Shell small to moderately large for genus, sculptured with large, coarsely rugose, rounded nodules; varices aligned up spire sides; aperture of uniform colour, black or red to white; posterior canal very deep, in most species produced into a long, tubular spine, and spines of previous outer lips remaining prominent on spire.
Some included species: Bursa (Bursa) bufonia (Cmelin, 1791) ( = B. luteostoma Pease, 1861) (Pease 1861, p.397), Indo-West Pacific; B. (Bursa) mammata (Roding, 1798) (= rosa Perry, 1811, = siphonata Reeve, 1844), Indo-West Pacific; B. (Bursa) tuberosissima (Reeve, 1844), Indo-West Pacific; 8. (Bursa) xantostoma (Tapparone-Canefri, 1878) (Tapparone-Canefri 1878, p.249), West Pacific; Bursa species with black aperture (Cernohorsky 1967b, p.46, pi. 1, Fig. 2; Reeve 1844b, pi. 5, Fig. 23a).
Almost all male specimens of Bursa and its subgenera examined had the seminal groove closed for the whole of its length. The large adult specimen (shell 69 mm high) from Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island, Indian Ocean (Western Australian Museum, WAM 835-71) dissected in this study had the groove completely closed, as demonstrated by probing and sectioning. The only exception was a small shell with a white aperture, strongly plicate inner lip, long posterior canal spines, and external coarsely rugose sculpture, judged to be a juvenile specimen of 8. bufonia, from Batangas Province, Luzon, Philippines (Western Australian Museum, WAM 500-69) in which the small narrowly tapering penis bore a clearly open seminal groove. Probe examination under stereoscope enlargement demonstrated that the groove was open for all its length exposed in the mantle cavity. It appears that this specimen (shell 29 mm high) is an immature B. bufonia in the early stages of developing its external reproductive system, and that the seminal groove is fully open when first developed, even in genera where it is normally closed when mature. The stomach of B. bufonia has moderately thickened walls, an irregularly plicate, sacular cardiac arm, a straight tubular pyloric arm, both digestive gland ducts near the bend between the two arms, and a typhlosole running from the anterior digestive gland duct into the intestine, more prominent in the intestine than in the stomach.