THE ECONOMIC MOLLUSC A OF ACADIA. 
33 
The common name of this species is very appropriate, for it tapers 
rto both ends. The shell is very graceful, being symmetrically spired 
.above and prolonged into a slender curved canal below. It is of a dull 
bluish white color when deprived of its thin horn- 
colored epidermis, and is white within. The whorls 
show a few revolving lines. The animal is white, 
with small irregular specks of black. It is usually 
about three inches in length when full-grown. 
But little is known of its habits. It probably 
lives upon animal food. It occupies rocky bottoms, 
.generally in water from thirty to fifty fathoms in 
■ depth, though in the Bay of Fundy the strong tides 
afford it at low-water mark the cold water it needs. 
It never lives in schools, but singly, on which ac- 
count it is difficult to obtain it in any quantity, 
and being comparatively scarce it can never be of 
.much value. 
Economics. It may be used as food. 
Willis says of it: “ Parties who have eaten Fig. 4.— Fususlslan- 
it inform me that they consider it quite a dicus - One-haif 
delicacy.” We do not find that it is ever of natural size, 
eaten by the fishermen, and it is never for sale in any of our 
markets. It would doubtless form good bait for cod, pollock, 
>etc. The shells are used as mantel ornaments in fishermen’s 
houses. 
.5. Buccinum cinereum Say. 
Urosalpinx cinerea St. 
Drill, Borer, Snail-bore. 
[Buccinum, a trumpet; cinerea , ashy.] 
Distribution, (a) General ; — About low-water mark and 
in shallow water. Coast of Florida to Massachussets Bay. 
*Oasco Bay, Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
(b) In Acadia ; — Southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
Verrill. Prince Edward Island, Dawson . Distribution pro- 
bably coincides with that of the Oyster, though it seems to 
be nowhere abundant. 
Habits. It is a very rough, dull-colored shell, looking not very 
■unlike Buccinum, undatum , but is smaller, rougher and generally lighter 
In color. It is longer in proportion to its breadth, has the revolving 
