PLATE XXVI. 



annexed plate, the outline of which is from the Leverian specimen ; 

 the colouring amended from a smaller but more recent shell. 



These shells are of such a tender nature, and their colours so 

 evanescent or so feebly fixed, that they almost constantly present a 

 mutilated and bleached appearance. This is not, however, uniformly 

 the case ; we have very recently had an opportunity of inspecting 

 several specimens of a moderate size, that were brought from China, 

 and from these we perceive that the Wentletrap, when in fine 

 order, is of a pale testaceous or rather fulvous hue ; and inclining 

 sometimes to yellowish. In some few specimens the ground colour 

 of the shell, instead of being uniform, appears sprinkled with pallid 

 spots and dots of a rounded form. Sometimes we are assured the 

 colour inclines to rufous, or a reddish tint. Lamarck has this shell 

 of a pale fulvous colour, with the ribs as usual, white, for he adopts 

 this as part of the leading character of the species; his expression 

 is pallide fulva; costis alhisP 



The animal inhabitant of this shell has the head armed with two 

 feelers, each ending in a setaceous thread or hair : the eye is placed 

 upon the tentacula at the base of this thread or hair, and it has also 

 a kind of trunk at the mouth, by means of which it searches for its 

 food amongst the sand and weeds. It is supposed to be of a carni- 

 vorous nature, subsisting on other marine worms. It is considered 

 rather as a littoral species, frequenting the little sandy bays and 

 creeks among the breakers upon the lower parts of the sea shore, 

 and is to be sought for with the most probability of success among 

 the sea weeds or fuci that grow in the pools of water lying in 

 these sunken rocks, because in such situations it is most likely to 

 find protection against the intrusion of the boisterous element. 



