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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL, XV. 



But let us look more closely into the subject. The reef 

 probably abounds with money cowries. I exhibit a tray of 

 these shells, all collected on the same spot. Any one seeing 

 the shells separately would consider the best defined 

 forms true species, but I have seen many thousands cf the 

 animals alive, and there is not the slightest difference 

 between their inhabitants ; perhaps some anatomist might 

 show a constant difference of arrangement in the teeth of 

 those that live in the smooth barred shells and those of the 

 depressed knobly ones, but even then I should be disposed 

 to dispute their specific difference, for if the shells are 

 capable of so much variation, why not the arrangements of 

 the teeth on the lingual ribbon ? 



In a tray on the table are exhibited the two extreme forms 

 known as Cyprwa annulus, lAnn., and (7. moneta, Linn., and 

 the connecting links. The depressed triangular forms have 

 both bars and annuli, and seem to have a tendency to assume 

 the smoother form of annulus, sometimes retaining the bar 

 and sometimes retaining only the yellow ring. In some 

 instances the bars are ill-defined and become mere black 

 blotches. This is an example of a "Wallacian wood" on a 

 most gigantic scale, as these shells are found throughout 

 the Australian Pacific and Indian Pacific oceans, or, as it 

 has been aptly termed, the Great Ocean. 



Another identical example is found in Oliva mora. I 

 exhibit a tray of examples taken on the beach of Weligam 

 bay, and seven varieties are figured in the Conchologia Indica, 

 the animals found in these varied shells being to all appear- 

 ance identical. Their range is the same as that of C. moneta 

 and C. annulus. I consider this tendency to extreme varia- 

 tion as much a specific character as any other, as different 

 species seem to exhibit it in every kind of combination with 

 other characters. 



In the above-mentioned shells we find the same varieties 

 mixed together over an enormous area, and under very 

 different climatic conditions. What their bathymetrical 



