On Plate VII, will be found a group of other Foreign Cowries, most of which will be recognized as familiar ornaments of the mantel and side-board. Fig. 1 is the Spotted or Leopard Cowry, sometimes also called the Tiger Cowry, (_C. tigris_,) which, in the earlier stages of its growth, is simply marked with broad bands of lighter colour across the shell. Fig. 2, the Map Cowry, (_C. mappa_,) curiously marked and shaded, so as to resemble a coloured map; there are several varieties of this beautiful shell, such as the rosy and dark variety from the Pearl Islands, in the Indian Ocean; the Citron and Dwarf Rich-mouthed variety, from the Mauritius. Fig. 3, the Mole Cowry, (_C. talpa_,) the last word being the Latin for a mole, is of a more slender form than most other species of the _Cypræidæ_ family, so called on account of their beauty, _Cyprea_ being a name of Venus, the goddess of beauty. Any one who has seen a mole, must be struck with the resemblance of its general outline to this shell, of which there is a darker-coloured variety of somewhat stouter form, called _exustus_—burned or scorched. Of the Poached-egg Cowries there are several species, the most common is called by naturalists _Ovulum ovum_, Fig. 4, from _ovum_—an egg; the back of this shell is much elevated and rounded; it is smooth and white; the inside is orange brown. Some of the Poached-egg group are of a more slender and angular shape, as, for instance, that called the Gibbous, (_O. Gibbosa_;) the moon when more than half-full, is called gibbous, that is rounded unequally, as this shell. [Illustration] Few shells undergo greater changes, both of shape and colour, during the process of growth, than the Cowries, which are called in France Porcelaines, on account of their high polish and brilliant hues; a single species in different stages of development, might well be, and often is, taken for distinct shells. Much might be said about the Mollusks which inhabit them, but our present subject has rather to do with their outer covering than their internal structure. The most rare and valuable, if not the most beautiful of these Cowries, is the _C. aurora_, or _aurantium_, Morning-dawn, or Orange Cowry, a perfect specimen of which has been sold for fifty guineas. There is a very curious shell called the Common Weaver’s Shuttle, (_Oculum volva_,) generally included in the _Cyprea_ family; of this a representation will be found on Plate VII, Fig. 5. This is brought from China. BIVALVES. Acephalous Mollusks, with Bivalve Shells, is the name given by modern naturalists to the class of animals of which we have now to speak; the only one of these terms which will require explanation is the first; it comes from the Greek, and means headless, so an Acephalan is a molluscous animal without a head, as THE OYSTER,