124 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



flour; strain and season with pepper, cayenne, and salt, 

 and a slight flavouring* of lemon-juice or vinegar. The 

 limpets, being tough and indigestible, are not returned 

 into the sauce.* 



Fam. MURICID.E. 

 BUCCINUM.— WHELK. 



Buccinum undatum, Linnaeus. Whelk. — Shell ovate, 

 with eight whorls, more or less inflated, covered with 

 transverse coarse strise ; waved or undulated obliquely, 

 covered with a yellowish-brown epidermis ; length about 

 four inches. The aperture large, nearly half the length 

 of the body whorl. Columella strong, pillar lip smooth, 

 and bent back ; interior white, very polished, sometimes 

 lemon-colour, or orange ; canal short ; operculum of a 

 reddish horn colour. 



The shell of the common whelk, or buckie, the Buccin 

 onde of the French, varies very much in colour, being 

 sometimes yellowish, without bands, and other specimens 

 having chestnut spiral bands, or wavy blotches. White 

 varieties are occasionally taken, and the shell figured 

 being dredged up in deep water, has still the rough oli- 

 vaceous-coloured epidermis on it. It is found often on 

 the beach, and is a great enemy to other mollusks, 

 boring holes in their shells, and sucking the juices of the 

 fish within, by means of its spiny tongue. Dr. Harvev, 

 in his ' Seaside Book/ says that " the proboscis of the 

 whelk consists of two cylinders, one within the other, 

 the outer of which serves for the attachment of the mo- 

 tor muscles, and the general protection of the organ; 

 * ' Practical Cookery,' p. 95, Hartlaw Keid. 



