58 



POPULAR CONCHOLOGY. 



narrow and long ; left lip smooth ; right not thickened ; 

 operculum very small and horny ; usually 

 an epidermis. Animal, head very dis- 

 tinct ; two short and stout tentacula, 

 far apart, and with eyes near the tips ; 

 foot oblong, truncated in the front. 

 337 species* : also fossil. 



Many of the species of this favourite 

 genus are marked with the most beau- 

 tiful and elaborate figures, some of 

 them resembling Hebrew, Greek, or 

 Arabic characters ; in others the colours 

 are arranged in almost endless pat- 

 terns, clouded, veined, marbled, dotted, 

 striped, and banded in every kind of 

 form. Mr. Reeve observes that i( they 

 present a most vivid display of colours, 

 and the mechanism of their calcifying filaments must be 

 of very exquisite workmanship. In order to produce the 

 wondrous detail of pattern portrayed in the Conus gloria- 

 maris, which is scarcely discernible without the aid of a 

 lens, the mollusk must be endowed with an astonishing 

 ingenuity of design ; and for the simultaneous production 

 of so many colours as are exhibited in the C. aurisiacus or 

 imperialis, its molecular fluid must have many more sources 

 of colouring matter than a weaver at his loom. Where 

 indeed do we find a brocade of gold as in the C. textile, or 

 a web of such elaborate meshes as in the C. abbas or 

 Victoria 'f 



Many of the species are very rare ; a specimen of the 

 Conus gloria-maris has been sold for as much as one 

 hundred guineas. The C. cedo-nulli, an exquisitely beau- 



Reeve's [conica. 



f Elements of Conehology. 



