126 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLXUSKS. 



scarce^ and they had been obliged to walk some miles in 

 the morning to purchase it. 



On some parts of the coast the fishermen use the 

 Buccinum for bait for the long-line fishing, and they 

 know it by the following names, viz. the conch, buckie, 

 whelk-tingle, or sting-winkle;* and at Youghal they call 

 whelks "googawns,^' and "cuckoo shells." 



In ' Popular History of the MoUusca/ by Miss Ro- 

 berts, she mentions this species of shell being used in 

 North Wales as trumpets by the farmers for calling their 

 labourers ; and shells of a similar kind are also used in 

 Muscovy and Lithuania by the herdsmen for collecting 

 their cattle, horses, mules, goats, and sheep. The 

 Italian herdsmen use them also. 



In some parts of Staffordshire the farmers call up 

 their cattle by means of a horn or trumpet. In Tahiti 

 shells were also used as trumpets, — a species of mures 

 being the kind generally employed for that purpose. The 

 largest shells were selected, sometimes a foot in length, 

 and seven or eight inches in diameter at the mouth. A 

 perforation, about an inch in diameter, was made near 

 the apex of the shell, in which was inserted a bamboo 

 cane, three feet in length, secured by being bound to 

 the shell, — the aperture rendered air-tight by the out- 

 sides of it being cemented with a resinous gum from the 

 breadfruit-tree. These shells were blown when any 

 procession marched to the temple, and at other religious 

 ceremonies ; besides being used by the herald, and on 

 board the native fleets. The sound is described as very 

 loud, monotonous, and dismal. 



We are told that in the island of Tanna, in the New 

 Hebrides, shell trumpets are blown as signals to the 

 * A Book for the Seaside. 



