The Whelks. Trumpet Shells 



muscle, and lets the shell gape. Or it may be a large Fulgur 

 perversa, which has to lift its operculum in order to breathe. 

 The Melongenas are ready at the signal, and all thrust in their 

 snouts, long and tough, like black shoestrings. The victim quick- 

 ly clamps them tight. But it must relax its hold frequently. 

 Each yielding gives the snouts a chance to get a little further in. 

 When the muscle is reached the rasping tongues soon disable it, 

 and the victory is won. The "coon" oysters are Melongena's 

 favourite food, though the gizzard plates in the stomach of this 

 mollusk enable it to assimilate the toughest substances. 



The Open-mouthed Melongena (M . patula, Brod.and Sby.), 

 large and dark-coloured, with wide aperture, is sometimes remotely 

 spiny on the shoulder. The shell is brown, banded with yellow 

 or white. The lining is orange-pink. Length, 4 to 6 inches. 



Habitat. — Panama to Mazatlan. 



M. melongena, Linn., resembles the last species in its gaping 

 mouth and the remote shoulder spines. Colour bluish brown; 

 interior yellowish. The animal has a long slender head with eyes 

 on the bases of the tentacles, a brown spotted yellow foot, broad 

 and squarish at the ends. Length, 3 to 5 inches. 



Habitat. — West Indies. 



Genus HEMIFUSUS, Swains. 



Shell thin, spindle-shaped, uncoloured or light yellow, spire 

 shorter than the aperture, shoulders knobbed or spiny; canal 

 open, wide, somewhat twisted. Six species. 



The Colossal Hemifusus (H. colosseus, Lam.) is drawn out 

 into slender spindle shape, its keeled whorls bearing compressed 

 low tubercles. The elongated aperture gradually merges into the 

 wide, open canal. The exterior is a uniform horn-yellow; aperture 

 rosy. Length, 10 to 14 inches. 



Habitat. — Indian Ocean, Philippines. 



Genus NEPTUNEA, Bolt. (CHRYSODOMUS, Swains.) 



Shell spindle-shaped, swollen in middle, colourless or dingy; 

 whorls rounded, covered with horny epidermis; apex elevated, 

 papillary; canal short; aperture oval ; columella simple, smooth; 

 operculum ovate, nucleus apical. 



A circumpolar genus of eighteen species. 



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