CONUS. Pl. 1.
1. fumigatus. 2. franciscanus.
A species not conspicuous for its beauty, but by no means of common occurrence: its close resemblance to the next has induced us to illustrate both by figures. C. fumigatus seldom exceeds the size here represented; it may at once be known from franciscanus (which is a much smaller shell,) by the spiral whorls being concave, instead of convex: this species occurs in the Indian Ocean.
CONUS fumigatus.
Family Strombidæ. Sub-family Conianæ.
Generic Character. See Lamarck.
Specific Character.
Shell smooth, spire very short, channeled, or with the whorls· concave: colour chesnut, belted with white, and articulated rows of chesnut dots.
Conus fumigatus Brug. Diet. 94. Lam. Syst. 7. 496.
Icones. Mart. 2 pl. 56. f. 618. Ency. Meth. pl. 336. f. 7.
If the student compares either Strombus Luhuanus, Mauritianus, or Persicus, with any of the wide mouthed Cones, he will immediately perceive the affinity between the two groups. In both, the operculum of the animal is small, but in Conus it seems reduced to a mere vestage; while the shell, nearly rolled upon its own axis, indicates the near approach which Nature has now made towards the Cowries; a family, however, essentially distinguished by the great developement of the mantle, and the total absence of an operculum.
CONUS franciscanus.
Shell smooth, chesnut, with two white bands, the upper one near the suture: spire short, the whorls convex.
C. franciscanus. Lam. Syst. 7. 493. Ency. Meth. 337. f. 5.
Lamarck mentions Africa and the shores of the Mediterranean, as the native locality of this shell. It escaped our researches on the coasts of Italy, Sicily, and Greece, and we suspect it to be an Oriental species.