of nulliporites, a condition not infrequently met with. It 
attains a height of three-quarters of an inch. 
Auckland Harbour; Bay of Islands; Mount Maunga- 
nui; East Cape. 
MITRA CARBONARIA (mitra, a mitre; carbonaria, 
black).—This is one of the Mitre shells, so called from its 
resemblance to a bishop’s mitre. The specific name, car- 
bonaria, as well as the synonyms, Mitra niger and M. me- 
lania, allude to its black colour; but it is probable that as 
only empty shells have been found, the name was based 
upon a dead one. Some I have seen in a collection were 
decidedly dead shells, stained black, the same as one notices 
in old, worn and mud-stained pipis and scallops, etc. The 
true colour is dark olive brown, dark chestnut, or cinna- 
mon colour. It is solidly built, has a smooth polished sur- 
face, and is about three times as high as its widest diameter. 
' The mouth is less in height than the spire, and the outer 
lip is rounded and thick. There are five oblique plaits on 
the columella. The finest specimen I have seen is two and 
a-half inches long, an empty shell washed ashore at Mount 
Maunganui. It is quite rare. 
Bay of Islands; East Cape. 
VEXILLUM RUBIGINOSUM (vexilium, the Roman 
flag or standard ; rubiginosum, reddish).—A small purplish- 
black, or reddish-brown fusiform, sharply-pointed spiral 
univalve of about a quarter of an inch in height with white 
spiral band on the periphery of the body whorl; the base is 
orange red. The aperture is long and narrow; the columella 
has four plaits, and the canal has a notch at the base. Itis 
found under loose boulders in sheltered situations from 
low-water mark down to fifty fathoms. 
Mount Maunganui; Stewart Island; Chatham Islands. 
SIPHONALIA CAUDATA (siphon, a hollow tube, a 
reed; cauda, a tail)—A rare spiral univalve, about one 
and a-half inches in height, of a pale yellowish colour, 
sculptured with fine spiral ribs of a reddish-brown tint, 
and having from fifteen to twenty broad ribs vertically ar- 
ranged on the body whorl, becoming obsolete below the 
periphery, or, in other words, thinning off and becoming 
lost just below the wide part of the whorl. The aperture 
is ovally rounded, and ends below in a somewhat lengthy 
canal, The whorls are rounded in outline and well defined. 
Two living specimens were recently found on the ocean 
beach at Mount Maunganui, after a strong easterly gale. 
The animal has a bright scarlet foot. Also found in the 
61 
Plate III 
No. 10 
Plate VIII 
No. 10 
Plate III 
No.8 
Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
