TROCHUS. 303 



compared to a rose- window in its exquisite tracery. 

 But the shell has also an inner life of beauty. The 

 builder is not less graceful than the edifice. A feathery 

 hood surmounts its arched head ; two tapering horns, 

 clothed with most delicate hairs, project in front, and 

 three similar but shorter ones on each side of the body, 

 all of which wave and curl independently of each other, 

 and are apparently endued with the most exquisite sen- 

 sibility ; the whole is supported by a slender foot, whose 

 softly gliding motion effects an almost imperceptible 

 progress. The sentient will is evidently not wanting 

 in our living pearl. Before I part with the subject, let 

 me have full vent for my enthusiastic admiration by 

 scattering a very few more flowers of poetry by way of 

 illustration : 



" Framed in the prodigality of Nature." Richard III. 

 " Crown'd the nonpareil of beauty." Twelfth Night 



" Like a pearl 



Dropt from the opening eyelids of the morn 



Upon the bashful rose." Middkton's ' Game at Chesse.' 



" These were tears by Naiads wept 

 For the loss of Marinel." Bridal of Triermain. 



When I first saw this shell, its sculpture appeared so 

 like that of Margarita (?) maculata, S. Wood, that I 

 considered them to be the same species. I have since 

 had reason to alter my opinion. A careful comparison 

 of the recent species with that of our Coralline Crag, 

 and with typical specimens of Turbo moniliferus or 

 Solarium turbinoides of Nyst (which Mr. Wood con- 

 sidered, and, as I believe, rightly, identical with his 

 species) , has convinced me that, according to the modern 

 acceptation of the term species, the living and fossil 

 forms are distinct. The one is pyramidal and angulated, 



