36 
shell, they cannot be considered two species. It differs 
from M. buccinoides in the form of the mouth which is 
narrower in the low er part, being equally elongated with 
the spire, and in the subcylindrieai form of the middle 
portion. The striae of growth are more or less conspicu- 
ous, but in general they are obscure, and the surface 
highly polished with much of the aspect of an internal 
marine shell. 
Foreign Collectors have confounded this with Melu- 
nopsis buccinoides, a shell that lives in the rivers between 
Ty re and Sidon, and is indeed very similar. The shell 
mentioned by Mr. Webster in the Second Volume of Use , 
Transactions of the Geological Society, as occurring in 
the upper marine formation on the isle of Wight, and at 
Woolwich, and called by Mr. Parkinson, Ancilla buccin- 
oides, appears to be the one before us : imperfect 
specimens of it might easily be mistaken for Ancilla, to 
which the spire and even the callus in the mouth bear a 
strong resemblance ; and more especially at a time when 
the Genus Melanopsis had not been pointed out. It was 
moreover found in the vicinity of Marine shells, even of 
Ancilla subulata. The Melanopsis fusiformis is one of 
those presumed fresh water shells that occur in the up- 
per Marine formation only, and have produced a variety 
of opinions respecting it. 
Figs. 1 and 2 represent the extremes of form selected from the Isle 
©f Wight specimens collected by Prof. Sedgwick and Mr. G. B. Sowerby. 
- — Fig. 3 was found at New Charlton by H. Goodhall Esq. — Fig. 4 is from 
Woolwich, picked up by the Rev. H. Steinhauer, — Fig. 5 represents one 
from New Cross near Deptford. — Figs. 6 and 7 are from Hordwell 
specimens, one of which is truncated in a w ay common to some land 
shells, but very extravagantly. 
MELANOPSIS subulatus. 
TAB. CCCXXXIL— Fig. 8. 
Spec. Char. Conical subulate, smooth ; mouth 
ovate, one third the length of the shell. 
^JpHE mouth of this species is remarkably shor', and ex- 
tends but a little way up the spire, which has about seven 
whorls, and is above three times as long as wide, and 
much more produced than the base. 
Found along with the last on the Isle of Wight, 1 have 
seen but one individual. 
