CONCHOLOGY. 



pica, and those specimens which we have seen are smaller than either 

 at their full growth ; the colour is pale yellowish, or rather whitisli 

 tinged with yellow brown ; Voluta Nautica is much darker, and 

 Voluta ^thiopica is of a deep cinnamon colour, sometimes encircled 

 ^yith one or two paler bands, or sometimes with dark brown spots, dis- 

 posed in the form of two bands around the shell. We have certainly 

 seen upon the swollen part of one individual of the Japanese Crown 

 Melon the commencement of two similar bands, but no trace of these 

 were continued further, and consequently they were not visible on the 

 upper surface. Our present shell, when full grown, is emarginate, while 

 in Voluta ^thiopica the lip is effuse and marginate. The spines which 

 crown the summit of the shell, and form the coronation of the spire are 

 also less numerous in Voluta ^thiopica, for in two specimens of the 

 Japanese and the -Ethiopian Crown Melons of equal size we find forty- 

 three spines in the former and only thirty-seven in the latter ; we 

 admit that those may vary in number in different stages of growth, 

 but we must upon the whole conclude that they seem to be most nu- 

 merous in the Japanese shell : they are also erect, and not inclining 

 inwards as in Voluta Nautica ; but are straight as in Voluta ^thio- 

 pica, and lastly, the Japanese shell possesses one character of obvious 

 importance as a distinction of the species — the whorls of the spire aro 

 much more distant than in V. -^thiopica, the crown spreading more 

 amply, and the space between the sutures of the whorls being wider 

 and deeper than we have ever met with in V. ^thiopica. 



These distinctions seem to us to point out the necessity of 

 admitting the Japanese Crown Melon Volute as a species distinct from 

 Voluta ^thiopica, notwithstanding their general simiHtude, and we 

 are inclined to believe the characters we have pointed out will prove 



VOL. III. F 



