This is a very beautiful, and, at the same time, very rare shell; it formerly belonged to Mrs. Angus, at whose sale it passed into the cabinet of Mr. Dubois. Its general appearance resembles very much that of C. Maldivus Lam. known to our collectors by the name of the Spanish Admiral: the spire will, however, at once distinguish it; each volution is strongly concave in the middle, in which part are two or three delicate indented lines, very near each other, and following the volutions; the suture also is sufficiently open to be termed channelled; the spire is quite flattened at the base, (forming a sharp ridge round the top of the body whorl), and only prominent near the tip. In the Spanish Admiral Cone, the spire is quite smooth, the whorls being flat, and in all the specimens I have seen, (and they are many), the suture is quite closed up, though Lamarck (probably mistaking the present shell) says, "spirâ canaliculatâ;" the base, moreover, is narrowed, smooth, and black; not gibbous, granulated, (or striated,) and purple, as in this shell.
CONUS cinctus,
Purple tipped Admiral Cone.
Generic Character.—See Pl. 65.
Specific Character.
- C. testâ suprà carinatâ, fulvâ, fasciis duobus albidis ornatâ; spiræ brevis, maculatæ, basi depressâ, anfractibus concavis sulcis duobus insculptis, suturâ alveatâ; basi granosâ, purpureâ.
- Shell above carinated, fulvous, with two whitish bands; spire short, spotted, the base depressed; the whorls concave with two depressed lines; suture channelled; base granulated, purple.
A variety in my own cabinet presents some differences; the base is but slightly granulated, and the tip not purple; these are, however, subordinate characters, and constitute it only a variety.
I shall take an early opportunity of pointing out the differences between C. generalis and Maldivus, two shells even more likely to be mistaken for each other than those above-mentioned.