26 THE WHELK. 



shell. To give variety to this group, we will now throw in 

 a land species called Megaspira Ruschenhergiana, about the 

 origin of whose name we cannot even hazard a guess; the 

 termination of the generic name, you will see is spira, and 



a glance at the shell will at once suggest a reason for this; 

 its long tapering spire consists of twenty-three closely-set 

 gradually increasing whorls. This is a rare shell, whose in- 

 habitant has not yet been described by naturalists; several of 

 the marine species closely resemble it in shape. Much more 

 might be said about the Land and Fresh- water Shells, but 

 we must here leave them, having a wide field before us, 

 namely, the Sea or Marine Testacea, one of the most common 

 of which is 



THE WHELK, 



A univalve shell inhabited by a gasteropod mollusk, or, we 

 should rather say, naturally so tenanted, for very frequently 

 it is taken possession of by the Soldier or Hermit Crab, which 

 having no hard covering to protect their soft plump bodies, 

 are obliged to take lodgings where they can get them, and 

 generally prefer the Whelk shell, of which we here give a 



This is one of the commonest of 

 our Marine Mollusks; it is called 

 by naturalists Buccinum undatum; 

 the first, or generic term, being 

 the Latin for a trumpet, and the 

 \ second, or specific name, meaning 

 waved, or, as we often say, undu- 

 lated. So we call this i\iQ Waved Whelk; fishermen term it 

 the Conch, or the Buckie, and tell strange stories of its raven- 

 ous appetite and murderous propensities; how, with its spiny 

 tongue, situated at the end of a long flexible proboscis or 



