180 PECTINIBRANCHIATA.—MURICIDA. 
Whelk (Buccinum undatum), as many of my 
readers well know, is extensively sold on stalls in 
the streets of London. Hard, indigestible, and 
unwholesome as it is, there are multitudes of the 
poorer classes to whom it is a delicacy ; it is simply 
boiled, and seasoned with vinegar and pepper. 
With our ancestors it seems to have found a place 
at tables of more pretension, for Dr. Johnston men- 
tions, that at the enthronization feast of William 
Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1504, no 
fewer than 8,000 Whelks were supplied, at five 
shillings a thousand. Whelks are caught in 
creels or pots, baited and sunk in shallow water. 
The genus, however, which I select specially to 
exemplify the family is the following :— 
GENUS PURPURA. 
It was included by Linneus and his followers 
under the great genus Buccinum, but has now been 
separated to include a considerable number of 
species having the following characters :— 
The shell is oval, with the spine usually much 
shorter than the aperture, which, in most of the 
species, is very wide; the surface is sculptured 
spirally, often forming fringed edges, or rows of — 
knobs: the outer lip is rarely thickened, but is 
commonly notched; the inner lip is ill defined, 
covered with a glassy enamel; the pillar is broad, 
flattened, and sometimes hollowed ; a short, strongly 
notched canal is present, and a horny operculum. 
The animal has a broad flattened head, with 
two tentacles, the bases of which are thickened 
by the union with them of the eye-stalks; a 
reticulate proboscis, a long tongue, armed with 
