224 SHELLS AND MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS. 



large numbers among the beach stones, and the 

 hard indigestible fish, boiled and placed for sale in 

 saucers, is a well-known object in London shop 

 windows. In our walks along the shore, we see 

 the whelk creeping about in quest of food, and he 



seems to have an extraordinary appetite, making- 

 sad havoc among the shells of his neighbours, 

 which he pierces through, and then sucks out the 

 juices of the fish within. The mouth of this 

 mollusk is provided with a long flexible proboscis, 

 moveable in many directions. At the end of this 

 is a spiny tongue, with which he drills and rasps 

 away the hole, and reaches the animal within in 

 spite of a calcareous covering, which would have 

 seemed a sure safeguard. This whelk is often 

 called, by the fishermen, the Conch, or the Buckie. 

 The shell is about four inches long, of a brownish 

 or yellowish white colour. 



Scarcely less common on most parts of our 

 coast, is the Stone, or Dog whelk (Buccinum la- 

 pillus), sometimes called the yellow-bandy, from 

 the spiral bands of dark orange or yellow which 



