92 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



are heard in unison with the murmuring sound of waves 

 that come and go ; but far more beautiful are the 

 shells of ocean, wrought by those concerning whom no 

 poet has yet sung. Strange, fantastic -looking creatures 

 are they, and yet endowed with faculties for design which 

 an earthly artist may in vain hope to emulate. We have 

 spoken of their exquisite decorations, as shown in the 

 Cone, the Cowry, and the Yolute. As respects the inha- 

 bitant of the latter, a striking contrast of colour exists, 

 when compared with his habitation : the same peculiarity 

 is obvious in the mollusk of the Purpnrifei'a', and the relation 

 of form is equally remote. In that of Doliwn the animal is 

 green or mottled blue, without the slightest approximating 

 tinge in the shell ; he is also characterized by an ample mus- 

 cular disc, and a remarkable lengthening of the proboscis, ter- 

 minated in the B. ]ierdix by a flattened funnel-like rosette ; 

 whilst the shell is chiefly distinguished for its comparative 

 tenuity. The resident in the Harpa has a richly coloured 

 disc, extending beyond the outer extremity of the shell, nearly 

 to a peak. In some of the Buccina this member is expanded 

 on either side the aperture, and truncated behind into a flat 

 square. In OUva and Ancillaria a modification is appa- 

 rent, which somewhat resembles the lobate structure of the 



