352 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



on a piece of cane which is inserted in the basket. An 

 average catch at Port Erin is about 20 to 25 whelks per 

 two days. 



The whelk is also nsed as food, and large quantities 

 are usually exposed for sale in London. It does not 

 appear to be eaten much in the North of England, but a 

 few specimens are occasionally seen for sale in Liverpool. 

 In the Isle of Man, and Scotland, the whelks are 

 commonly termed " buckies " ; in Heligoland " coxen," 

 and in the days of British rule, the English fishermen 

 who called there were known as " coxen clappers," from 

 their habit of breaking up the shells to obtain the whelk 

 for bait. 



Joubin states* that Buccinum undatum is very 

 common on the West Coast of France, and that in the 

 Syndicat of Portbail a fisherman can collect as many as 

 200 at one low tide. These he can sell at Id. to 3d. per 

 dozen. They are consumed in the country, and not 

 exported. 



A considerable demand for whelks must, however, 

 still exist in this country, and one finds quotations 

 regularly in the Fish Trades Gazette, though, unfor- 

 tunately, the quantities sold or brought in are not 

 indicated. The prices at Billingsgate appear to vary 

 from about 4s. to 10s. a bushel. Government reports 

 give little information, whelks being tabulated with other 

 edible animals as " unclassified shell-fish," in the 

 statistics published by the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries; but Mr. C. E. Fryer, I.S.O., of the Fisheries 

 Department of the Board, has very kindly supplied Prof. 

 Herdman with the following particulars collected for 

 last year : — 



* Bull, de L'Institut Oceanograph. Monaco. No. 213, July, 1911. 



