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BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
seem to be always present on specimens from mud bottoms. We 
do not know what it feeds upon, but it is probably carnivorous like 
Bccinuum undatum. 
Economics. It is an excellent article of food. Willis 
tells us that it is “much scarcer and more esteemed as an 
.article of food than Fusus Islandicus.” We do not find that 
it is ever eaten by the fishermen or offered for sale in our 
markets. On the Bay of Fundy coast at least, it is more 
abundant than id Islandicus , and as it lives near low-water 
mark, and is not solitary, but gregarious, it may be gathered 
in larger quantities than the last mentioned species. Never- 
theless it is too scarce to be of much commercial value. 
4. Fusus Islandicus Gould. 
Fusus curtus Jeffreys. 
Tritonium Islandicum Loven. 
Neptunea curt a Verrill. 
Sipho Islandicus Chemn. 
Spindle-shell. 
. [F\tsws, a spindle; Islandicus , Icelandic.] 
Distribution, (a) General ; — Low-water mark to eighty 
fathoms. Massachusetts Bay to Labrador, and (if identical 
with European form) North European Seas to Great Britain. 
(V) In Acadia ; — (in N. B.) Grand Manan, low-watermark 
to forty fathoms, Stimpson. Bay of Fundy, low-water mark 
to eighty fathoms, Verrill. Passamaquoddy Bay, Ganong. 
•Gulf of St. Lawrence, over one hundred fathoms, Verrill. (in 
N. S.) Annapolis Basin, abundant, Verlcruzen. Halifax 
Harbor, Jones. Pretty common in deep water around the 
coast, Willis. Not yet reported from Prince Edward Island. 
Probably nowhere very abundant, though to be found on all 
the Bay of Fundy and Atlantic coast. 
Habits. This is the species described by Dr. Gould, under the 
above name, but it is now generally considered that it is a distinct 
: species and should be called F. curtus. It is so closely allied to the 
.European F. Islandicus , however, that it is undoubtedly useful for the 
: same purposes. 
