134 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN VOL. XIV, 



their find there and then. Common Indian species are Arciilaria 

 austrnlis, and A. thersites, both found in the shallows of Palk Bay 

 and the Gulf of Mannar. 



The family of the Muricidae has a world-wide distribution ; 

 tropical species are numerous and include many very handsome 

 and peculiar forms, ornamented not infrequently with prominent 

 varices fantastically armed with thickly set spines. The basal 

 form of the shell is fusiform; the aperture is rounded ; in many 

 species the anterior canal is very long and narrow, with sides so 

 incurved as to become almost closed and tubular; a posterior canal 

 absent. The foot is abruptly cut off in front. The proboscis is 

 long and retractile, armed with strong teeth on the radula capable 

 of boring circular holes in other shells in a manner similar to 

 Natica. The Murices are all carnivorous ; living free on the bottom 

 they fill towards the non-burrowing bivalves a role similar to that 

 of Natica in the case of those that live buried in the sand ; they are 

 capable of great damage and some of the smaller species, Urosal- 

 pinx sp. and others, together with the Purpurid Sistntm, cause 

 havoc on the pearl banks when the pearl oysters are young and 

 thin-shelled. 



From some of the murices the Phoenicians obtained their 

 famous Tyrian purple dye; the animal was extracted whole 

 from large shells, small ones being broken in a mortar. Vestiges 

 of this industry still exist on the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean 

 in heaps of broken murex shells and in caldron-shaped holes in the 

 rocks. 



The handsome, long-spined Murex tcnuist>ina is often brought 

 ashore in considerable numbers by Madras fishermen, entangled 

 by its spines in their nets ; the same species and the closely allied 

 M. ternispina are common on the West Coast in moderately deep 

 water. Both these have extremely long beaks beset with spines ; 

 the Woodcock-shell, M. haustdhim, has an equally long beak 

 but no spines; it bears a fantastic resemblance to the head of a 

 woodcock, whence the popular name. It is common on muddy 

 sand on both coasts. 



Of short-beaked small forms, M. palniifcrus is peculiarly hand- 

 some, the spines being stout and branched. It occurs in the Gulf 

 of Mannar, 



