TULIP WHELK. - Fii&cioldria Tulipu. 



SflJSULJS-SHELL. Fvsus com*. 



of sounds are gathered in its wide lip, and, being returned to the ear in a broken and 

 confused manner, give forth a monotonous sound, rising and falling at intervals, and are 

 thought by the uneducated to be the imprisoned murmurs of the waves. For this reason, 

 the shell is popularly known as ROAKING BUCKIE. In some places the empty shell is 

 used as a lamp, the cavity containing the oil and the wick being drawn through the canal, 

 thus producing a charmingly elegant lamp, which even exceeds in beauty the classical 

 forms of the ancients, and quite equals them in efficacy. 



Another species, the GIANT SPINDLE (Fusus colosseus], is remarkable as being one of 

 the largest living examples of the gasteropoda 



In the illustration, the animal of the Spindle-shell is seen just in the act of protruding 

 itself from its habitation, in order to show the position of the eyes and the spotted 

 mantle. The foot of the animal is moderately broad, and the operculum is small, and 

 shaped not unlike a sea mussel-shell. The colour of the Spindle-shell is nearly white, 

 and almost uniformly tinted, but darkening slightly towards the point 



WE now arrive at another and rather larger family, of which the common WHELK is 

 a familiar example. 



This is one of the most carnivorous of our molluscs, and among the creatures of its 

 own class is as destructive as the lion among the herds of antelopes. Its long tongue, 

 armed with row upon row of curved and sharp-edged teeth, harder than the notches of 

 a file, and keen as the edge of a lancet, is a most irresistible instrument when rightly 

 applied, drilling a circular hole through the thickest shells as easily as a carpenter's 

 centre-bit works its way through a deal board. 



The front of the tongue often has its teeth sadly broken, or even wanting altogether, 

 but their place is soon supplied by others, which make their way gradually forward, and 

 are brought successively into use as wanted. As a general rule, there are about a hundred 

 rows of teeth in the Whelk's tongue, each row contains three teeth ; and each tooth is 

 deeply cleft into several notches, which practically gives the creature so many additional 

 teeth. 



