TROCHUS TOP SHELL. 99 



MUREX Tritonia. 

 TRITON'S TRUMPET. 



Specific Character. Shell ventricose, with 

 alternate varices, and slightly elevated transverse 

 ribs, the interstices striated ; the whorls cre- 

 nated * at the suture ; columellar lip grooved ; 

 beak short and ascending; colour whitish, orna- 

 mented on the ribs with parallel curved reddish 

 brown spots, which are shaded off towards each 

 other ; columellar lip striped with dark brown ; 

 the length is a foot, sometimes sixteen inches, 

 and the breadth about half as much. 



It inhabits the Asiatic seas, and those of the 

 Torrid zone in general. It is used by the 

 natives of New Zealand as a musical instrument, 

 and by the Africans as a military trumpet. It 

 is supposed to be the shell intended by Ovid, 

 when he describes the waters of the deluge 

 retiring on the sound of the trumpet of Triton. 



Genus TROCHUS ^Plural, TrocU. 



TOP SHELL. 



Generic Character. Shell univalve, spirally 



* Crenated, being notched, from the Latin cren a, the 

 notch of an arrow. 



t Plate IV. figures 4, 5, 6. 

 H 2 



