58 Beautiful Shells. 



the water, inhabited by a living mollusk, it looks as 

 though made of pearl, and studded with rubies; 

 the animal, too, is richly coloured, being yellow 

 with black stripes. See Plate IV., Tig. 3. 



Not so common as the last is another British 

 mollusk of this genus, called the Granulated 

 Trochus (T. granulatus). It is the larger, and, as 

 many think, the more elegant shell of the twQj 

 being in colour a faint flesh tint or yellowish white, 

 shaded here and there with purple; the spiral lines 

 which encircle it are composed of small round knobs 

 which stand out like beads. 



There is a singular shell of this genus, called 

 the Carrier Trochus (T. jphorus) ; it is generally 

 found loaded with foreign objects, such as shells, 

 small stones, bits of coral, etc., which it attaches 

 to itself, and so goes about like a collector of 

 natural curiosities, with his cabinet on his back. 



The Imperial Trochus (T. imperialis) , Fig. 4, 

 whose scientific name explains itself, is one of the 

 handsomest shells of the genus ; it is very rare, and 

 has hitherto been found only at New Zealand. Let 

 us give our young readers a specimen of the way in 

 which scientific writers describe shells; thus, this 

 foreign Trochus, they tell us, is " orbicularly 

 conical, the apex obtuse, the whorls turgidly 



