THE THORNY WOODCOCK. 



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ON the right-hand may be seen the empty shell of the ORANGE-MOUTHED SPIDER- 

 SHELL, so disposed as to exhibit the curious projecting horns, with their sharp points 

 and bold curves. It is worthy of notice that in all the Spider-shells these projections 

 are not developed until the creature has attained adult age, the young Spider-shell 

 resembling that of the stromb. From the peculiar shape of some of the species, these 

 creatures are sometimes called SCORPION-SHELLS. 



The color of the Orange-mouthed Spider-shell is creamy white on the exterior, and 

 rich orange within. The curved spines are white and shining, and bear no small 

 resemblance to the poison-teeth of serpents. 



THE shells that are included in the family of the Muricidae may readily be distinguished 

 by the straight beak or canal in front, and the absence of any such canal behind. The 



BRITISH WOODCOCK-SHELL.-yWrex erinaceus. THORNY WOODCOCK. Manx teaulsplals. 



eyes of these animals are not placed on long footstalks, as in the preceding family, but 

 are set directly on the tentacles, without any supporting stalk or projection. All the 

 animals belonging to this family are not only carnivorous, but rapacious, preying on 

 other molluscs, and destroying them with the terrible armature called the tooth-ribbon, 

 and which, when examined with the microscope, proves to be a set of adamantine teeth, 

 sharp-edged and pointed as those of the shark, and cutting their way through the hard 

 shells of their victims as the well-known cordon saw passes through thick blocks of 

 hard wood. 



About one hundred and eighty species are known to belong to the typical genus, and 

 there is hardly a portion of the world where a Murex of some kind may not be found. 



THE larger of the two specimens represents the shell which is popularly known under 

 the name of THORNY WOODCOCK, the latter title being given to it, in common with several 

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