30 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 
which it is adorned are plainly seen at the 
bottom of that page, where is the larger illus- 
tration of the same shell. 
The Murex princeps is the spiny shell 
shown among the olive and cone shells. It is: 
a beautiful variety, found upon the west coast 
of South America, is sometimes five inches in 
length. ° Its ribs are white, contrasting beauti- 
fully with its spies and shadings of chestnut 
brown. 
The Muricide, however, are not all regarded 
as lovely. It is a Murex which is one of the 
worst enemies of the oyster, piercing its shell 
and sucking the sweet juices from within. So 
voracious 1s this depredator that a large num- 
ber of the bivalves are often required to fur- 
nish it a single meal, the young Murex select- 
ing the young oyster shells, which are most 
easily pierced, while the old A/wrex feasts upon 
the large oysters, finding the labor of boring 
through their hard shells but whets its appe- 
tite for more. The oyster farms in some parts 
of Europe are only preserved by fishers being 
employed incessantly to destroy these > depre 
dators. 
