Whelks and Conekts 



263 



water, where probaljly food is not so plentiful. The 

 var. striata lives in the coralline zone of England, 



s^.AAAw^ y)^f\ 



Row of ieeth of Common Whelk 



Ireland, and Wales, where 

 the waters are quieter and 

 the rocks less liable to 

 being set spinning ; so the 

 thick shell is not developed 

 and the strengthening ribs have to be carefully 

 looked for. The var. 'pelayica lives out in the deep 

 waters of the Dogger Bank, and produces 

 a tliin shell of twice the normal dimen- 

 sions ; with a longer spire and a smaller 

 mouth. The Whelk is also given to the 

 production of abnormal forms to which 

 the general term monstrosity is ap- 

 plied. Among these abnormal forms 

 are included reversed spiral, keeled 

 whorls, the spire or the body -whorl 

 greatly lengthened, and the duplication 

 or triplication of the operculum. Double 

 opercula are fairly numerous on the 

 shores of Kent and Sussex, 

 capsules of the Whelk are clustered 

 together in masses that vary in form according to the 

 nature of their base. They ap- 

 pear to have given some trouble 

 to naturalists, for John Ellis, the 

 historian of the " Corallines," in- 

 cluded them in his book as a 

 species of Alcyoniuin, Dr. John- 

 ston later said they resembled 

 the nest of a humble-bee, and yet more recently 

 Dr. J. G. Jeffreys described the cartilaginous pouches 



Opercula of Whelk 

 • — normal form 

 and double 



The eofof - 



Cluster of Egg-capsules 



