WHELKS., 597 
plate, and composed of concentric circles, while in some species it assumes 
a resuiarly spiral form like a flattened watch-spriny. “ 
THE shells that are included in the family of the Muricidz may readily be 
distinguished by the straight beak or canal in front, and the absence of any 
such canal behind. All the animals belonging to this family are not only 
carnivorous, but rapacious, preying on other molluscs, and destroying them 
with the terrible armature called the tooth-ribbon, which, when examined with 
the microscope, proves to be a set of adamantine teeth, sharp-edged and 
pointed as those of the shark, and cutting their way through the hard shells 
of their victims as the well-known cordon saw passes through thick blocks 
of hard wood. 
About one hundred and eighty species are known to belong to the typical 
genus, and there is hardly a 
portion of the world where 
a Murex of some kind may 
not be found. 
The illustration represents 
the shell which is popularly 
known under the name of 
THORNY WooDcock, the 
latter title being given to it, 
in common with several of 
its congeners, on account of 
its long beak, which is 
thought to bear some resem- THORNY WOODCOCK.—(Murex tenuispinis.) 
blance to that of the wood- 
cock, and the former in allusion to the vast number of lengthened spines or 
thorns which are arranged regularly over its surface. It has also received 
the equally a propriate and more poetical name of VENUS'S COMB. 
This shell is found in the Indian Ocean, and varies greatly in dimensions, 
four or five inches being about the average length. It is evident that as 
nothing is ever made in vain, or to be wasted, the wonderful array of external 
spines must play some important part in nature, if not in the economy of 
the particular species. But what that part may be, and what may be the 
object of these beautiful structures, is a problem which seems almost 
insoluble, at all events with our present means of discovery. 
The colour of the shell is very pale brown, each ridge being slightly tuber- 
culated and edged with white. The spines are uniform drab or very pale 
brown, with an almost horny translucence, ; 
WE now arrive at another and rather larger family, of which the common 
WHELK is a familiar example. 
This is one of the most carnivorous of our 
molluscs, and among the creatures of its own 
class is as destructive as the lion among the 
herds of antelopes. Its long tongue, armed 
with row upon row of curved and sharp-edged 
teeth, harder than the notches of a file, and 
keen as the edge of a lancet, is a most irre- 
sistible instrument when rightly applied, drill- : 
ing a circular hole through the thickest shells WHELK.—(Buccinum 
as easily as a carpenter’s centre-bit works its «nidarin.) 
way through a deal board. 
The front of the tongue often has its teeth sadly broken, or even wanting 
altogether, but their place. is soon supplied by others, which make their 
way gradually forward, and are brought successively into use as wanted. 
