The Dog Whelk and Common Whelk. 215 



Otherwise as a rule they are tolerably clean shelled, and fleshy 

 bodied. Unlike the whelk, reversed shells are of extreme 

 rarity. To our kDOwledge, " winkle " is the only local name 

 with us, but " Pin-patches " is a colloquial in N. Essex and 

 Suffolk. There is a small, short-spired sort (var. brevicula) 

 found at Southend. As a rule periwinkles are not so much 

 run upon as other shell-fish by holiday-seekers at the coast. 

 " Trippers " seem to prefer picking up a few fresh ones as 

 they wander about. London is the great centre of their 

 consumption. 



The Whelk Family (Buccinidce). The first to mention is 

 the DOG WHELK or WHELK TINGLE (Purpura lapillus), of bad 

 omen to the oyster-culturists. The whelk tingle is notoriously 

 a dire enemy to the oysters and mussels. Its manner of attack 

 is simple, for it squats on its prey, and steadily, with workman- 

 like fashion, proceeds to bore through the shell, and finishes by 

 extracting- and devouring the soft body contents. They are a 

 perfect nuisance on some oyster grounds, Whitstable as else- 

 where ; the owners in the Blackwater vicinity willingly pay 

 for their destruction. Prolific summer breeders, their clusters 

 of flask-shaped egg-sacs get stuck on to oysters, barnacles, 

 stones, &c. ; the young, as soon as they are able, following the 

 habits of their parents. An ordinary size of the adult is about 

 1J inch by 1 inch. With us it is not used as food, though 

 palatable notwithstanding. 



The COMMON WHELK (Buccinum undatum) (White Whelk of 

 Billingsgate) in Kent and Essex holds a very subordinate 

 position as an article of diet. Nevertheless, there is a large 

 return commercially for whelks to be used as bait at home and 

 abroad, and for the London market. Harwich, Ramsgate and 

 Margate, Whitstable and Faversham, are the chief centres of 

 the trade. Their fishing from the first three ports is pursued 

 mainly seaward, but the fishermen of the two last ply their 

 vocation on the Kentish Flats. The whelks are mostly caught 

 by " trotting," some by dredging, and a smaller share in pots. 



