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Description.-Shell pyriform, turgidly ventricose, cœru lescent, glaucous, or rufous, banded with white; the whorls channelled at the sutures; the last sometimes unarmed, but more frequently muricated, with various sharp tubercles; spire short, acute; aperture smooth and white. Locality--West Indian Seas; Antilles.

F. Species still shorter; aperture very wide; the right lip subalated.

Example, Pyrula abbreviata.

Description.-Shell subpyriform, very ventricose, rather rough, transversely sulcated, cinerescent-white; the spire rather prominent; the canal short, widely umbilicated; muriculated on the back with subechinate elevated furrows; outer lip striated within, and its margin denticulated.

Pyrule have been found on mud, sandy mud, and sand, at depths ranging from the surface to nine fathoms.

The number of living species recorded by Lamarck is twenty-eight. M. Deshayes has described one more (P. fulva), and a variety of P. Vespertilio, Lam. Lamarck records six fossil species, four from Grignon and Courtagnon, one from Parnes, and one from Houdan. Defrance notices twelve, three of which, from the Plaisantin, he considers as analogous, and other three from the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, analogues also. M. Deshayes, in his tables, makes the number of living Pyrule thirty-one, and the number of fossil (tertiary) twenty-one; of these last he indicates Pyrulæ reticulata, Ficus, Melongena, and Spirillus, as being found both living and fossil (tertiary). Dr. Mantell records two species, bulbiformis? and laevigata, from the blue clay of Bracklesham in Sussex, and one from the arenaceous limestone of Bognor. Dr. Fitton records three, Brightii, depressa, and Smithii?, from the strata below the chalk (gault of Kent). Mr. Lea records three, Pyrule cancellata, elegantissima, and Smithii, from the tertiary beds at Claiborne, Alabama.

Fasciolaria. (Lam.)

Generic Character.

Fasciolaria Tulipa, with the operculum in situ. B. Fusiform and tuberculous species. Example, Fasciolaria Trapezium. Description.-Shell fusiform, ventricose, tuberculiferous, rather smooth, white or rufescent, girt with rufous lines; the tubercles conical, subcompressed, and in a single series in the middle of the whorls; columella reddish-yellow; outer lip elegantly striated within, the striæ red. Locality.-The East Indian Ocean.

C. Tuberculated and turriculated species.
Example, Fasciolaria filamentosa.

Description.-Shell elongated, fusiform, turreted, transversely sulcated, white, painted with longitudinal orangered stripes; middle of the whorls subangulated, and the whorls themselves crowned with short and compressed tubercles; the canal rather long; the outer lip striated within.

Locality.-The East Indian Seas.

Fasciolarice have been found on muddy bottoms, at depths ranging from the surface to seven fathoms.

Lamarck records eight living species. Mr. Broderip has described one (granosa) brought by Mr. Cuming from Panama. M. de Blainville states that seven fossil species are known. M. Deshayes, in his tables, makes the number of living Fasciolariæ seven only, and the number of fossil (tertiary) species five. Professor Sedgwick and Mr. Murchison record one species (Fasciolaria elongata) in the Gosau deposit and its equivalents in the Eastern Alps. Mr. Lea notices two, Fasciolaria plicata and elevata, in the Caiborne tertiary, Alabama.

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Animal of Fasciolaria. a, operculum.

Shell fusiform, not very thick, rather convex in the middle, with a moderate spire; aperture oval; canal rather long, sometimes slightly bent; right lip trenchant, often wrinkled internally; columellar lip with some very oblique plaits.

Turbinella Rapa,

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short; the left lip nearly straight and formed by a callosity hiding the columella, which has two or three unequal, nearly transverse plaits; right lip entire and trenchant. A. Fusiform and nearly smooth species.

Example, Turbinella Rapa.

Description.-Shell subfusiform, ventricose in the middle, thick, very ponderous, unarmed, white; the whorls above covering the base of the preceding one; canal rather short; columella subquadriplicated.

Locality.-The East Indian Ocean.
B. Turbinaceous and spiny species.
Example, Turbinella Scolymus.

Descripion.-Shell subfusiform, ventricose in the middle, tuberculated, pale yellow; spire conical, tuberculato-nodose; the last whorl crowned above with great tubercles; canal transversely sulcated; the columella orange-coloured and three-plaited.

Locality.-The East Indian Ocean.

C. Turriculated, subfusiform species.
Example, Turbinella Infundibulum.

Description.-Shell fusiform-turreted, narrow, manyribbed, transversely sulcated, the ribs longitudinal and thick, the furrows smooth and red, and the interstices yellow; canal perforated, the aperture white.

Turbinelle have been found on bottoms of sandy mud, at depths varying from the surface to eighteen fathoms. Lamarck records 23 living species, all from the seas of warm climates. Mr. Broderip describes three more brought by Mr. Cuming from the Galapagos Islands, Elizabeth Island, and the Caracas. M. de Blainville observes that when he wrote (1825) no fossils had been found. M. Rang (1829) states that there are fossil species. M. Deshayes, in his tables, makes the number of living species 32 and the

number of fossil (tertiary) 3.

** A persistent bourrelet on the right lip.

Columbella. (Lam.)

Generic Character.-Animal incompletely known. Shell thick, turbinated, with a short obtuse spire; aperture narrow, elongated, terminated by a very short canal slightly notched, narrowed by a convexity at the internal side of the right lip and the plaits of the columella. Operculum horny, very small.

Example, Columbella mercatoria.

Description.-Shell ovate-turbinated, transversely sulcated, white, painted with small, rufo-fuscous, transverse, subfasciculated lines, sometimes banded; outer lip denticulated within.

Locality.-The Atlantic Ocean.

Animal of Triton.

a, operculum.

A. Comparatively smooth species, with cordons slightly or not at all marked, with the exception of that of the right lip.

Example, Triton variegatus, the marine trumpet or Triton's shell.

Description.-Shell elongated-conical, trumpet-shaped, ventricose below, girt with very obtuse smooth ribs, white, elegantly variegated with red and bay; the sutures crisped at white and with a single plait above; the edge of the outer the margin; the aperture red; the columella wrinkled with lip spotted with black, the spots bidentated with white. Locality.-The seas of the West Indies and the Asiatic seas, especially those of the torrid zone.

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Columbella mercatoria.

Columbella have been found on bottoms of sandy mud and mud at depths ranging from the surface to sixteen fathoms.

Lamarck describes eighteen species, all from the seas of warm climates. M. de Blainville acknowledges that this genus would perhaps be better placed among the operculated Angyostomata, or narrow-mouthed testaceous gastropods. M. Rang however arranges it between Triton and Turbinella. Mr. G. B. Sowerby has described thirty-nine additional species brought home by Mr. Cuming. Defrance notices one fossil species. M. Deshayes, in his tables, makes the number of living species thirty-three and of fossil (tertiary) four. M. de Blainville remarks that the Columbella avara of Say has not the character of the thickened right lip.

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Triton Variegatus.

B. Species more tuberculous, or spiny, whose aperture is more open, and terminated by a more or less ascending canal. (Genus Lotorium of De Montfort.) Example, Triton Lotorium.

Description.-Shell fusiform-turreted, distorted below, very much tuberculated, transversely rugous, and striated, rufous; the whorls above angulate-tuberculated; canal tortuous, the extremity recurved, the aperture trigono-elongated and white; the outer lip toothed within. Locality.-East Indian Ocean.

C. Species with a shorter spire, always very tuberculous, most frequently umbilicated, a sinus at the posterior

Example, Triton cutaceus.

junction of the two lips. (Genus Aquillus, De Mont- | verse, subgranulated, low ridges, the interstices between fort.) which are longitudinally striated; the whorls armed with one row of sharp tubercles, the middle of which are the longest, the other ridges of the body whorl obsoletely tuberculated here and there; the columellar lip expansive and foliated, and the margin of the outer lip expanded and thin; the aperture ovate, very strongly and thickly furrowed, of a rich orange-colour, and terminating above in a deep foliated sinus, which extends beyond the varix. (Brod.) Locality.-The Mauritius.

Description.-Shell ovate, ventricose-depressed, cingulated, tuberculato-nodose, yellow-rufescent; the belts rather prominent, separated by a furrow; the whorls above angulato-tuberculate, rather flattened above; canal short, umbilicated; the outer lip notched within. Locality.-The Atlantic Ocean.

D. Species like those of section C, but whose aperture is closely narrowed by a callosity and irregular teeth. (Genus Persona, De Montf.) Example, Triton Anus, the Grimace of collectors. Description.-Shell ovate, ventricose-gibbous, distorted, flattened beneath; nodulous above, subcancellated, white, spotted with rufous; the aperture narrowed, sinuous, irregular, ringent; the lip very much toothed; the canal short and recurved.

Locality.-The East Indian Seas. Tritons have been found on various bottoms at depths ranging from the surface to thirty fathoms.

The number of living species recorded by Lamarck amounts to fifty-one. Mr. G. B. Sowerby has described eight additional species, and Mr. Broderip the same number brought home by Mr. Cuming. Lamarck describes three fossil species, all from Grignon. M. de Biainville states that one of the species has its analogue. Defrance makes the number of fossil species ten, one from the Plaisantin, an analogue according to Brocchi. M. Deshayes in his tables, published before the descriptions of Mr. Sowerby and Mr. Broderip, makes the number of living species of Triton 43 and of fossil (tertiary) 25. Of these last, he records Tritones nodiferus, Lampas, Scrobiculator, succinctus, clathratus, and unifilosus as both living and fossil (tertiary). Struthiolaria. (Lam.)

Generic Character.

Shell oval, the spire elevated, the aperture oval and wide; canal very short, very much notched; right lip sinuous, not toothed, furnished with a bourrelet; columellar border callous, extended; a sinus at the posterior union of the two lips.

Operculum horny.

Example, Struthiolaria nodulosa.

Description.-Shell ovate-conical, thick, transversely striated, white, painted with undulated, longitudinal, saffron-coloured flame-like lines; whorls angulated above, flattened on the upper side, nodulous at the angle; the sutures simple, the outer lip luteo-rufescent within.

Locality.-The seas of New Zealand.

Lamarck records two living species. M. Deshayes, in his tables, also makes the number of living species two; and he records one fossil (tertiary), with a query, from Paris. Ranella. (Lam.)

Generic Character.

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Ranella foliata.

Ranelle have been taken on different bottoms at depths varying from the surface to eleven fathoms.

Lamarck describes fifteen living species. M. Deshayes has described another; and Mr. Broderip nine new species, eight of which were brought home by Mr. Cuming. M. de Blainville states that there is but one fossil species, but allows that Defrance admits five, three of which, from Italy, are identical. M. Deshayes, in his tables, gives the number of living species as nineteen, and of fossil (tertiary) as eight: of these last he records Ranella gigantea, granulata, pygmæa, and tuberosa, as living and fossil (tertiary). Murex. (Linn.)

Generic Character.-Animal furnished with two long and approximated tentacles; mouth without jaws, but armed with hooked denticles in lieu of a tongue; foot rounded, generally rather short; mantle large, often ornamented with fringes on the right side only; branchia formed of two unequal pectinations; anus on the right side in the branchial cavity; orifice of the oviduct on the right side at the entrance of the same cavity; orifice of the deferent canal at the end of the exciting organ, on the right side of the neck.

Shell.-Oval, oblong, more or less elevated on the spiral side, or prolonged forwards; external surface always interrupted by rows of varices in the form of spires or ramifications, or simply tubercles, generally arranged in regular and constant order; aperture oval, terminated anteriorly by a straight canal, which is more or less elongated and closed; right lip often plaited or wrinkled; columellar lip often callous.

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Example., Murex Tribulus, Linn. (Murex tenuispina, Lam.)

Description.-Shell ventricose anteriorly, the tube very long, elegantly spired throughout its length, the spires set in triple order, each row at regular intervals, greyish or purplish grey; the spires very long, thin, rather closely set, and somewhat hooked; body of the shell transversely sulcated and striated; the spire prominent.

Locality. The Indian Ocean; Moluccas.

This is the Venus's Comb of collectors, and when perfect is a most delicate and striking shell.

B. Species with a very long tube and without spines. (Genus Brontes, De Montf.) Example, Murex Haustellum (Snipe's or Woodcock's head of collectors).

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Description.-Shell anteriorly ventricose, naked, scarcely armed, fulvous inclining to red, lineated with bay; body of the shell rounded and furnished with three or more ribs Description.-Shell ovate conical, ventricose, not com- between the varices; the tube ver, long and slender; the pressed, of a flesh or pale rose-colour; with frequent trans-spire short; mouth roundish, red.

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Murex Tribulus (Common Thorny Woodcock; Murex rarispina, Lam.): Locality, the East Indian Ocean; Moluccas.

Murex Haustellum.

C. Species with three elevated, flattened, and compa ratively thin varices.

Example.-Murex acanthopterus. Description.-Shell oblong, fusiform, trialated, transversely sulcated and striated, white; the alæ membranaceous; whorls angulated; aperture ovate-rounded. Locality.-East Indian Seas.

Murex regius,

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Example, Murex vitulinus.

Description.-Shell ovate-oblong, ventricose, somewhat rough, with seven rows of varices, which are obtuse, asperulate, and ruddy; the interstices white; tube narrow, somewhat acute; the aperture white; the lip toothed internally I. Species which have an oblique fold very much anterior to the collumella, and an umbilicus. (Genus Phos, De Montf.)

Murices have been found on different bottoms at depths ranging from five to twenty-five fathoms; and species of Typhis on sandy mud at depths varying from six to eleven fathoms.

Lamarck records 66 recent and 15 fossil species, mostly from Grignon. To the recent species are to be added 26 Murices described by Mr. Broderip from specimens brought home by Mr. Cuming, and 5 of Typhis (recent), also described by Mr. Broderip.

M. de Blainville remarks that among the fossil species of France there is no true analogue; but he adds that Defrance, who admits 50 fossil species, counts 30 analogues from the Plaisantin, after Brocchi.

M. Deshayes, in his tables, makes the number of recent species of Murex (apparently including Typhis) 75, a number much below the raark, and gives 89 as the number of fossil species (tertiary). Of these last he records the following as having been found both living and fossil (tertiary): -cornutus, Brandaris, trunculus, erinaceus, tripterus, cristatus, fistulosus, tubifer, a new species, elongatus, angularis, saxatilis (var.), another new species, Lasseignei, and a third new species.

Dr. Mantell records one species (argutus) from the blue clay of Bracklesham (Sussex); and another (Smithii) from the arenaceous limestone of Bognor. Professor Phillips names one (Haccanensis) from the coralline oolite of Yorkshire. Dr. Fitton records one (Calcar) from the gault of Kent and Blackdown; and Mr. Lea one from the Claiborne tertiary, Alabama.

The ENTOMOSTOMATA and Siphonostomata may be considered as the two great tribes of carnivorous gastropods or trachelipods appointed to keep down the undue increase of the CONCHIFERA and herbivorous gastropods, whose shells the majority of those carnivorous testaceans penetrate by means of an organ which makes a hole as truly round as if it had been cut by an auger, and then feed on the juices of the included animal.

Dr. Buckland notices this habit with a view to the condition of the testaceous inhabitants of the earlier seas of our planet with his wonted felicity. Most collectors,' says the Professor, have seen upon the sea-shore numbers of dead shells, in which small circular holes have been bored by the predaceous tribes, for the purpose of feeding upon the bodies of the animals contained within them: similar holes occur in many fossil shells of the tertiary strata, wherein the shells of carnivorous trachelipods also abound; but perforations of

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this kind are extremely rare in the fossil shells of any older | may have some notion of its relationship to the other peren formation. In the green-sand and oolite they have been nibranchiate Batrachians. noticed only in those few cases where they are accompanied Cuvier then remarks that the Axolotl approaches nearly by the shells of equally rare carnivorous mollusks; and in to the Salamander, and especially to its larva. The cranium the lias and strata below it,* there are neither perforations, of the Axolotl is indeed more depressed; its sphenoïd bone nor any shells having the notched mouth peculiar to perfo- wider and flatter; the bones of the nose proportionally rating carnivorous species. It should seem from these smaller; the ascending apophyses of the intermaxillary bones facts that, in the economy of submarine life, the great longer and narrower; but, especially, in lieu of those large family of carnivorous trachelipods performed the same and fixed bones which Cuvier calls vomers or palatines, necessary office during the tertiary period which is allotted there are two oblong plates detached from the cranium beto them in the present ocean. We have further evidence set with teeth in quincuncial order, and continuing themto show that in times anterior to and during the deposition selves with the pterygoids, which reach them because they of the chalk, the same important functions were consigned are longer than in the Salamander, and which also carry to other carnivorous mollusks, viz. the testaceous cephalo- teeth in front on their external edge. Behind, these pterypods: these are of comparatively rare occurrence in the goïds are widened, without always articulating themselves tertiary strata and in our modern seas; but throughout the to the sphenoïd, as in the Salamander of the Alleghanies. secondary and transition formations, where carnivorous tra- [SALAMANDRIDE, vol. xx., p. 332.] The space between the chelipods are either wholly wanting or extremely scarce, orbital and the petrous bone is also more considerable than we find abundant remains of carnivorous cephalopods, con- in the Salamanders. The lower jaw has a regular dental sisting of the chambered shells of nautili and ammonites, portion forming the symphysis and the greatest part of the and many kindred extinct genera of polythalamous shells external surface, and armed all along its superior edge of extraordinary beauty. The molluscous inhabitants of all with small, fine, and pointed teeth; an articular portion, these chambered shells probably possessed the voracious which doubles the posterior part of the internal surface of habits of the modern cuttle-fish; and by feeding like them the preceding, forms the posterior angle and carries the upon young testacea and crustacea, restricted the excessive articular tubercle; lastly, there is a true opercular bone, increase of animal life at the bottom of the more antient long and delicate, covering at the internal surface the inseas. Their sudden and nearly total disappearance at the terval of the two preceding, but furnished throughout with commencement of the tertiary era would have caused a very small pointed teeth arranged in quincuncial order. blank in the" police of nature," allowing the herbivorous And this is the structure which we find in the SIREN, with tribes to increase to an excess that would ultimately have this difference, that the dental portion in the latter has no been destructive of marine vegetation, as well as of them-true teeth, which are only seen on the opercular bone. selves, had they not been replaced by a different order of carnivorous creatures, destined to perform in another manner the office which the inhabitants of the ammonites and various extinct genera of chambered shells then ceased to discharge. From that time onwards we have evidence of the abundance of carnivorous trachelipods, and we see good reason to adopt the conclusion of Mr. Dillwyn, that in the formation above the chalk the vast and sudden decrease of one predaceous tribe has been provided for by the creation of many new genera and species possessed of similar appetencies, and yet formed for obtaining their prey by habits entirely different from those of the cephalopods. The design of the Creator seems at all times to have been to fill the waters of the seas and cover the surface of the earth with the greatest possible amount of organised beings enjoying life; and the same expedient of adapting the vegetable kingdom to become the basis of the life of animals, and of multiplying largely the amount of animal existence by the addition of carnivora to the herbivora, appears to have prevailed from the first commencement of organic life to the present hour.' (Bridgewater Treatise.)

Sİ'RACUSE. [SYRACUSE.]

SIRE'DON, Wagler's name for the AXOLOTL. Since that article was written, further information has been obtained relative to the structure of this genus of perennibranchiate Batrachians. The form and character of the teeth, as given by Professor Owen, will be found in the article SALAMANDRIDE, vol. XX., p. 328, and we avail ourselves of this opportunity to introduce a reduced copy of the figure of the animal, lately published by MM. Duméril and Bibron, to whose excellent work on Reptiles we refer for the latest particulars known.

Siredon seen in profile; a, mouth seen in front, open to show the teeth.

We shall confine ourselves in this article to an account of its organization, as observed by Cuvier, so that the reader • Carnivorous gastropods occur in the Silurian rocks; and the long tube of the Siphonostomata is equally characteristic of carnivorous habits with the notch of the Entomostomata,

In all the Axolotls that Cuvier examined, the branchial apparatus was cartilaginous. It consisted of two suspensory branches, or anterior horns, affixed to the cranium under the fenestra rotunda, carrying an unequal piece, to which two lateral branches were attached on each side: the first carried the first arch of the branchia; the second, the three others. The first of these arches had dentilations on its posterior border; the two intermediate ones, on both their borders. Under the unequal piece was one which went backward, and whose extremity was bifurcated.

When Cuvier wrote this description (in the Ossemens Fossiles), he thought that this animal was the larva of some unknown Salamander; but in his last edition of the Règne Animal he corrected this conjecture, and placed it where all zoologists now place it, among the Batrachians.

SIREN (Zoology), a genus of Perennibranchiate Batrachians.

Generic Character.-Form elongated, nearly like that of the eels; branchial tufts three on each side; no posterior feet, nor any vestige of a pelvis; head depressed; gape of the mouth not wide; muzzle obtuse; eye very small; the ear concealed; lower jaw armed with a horny sheath and several rows of small teeth; the upper jaw toothless; but numerous small, pointed, retroverted teeth occur on the palatal region. [SALAMANDRIDE, vol. xx., p. 328.]

Dr. Garden appears to be the first who called attention to this form, which is declared by Cuvier to be one of the most remarkable of the class of Reptiles, and indeed of the whole animal kingdom, from the anomalies of its organization, and its apparent relationship with different families, and even classes. Dr. Garden (1765-1766) sent a description of this reptile to Linnæus and Ellis, and the former, relying upon Dr. Garden's assurance that the Siren did not change its form, established an additional order for it in his class Amphibia, with the name of Meantes.

Pallas, Hermann, Schneider, and Lacépède however saw, as Cuvier remarks, nothing more in the Siren than the larva of some large unknown Salamander; whilst Camper, followed by Gmelin, went so far as to give it a place among the fishes. The latter arranges it at the end of the Eels, under the name of Muræna Siren. These differences of opinion sufficiently show the doubts which arose on the ex amination of this extraordinary form.

Cuvier, in 1807, satisfactorily established, in a memoir read to the Institute of France, and inserted in the 1st vol. of the Zoological Observations of Humboldt,' that whatever changes it might undergo, the Siren was a reptile sui generis, which never could have hind feet, and whose whole bony framework differed essentially from that of the Salamanders; that there was no probability that it ever changed its form or lost its branchia; and that the Siren is consequently a true amphibian, which respires at will throughout

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