"65 STROPHIA FERRUGINEA Novo.

Rusty Strophia.

Plate IV, fig. 5, front, fig. 6, side view of type.

DESCRIPTION.

SP. CH. Size, small. Shell. rather thick. Strations, present.

Whirls 9, the upper of which, including margin, is about as long as the remaining whirls together. Examined 9 specimens.

            Form of shell a pointed cylinder with the first three whirls about equal in diameter; below these the shell slopes to a rather obtuse point, forming an angle of sixty degrees. Striations, rather numerous, twenty­ six to the first whirl, not very prominent, quite regular, straight, not fur­rowed, rounded and polished and a little narrower than the interspaces between them; they are slightly flattened and enlarged on the lower portions just above the suture. The whirls are bulging on the upper third.

            Aperture, small, slightly contracted within the entrance. The lower tooth is quite high about .05, and is three times as long as high. It is set back about once its length from the frontal bar. The upper tooth is about one half the height of the lower, but extends back around the col­umn; it is placed high, about half way up the side of the aperture.

            The margin is not produced quite as far forward as the diameter of the shell, is a little inclined forward, and a little to the left, but scarcely beyond the side of the shell. There is but little development of the front­al bar. The striations appear within the bar, but not as prominences. The margin is thin, about .03, is a little reflexed outward and although

it is not much rolled over, is not beveled, and the edge is a little sharp­ened.

            Color of shell externally, rusty red with striations white; internally, purplish brown, becoming paler on the margin.

DIMENSIONS.

Size of type .90 by .25. Largest specimen, .90 by .40; smallest, .78 by.37. Longest specimen .90, shortest, .75. Greatest diameter, .40: smallest, .35.

OBSERVATIONS.

The chief variation in the few specimens of this singular species which I have seen is in the thickening of the margin in some specimens and in the size.

            I know of no other species of Strophia which agrees with this in the peculiar bulging of the whirls on their upper parts, combined with the flattening and enlarging of the striations on the lower portion in the de­pression of the whirls. The color is also peculiar, and is quite unlike that of any species of Strophia which I have seen.

            I found these shells in the collection bearing the label " Washed up by the tide near Jeremie, Cote de Fer." Jeremie is in Hayti, on the south western portion. The "Cote de Fer," or iron shore, is quite a common name in the West Indies, and is applied to any rough, rock­bound line of coast."