CYPR^A. 



pleasure of the animal. The external polish and colour 

 in the Cyprseaj is certainly owing to the deposition of 

 testaceous matter from that side of the divided mantle of 

 the animal, which, when extended, is applied over the 

 outer part of the shell, and it is to the same circumstance 

 that is owing the more or less regular line or groove that 

 is almost constantly ohservahle along the back of the 

 shells of this Genus. For the sake of perspicuity, it 

 appears necessary to describe the Cypraeae in three differ- 

 ent stages; first, in their most complete state, when they 

 are oval, convex beliind, rather flattened in front, and 

 the spii*e almost totally hid by the upper part of the last 

 volution, which is rolled around the inner volutions as if 

 around a longitudinal axis: in this state of full growth 

 the aperture is as long as the shell itself, narrow and 

 dentated on both its edges, which are involute, particu- 

 larl)^ the outer one; and the whole shell is thick, the 

 front particularly so, and in the far greater number of 

 species the whole surface is finely polished and brilliantly 

 coloured, mostly in a very variable manner, being speck • 

 led, spotted, eyed, striped, &c.; but some species are 

 beset in front with grooves and raised transverse lines, 

 and behind with more or less regular tubercles ; others, 

 again, are covered all over with transverse raised lines 

 and grooves, and some are cancellated on the surface. 

 In their second, which may properly be termed their 

 intermediate state, the CypraeaB have the same general 

 form, and their outer lip is involute, and both lips den- 

 tated, but they are thin and light, their spire is still seen,' 

 their front is not incrassated, and they are comparatively 

 but little coloured, having seldom more than transverse 

 bands of a darker colour than the rest of the shell, and 

 in this state they are frequently larger than when full 

 grown. In their third, or juvenile state, the Cypraeae are 

 very different from what they are in the more advanced 

 stages of growth; insomuch that Adanson seems not to 

 have supposed them to belong to the same Genus, though 

 he considered them as nearly related, and actually did 

 observe a great degree of similarity in the structure of 

 the animals. In this state the Cypraeae might be con- 

 founded with the more ventricose Cones, but that they 

 are thin, and their columella is not straight ; their aper- 

 ture, moreover, though still longitudinal, is wide, effuse 



