DKECIOUS MOLLUSCA. 355 



CLASS II. 



THE MASS OF EGG-CASES REGULAR. (The egg-cases form 

 in their aggregate masses of a determinate figure.) 



ORDER i. Egg-cases coherent. 



ORDER ii. Egg-cases adherent; the cases are attached to 

 a common body serving as an axis. 



* The egg-cases attached all round the 

 axis. 



** The egg-cases attached along one side 

 of the axis. 



a. Sessile. 



b. Pedunculated.-f- 



I shall now describe a few of these egg-cases, or " conca- 

 merated nidus," as Sir Everard Home calls them. Those 

 of our common Whelks belong to M. Lund's first family. 

 That of the Buccinum undatum Ellis names " Sea wash- 

 balls," for they are " used by the sailors as soap to wash 

 their hands ;" but our fisher-lads of the north countrie call 

 them " fyke," because, with the dried powder of them, they 

 torment their fellows by slyly insinuating it between the 

 skin and clothes, when it raises a very intolerant degree of 

 itching. The common nest is composed of numerous cori- 

 aceous pouches of a compressed globular shape, united, by 

 a strong ligament, into a roundish mass, which, in size and 

 general appearance, may be aptly compared to the nest of 

 some humble-bees. Each pouch, " about the size of half 

 a large pea," contains about four young, and these, when 

 about to be hatched, have already four whorls, and exhibit, 

 in tolerable perfection, the character of the adult shell. J 

 The nidus of the Fusus antiquus is more regular and curious 

 (Fig. 71) : when of full size it forms an obtuse cone about 

 three inches in height and two in diameter, attached firmly 

 by a broad basis to rocks in deep water. This cone is made 

 up of a number of large pouches, joined together by a strong 

 cartilaginous band or skin in a regular manner : each cell is 

 shaped something like the human nail, convex outwardly 

 and concave on the inner side, with a strong horny outer 

 coat slit along the upper edge, but the aperture so narrow 



t Ann. des Sc. Nat. (1834) i. 93. 



t Ellis Corallines, 84, pi. 32, b, B. Baster Opusc. Subs. i. 14. tab. 5, 

 fig. 2. J. E. Gray in Charlesw. Mag. Nat. Hist. i. 248. 



