CONCHOLOGY. 



opinion, to be considered truly characteristic of the species.* It is from 

 these processes it may be also added, that this curious shell has been 

 variously and not unfrequently fantastically designated by appellations 

 that cannot very readily be reconciled in our ideas with any object 

 they have been supposed to resemble, even admitting that latitude of 

 fancy which may be tolerated when we are entirely aware that the 

 assimilation is remote. Thus this shell has obtained in various 

 languages names according with those of the Ragged Spike Whelk, 

 the Stag's Horn Whelk, the Skeleton, Water Trough, and others of 

 no less vague import. The Least Ragged Whelk is a name assigned 

 to it by our countryman Petiver : the Scorpion Shell is a very old 

 name for it among the early collectors, it is the Murex Scorpio of 

 Rumplius. In France it was distinguished formerly by the name of 

 Patte de Crapaudy (the Toad's Foot) because, says the author of 

 Davila's Catalogue, besides the spires on the body, the exterior edge 

 of the lip is bordered with others that are very large and flat at the 

 extremity, and no doubt, for the same reason it is called by Seba 

 Bufonis Pedes, It was known at that time also among the collectors 

 in Holland by the name of the Stag's Horn,* from a remote similitude 

 which these processes are supposed to bear to the horns of that 

 quadruped. And lastly, in conclusion it may be added, that for 

 nearly half a century past it has been distinguished among the 

 collectors of this country by a title not less whimsical, namely, the 

 " Water Wheel,"" from a fancied similitude the contour of the shell 

 and its verticillation of processes bear to the circle and lamellar 

 appendages or sweeps of a water wheel. 



* Cornua cervina — bois de vetf." — Seba. 



