Inhabits the Indian seas, but is not common.
By some unaccountable oversight, Mr. Dillwyn has very well described this shell, but under the name and supposition of its being the S. marginatus of Linnæus; though a few pages after he brings all the true synonyms referring to his shell, under a description purporting to be that of S. minimus, but which in reality is more applicable to our next species. Why this writer should doubt the correctness of Gmelin, Chemnitz, &c. respecting the true S. marginatus of Linnæus, does not appear, particularly as he has substituted for it a well known species. I have little doubt myself they all mean one and the same shell, which is nothing more than a scarce variety of S. accinctus, now before me, with which Linnæus's original description pretty well agrees.
STROMBUS variabilis.
Variable Strombus—upper figure.
S. testâ nodosè plicatâ, spirâ striis nullis; labio interiore simplice, exteriore reflecto, intrà lævi, suprà leviter lobato.
Shell with nodulous plaits, the spire not striated. Inner lip simple. Outer lip reflected, smooth within, and slightly lobed above.
Shell two inches and a quarter long, the spire occupying little more than half an inch. The ground colour generally is white with numerous undulated short lines of a darker colour, sometimes crossed by four or five obsolete whitish bands: it approaches very near S. minimus, but is easily distinguished by being in general much larger, by having the inner lip not at all thickened above, the outer lip very slightly lobed, and only advancing on the first volution of the spire: it varies, however, amazingly in colour. There is a small variety, having a brown spot beneath, from India; and others (labelled from the So. Seas) in the Banksian collection, also small, are purplish-brown, with three or four well-defined bands of white: the aperture is always pure white.