PLATE CXXXI. 



with which those productions are sought after, now that a more 

 liberal policy of the ruling powers of that extensive portion of the 

 globe affords the opportunity of enriching our collections with them. 

 The shell of which the description and figure is now submitted to 

 the reader, is one among the number of those recent acquisitions 

 which have been lately obtained from the seas in the vicinity of 

 Panama ; it is found in the same localities as the pearl fish " as 

 they are called, that is, the Mytilus Margaritiferus, or Pearl-bearing 

 Muscle, and has been brought up with those pearl shells from the 

 same beds. 



This curious shell, which is of a somewhat rude appearance, is 

 of a yellowish orange colour, with oblique and slightly flexuous waves 

 of a rich chocolate brown, glossed with a deep purplish hue in some 

 particular inflections of the light. Those stripes are not exactly per- 

 pendicular 5 they traverse the whole shell in a curved direction, but 

 which however run uniformly parallel to each other. The general 

 disposition of those fuscous bands upon a yellowish ground are not in- 

 aptly considered as bearing some resemblance to the fasciated pen- 

 cilling, if it may be so expressed, of that elegant and well known 

 quadruped, the Common Zebra, and in reference to which Mrs. Mawe, 

 who first received the species from South America, assigned it the 

 expressive name of Turbo Zebra. 



We have seen one example of this shell in the possession of an 

 eminent collector, Mr. George Humphreys, that had been commu- 

 nicated from South America by another hand, but we are assured 

 that the English cabinets generally have been suppHed with this in- 

 teresting shell by Mrs. Mawe, and under the appellation already 

 mentiofted. 



