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222 American Seashelh
whorl, which are made slightly uneven by numerous very fine spiral threads.
Color translucent-cream with sparse spottings of brown. Common under
rocks between tide marks.
Genus Nitidella Swainson 1840
Nitidella ocellata Gmelin White-spotted Dove-shell
Lower Florida Keys and the West Indies.
Plate 2 5hh
% inch in length, smooth, characteristically dark black-brown with numerous
small white dots which may be quite large just below the suture.
Outer lip thick, with 5 or 6 small whitish teeth. Aperture short, narrow,
purplish brown within. When beachworn, the color is reddish or yellowish
brown. Common under rocks at low tide. Formerly known as cribraria
Lamarck.
Nitidella mtidula Sowerby Glossy Dove-shell
Southeast Florida and the West Indies.
Plate 25dd
/4 inch in length, characterized by the long aperture (% that of the
entire shell) and by the very glossy shell. Color whitish with heavy mot-
tlings of light-yellow to mauve-brown. Outer lip with about a dozen small
teeth. Common in the West Indies on rocks at low tide.
Nitidella gouldi Carpenter Gould's Dove-shell
Plate 20m
Alaska to San Diego, California.
H inch in length, 7 whorls are smoothish and slightly convex. Spire
almost flat-sided. Base of shell on exterior of canal with about 9 fine, incised
spiral lines. Bottom of white columella with a single, low plait. Outer lip
simple, sharp and often reinforced within by 4 or 5 weak pustules. Shell
whitish with faint brown maculations, covered with a yellowish-gray peri-
ostracum. Fairly common from just ofl"shore to 300 fathoms.
Nitidella carinata Sowerby Carinate Dove-shell
San Francisco to Lower California.
H inch in length, glossy, brightly variegated with orange, yellow, white
and brown. Shoulder of last whorl usually strongly swollen. Exterior of
canal with about a dozen spiral, incised lines. Both ends of the aperture are
stained dark-brown. Outer lip thickened, crooked, and with about a dozen
small spiral threads or teeth inside. Fairly common in shallow water. N.
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