E are back again upon the 

 seashore seeking for what 

 Borlase nearly one hundred 

 and fifty j^ears ago called 

 the Small Needle - whelk 

 (Bittiuvi reticulatuQii), a name we believe not 

 in use among the folks along our coasts, who usually 

 lump a large number of species together under a 

 kind of generic title, according to size or habit. 

 Thus these Horn-shells (Bittiiim and CeritJiiibrti), 

 small Nassas, Pheasant-shells, Necklace-shells, and 

 others, are all known along the Cornish coast 

 as " Shillifillies." In the Horn - shells there is a 

 long pyramidal spire of many whorls ornamented 

 with little bosses in spiral lines, a small mouth with 

 a little groove on its lower margin, a horny operculum, 

 and no umbilicus. The animal is much like those 

 last described in the previous chapter, but the 

 branchial siphon is merely a short fold of the mantle, 



238 



