TRITON. 303 



the leathery inhabitant and esteem it a delicacy ; M' An- 

 drew saw it offered for sale with other shell-fish in the 

 market at Algiers. Verany tells us that at Nice the 

 shell of T. nodi/ems, with a hole at the top, serves as a 

 trumpet for the fishermen and countrypeople, and that 

 the braying noise produced by it renders this musical 

 instrument indispensable for the old-fashioned charivari, 

 which he describes as a deafening serenade to signalize 

 the marriages of widows and ill-assorted couples. My 

 specimen is incrusted with several kinds of Lepralia 

 not noticed south of the British coasts, Spirorbis granu- 

 latus, S. corrugatus, and Truncatulina lobatula. 



Murex Tritonis of Linne is a large tropical shell (the 

 true Triton's trumpet), although his description inclu- 

 ded the present species. 



(V* 4*? 2. T. cuTA'cEus*,(Linne.) u^ 



Murex cutaceus, Linn. S. N. p. 1217. 



BODY on the upper part painted with irregular spots of dark 

 purple, which are separated by narrow white lines : foot pale 

 violet above, marbled on the sides, and speckled here and there 

 with reddish spots which are edged with white. (Philippi.) 



SHELL conic-oval, with a twisted and angulated outline, 

 very strong and solid, opaque, rather glossy : sculpture, a thick 

 and expanded rib behind the outer lip, a prominent and some- 

 what crested rib on the middle of the body-whorl, another on 

 the penultimate whorl, and frequently a fourth on the prece- 

 ding whorl (all but the labial rib being varicose) ; there are 

 also broad flattened spiral ridges (from 6 to 10 on the body- 

 whorl), besides a few irregular thread-like striae in the inter- 

 stices ; the penultimate whorl has 3 or 4 ridges, and each of 

 the next two whorls has 2 ridges ; the ridges on the upper 

 part of the shell are more or less tuberculated or nodose ; the 

 whole surface is covered with fine and close-set longitudinal 

 striae, which produce an imperfect cancellation: colour yel- 

 lowish-white, tinged or obscurely streaked with purplish- 



* Covered with a skin or epidermis. 



