58 Beautiful Shells. 



tlie watei% inliabltccl by a living molluslr, it looks as 

 thougli made of pearly and studded vv'itli rubies; 

 tlie animal^ too, is richly colourcd_, being yellow 

 "witli black strijDes. See Plate lY.j Fig. 3. 



Not so common as the last is another British 

 mollusk of this genus, called the Granulated 

 Troclius {T. granulatus). It is the larger, and, as 

 many tliink, the more elegant shell of the tw(?j 

 being in colour a faint flesli tint or yellowisli white, 

 shaded here and there with purple ; the spiral lines 

 whicb encircle it are composed of small round knobs 

 wkicli stand out like beads. 



There is a singular shell of this genus, called 

 tlie Carrier Trochus {T. ^liorus) ; it is generally 

 found loaded witli foreign objects, sucli as shells, 

 small stones, bits of coral, etc., whicli it attaches 

 to itself, and so goes about like a collector of 

 natural curiosities, with liis cabinet on liis back. 



Tlie Imperial Troclius [T, imjpcrialU), Fig. 4, 

 wbose scientific name explains itself, is one of the 

 handsomest shells of the genus ; it is very rare, and 

 has hitherto been found only at New Zealand. Let 

 us give our young readers a specimen of the way in 

 which scientific writers describe shells; thus, this 

 foreign Trochus, they tell us, is ^^orbicularly 

 conical, the apex obtuse, the whorls turgidly 



