110 



MANUAL OP THE MOLLUSCA. 



the markets, being more esteemed than the buccinum. It is the " roaring 

 buckle," in which the sound of the sea may always be heard. In the Zetland 

 cottages it is suspended horizontally, and used for a lamp ; the cavity con- 

 taining the oil, and the canal the wick. (Fleming.) The reversed variety 

 (F. contrarius, Sby) is found in the Medit., and on the coast of Spain ; it 

 abounds in the pliocene tertiary (crag) of Essex. The fusus deformis, a 

 similar sp., found oif Spitzbergen, is always reversed. 



FAMILY III. BUCCINID^. 



Shell notched in front ; or with the canal abruptly reflected, producing a 

 kind of varix on the front of the shell. 



Animal similar to murex ; lingual ribbon long and linear, (fig. 16) ra- 

 chidian teeth single, transverse, dentated in front ; uncini single. Carnivorous. 



BUCCINUM, L. "Whelk. 



Etym., buccina, a trumpet, or triton's-shell. 



Type, B. undatum. PI. V., fig. 10. 



Shell few whirled ; whirls ventricose ; aperture large ; canal very short, 

 reflected; operculum lamellar, nucleus external. (See pisania.) 



Distr., 20 typical species. Northern and Antarctic seas. Low water to 

 100 fins. (Forbes). (B ? clathratum, 136 fins., off Cape.) 



Fossil, 130 sp., including pisania, &c. Gault ? Miocene . Brit., France. 



Fig. 70. Nidamental capsu'es of the Whelk.* 



The whelk is dredged for the market, or used as x bait by fishermen ; it 

 may be taken in baskets, baited with dead fish. Its nidamental capsules are 

 aggregated in roundish masses, which, when thrown ashore, and drifted by 

 the wind resemble corallines. Each capsule contains five or six young, which, 

 when hatched, are like fig. 70, b : a, represents the inner side of a single 

 capsule, shewing the round hole, from which the fry have escaped. 



* Fig. 70. From a small specimen, on an oyster-sjiell, in the cabinet of Albany 

 Hancock, Esq. The line at b, represents the length of the young shell. 



