THE PURPLES. 



31 



purple dye from similar mollusks has given a name 

 to a great genus, several species of which live upon 

 this coast. That name is Purpura, or the Purple 

 shell. The L,atin name for our most common species 

 of Purples is Purpura saxicola, Val., Pur'-pu-ra sax- 

 We may call it the Rock Purple, as its name 

 refers to its habit of living upon the 

 rocks. A somewhat enlarged picture 

 of one variety, the banded kind, is 

 shown in Fig. 11. In form and 

 habits it' is very similar to the little 

 Purpura lapillus, which is so abundant 

 along both shores of the Atlantic Ocean. 

 Our Purples love to frequently change 

 their element, for they select for a home 

 those rocks which are alternately left 

 Fig. 11. bare and covered again by the tides. 



The books state that the Purples are carnivorous, 

 boring into mussel shells and eating the unfortunate 

 inhabitant ; also that they are quite destructive to 

 oyster beds. I have never seen them engaged in these 

 alleged atrocities, but would be very glad to hear 

 from witnesses who had caught them in the act. 



The shell is rather less than an inch in length, and 

 has a short spire, a flattened columella, a sharp-edged 

 outer lip, a short canal and a small umbilicus. The 

 inside is reddish brown, but the outside varies greatly, 

 both in form and in color. Sometimes it is smooth 

 and almost black, sometimes white and coronated; 

 but often it is of a dingy white, decorated with double 

 spiral bands of dark brown, accompanied with spiral 

 grooves. 



Various names, as fuscata, emarginata and ostrina, 

 have been given to the different forms, but probably 



