largest, while m the Mitride the reverse should 
be the case. 
Formation and locality: Tia very dark colored bed of marl belonging 
to the lower layers, at Freehold, New Jersey. Collection at Rutgers Col- 
lege, New Jersey. 
