PLATE XVI 



Not one of any of those various appellations, it must be con- 

 fessed, appear so applicable and well chosen as to supersede the 

 propriety of introducing any other that might be deemed tolerably 

 appropriate, but upon the whole the species and varieties which 

 it embraces have been so long known by the name of the Scorpion 

 Shell, that there can be no great impropriety in allowing it to remain 

 under that name : we have for our example the authority of Rump- 

 fius, and the sanction of Linnaeus throughout all his works; and in the 

 Gmelinian System it also stands under the name of Murex Scorpio. 

 The appellation of the Stag's Horn Murex, in conformity with the 

 epithet assigned to it by the old French writers bois de cerf^^ is not 

 altogether inappropriate, the elongated processes have much the 

 appearance of the antlers of the stag, in the first stages of their 

 growth ; or considered in the aggregate, the shell presents a number 

 of ramose processes like the horns of the Stag or the Rein Deer, and 

 some other quadrupeds of the Cervine tribe; a characteristic feature 

 that may perhaps justify the appellation. 



There are several varieties of this remarkable shell, some of 

 which might at the first view be considered as distinct species, and in 

 reality have been occasionally arranged as such by collectors. These 

 upon the most attentive comparison do not, however, appear to differ 

 specifically, notwithstanding the differences in point of colour are 

 very striking. One variety rather exceeds the rest in size, and is of 

 a deep testaceous or tawny brown colour, or rather inclining to 

 a chesnut hue : we have seen it of a tawny tint with darker splashes 

 upon the transverse ribs, particularly on the body and the tumid 

 whorl of the spire. Occasionally this shell also occurs of a deep or 

 Ethiopian blackness ; this kind is extremely rare. The white variety 

 occurs more frequently, but is, nevertheless, uncommon in comparison 



