1892.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



258 



times a violet mouth. The spire runs to a sharp point rather 

 suddenly, and the last whorl is very large and swollen out of all 

 proportion to the size of the shell. The mouth, of course, corresponds, 

 and is much expanded on the outer side, strengthened with a strong 

 rib all round. 



The shell is subject to considerable variation. Canon Norman 

 catalogues vars. fragilis, Mich., labiosa, Montg., discrepaiis, Brown, 

 octoiia, Nils., but I do not know their peculiarities. Jeffreys records 

 three named varieties : — 



1. var. minov, Jeff. Smaller and smooth. Tenby and Dublin Bay." 



I have taken it Guernsey. 



2. Ya.r. vemista, Ph. "Solid, shorter spire, stronger ribs: Poole." 



This on the continent is generally considered a 

 distinct species. Possibly the Poole specimens 

 were not the true venusta. 



3. var. elata, Ph. " Thinner and longer, usually ribless." This 



is a brackish water form, according to Jeffreys, 

 and occurs in estuaries, etc. It is very plentiful, 

 especially dead shells, at Weymouth. I have 

 taken it there of all sizes, but always perfectly 

 smooth. This too is considered a good species 

 abroad.— B. Tomlin, Llandafif. 



NATURALISTS OF THE DAY. 



X. -THE LATE HOWARD W. J. VAUGHAN, 



F.E S., ETC. 



Howard Wright James Vaughan, of Woodford Green, Essex, on 

 the skirts of the well-known Epping Forest, and No. 55, Lincoln's 

 Inn Fields, London, was born at Hackney on the i8th April, 1846, 

 and died after a very short illness (although he had been ailing for 

 some time previously), upon the i8th October last, so that he was 

 therefore only forty-six and a half years old, yet he w^as a connecting link 

 between the older school of entomologists and the present, having 

 been an entomological pupil of Dr. Henry Guard Knaggs, wdtli whom 

 he formerly much associated, and by whom he was introduced to the 

 celebrated " At Homes" of the London leaders in the early bo's, 



Mr. Vaughan has elsewhere stated tliat the commencement of 

 his entomological career was an impulse receivetl through Miss 

 Catlow's " Popular British Entomology," iiaving been given liim when 



*Proc. Essex Naturalist, S.W., Vol. 3, No's. 7-9. July — Sept., 1889. 



