STRUCTURE, ETC., OF THE WHELK. 295 



To which in silence hushed, his very sold 

 Listened intensely, and his countenance soon 

 Brightened with joy ; for murmuring from within 

 Were heard sonorous cadences whereby, 

 To his belief, the monitor expressed 

 Mysterious union with its native sea." 



The whelk is carnivorous, and one of the most 

 interesting peculiarities in its structure is a power- '' 

 ful piece of mechanism by which it is enabled to 

 bore into the shells of those molluscs on which it 

 preys. This apparatus is a kind of proboscis acted 

 upon by a beautiful and complex system of 

 muscles, by means of which the animal can extend 

 it, move it in any direction, or retract it within its 

 shell. This proboscis consists of several parts. 

 There is the external tube, to which the muscles 

 for moving it are attached ; in this tube there is 

 a cylindrical implement which works in the tube 

 as in a sheath. This implement opens at its 

 extremity, and forms the mouth of the animal. 

 This mouth is surrounded by two strong muscular 

 lips, within which is the tongue armed with spines, 

 the action of which, conjoined with that of the 

 lips, can perforate the hardest shells. By means 

 of this apparatus the whelk forms in the shells of 

 other molluscs an orifice into which the tongue 

 with its hooks being protruded, the body of the 

 helpless victim is drawn out and devoured. This 

 apparatus, it will be perceived, is extremely com- 

 plicated. It is not only the tongue, the lips, the 

 mouth, and the throat of the animal which uses 

 it, but it combines in itself the multiple action of 

 u 4 



