THE LITTLE FIG-SHELL. 



373 



technically called " varices," upon the shell, one row being placed in each side. There 

 are about fifty species of Ranella, spread over all the warm seas. Like the preceding 

 shells, they prefer the shallow to the deep waters, and may be found at almost all 

 depths from the bare rocks left waterless by the receding tide to a depth of eighteen 

 or twenty fathoms. 



The color of the Frog-shell is not very striking at a distance, but elegant and deli- 

 cate when closely examined. The surface of the shell is variously mottled with brown 

 of differing tones and intensities, and is traversed by multitudinous rows of tiny raised 

 dots or tubercles of pure white, like porcelain. 



The animal of this shell is represented as crawling, for the object of displaying the 

 long tentacles, the position of the eyes, the broad foot, and the small oval operculum, 

 with its layers of bony substance, and its nucleus placed at one side. 



ON the right hand is shown the BULL-FROG SHELL, exposed so as to show the roughly 

 tuberculated surface, with its deep hollows and bold ridges of thick shelly substance, 

 together with the projecting horns on either side. The color of this shell is extremely 

 variable. In the handsomest specimens the ground color is creamy white, largely 

 mottled with bold tints of deepest brown and purest white. But in many instances 

 the entire shell is of a very pale tone, yellow predominating, and the brown entirely 

 subservient, and presenting the same contrast to the full-colored shell as the albino to 

 the negro. 



THE third figure represents the SPINED FROG-SHELL, a name which, in this instance, 

 is partially appropriate on account of the sharp and rather long spines or projections 

 with which the shell is furnished. None of these shells are of very great size, their 

 average length being about two inches. 



As the family of the Muricidae is a very large one, and comprehends a vast variety 

 of curious forms, which, though differing in many unimportant details, are yet iden- 

 tical in those characteristics which determine the genus, it is needful to illustrate it by 

 several examples of these apparently discrepant forms. 



LITTLE FlQ-SHELL.-PyruIa flcus. 



In the accompanying illustration is given a very pretty shell, termed indifferently the 

 LITTLE FIG or LITTLE PEAR SHELL, its general outline being thought sufficiently pear 

 or fig like to warrant the application of the name. Both scientific names refer to this 

 far-fetched resemblance, pyrula signifying a little pear, andfaus meaning a fig. 



