THE TWISTED TRITON , i 315 
The Royal Mu rex ( Mur ex regius) is a very fine example of this genus, and is valued, 
not only for its rarity, but for the extreme beauty of its form and coloring, which render it an 
ornament to any cabinet. In color it resembles the thorny woodcock. 
Ti-ie large empty shell lying in the centre of the engraving represents the Sea Trumpet, 
or Conch-shell, so familiar from the use to which it has been put for ages, and which has 
rendered it a classical appendage to the marine deity whose name it bears. 
The Sea Trumpet sometimes attains to a large size, a foot or more in length ; and, when 
it has attained its full dimensions, is employed among the South Sea Islanders and Australians 
as a trumpet. In order to fit the shell for this purpose, a round hole is bored in the side, 
at about one-fourth the length from the tip, and the required sound is elicited by laying the 
shell to the lips, and blowing across the hole as a performer blows the flute. The note — if 
the noise produced can be called by that name — is hollow and disagreeable ; but as it is loud 
TWISTED TRITON . — Triton distm'tus. SEA TRUMPET. — Triton variegatus. WRINKLED TRITON. — Triton anus. 
and unlike any other sound, it answers the purpose of those who employ it. While blowing 
the conch, the performer introduces his right hand into the cavity, much in the manner of a 
player upon the French horn. 
Relow the Sea Trumpet lies another shell, which would hardly be taken for a Triton until 
turned over, so as to show the whole of the contour. This is the Wrinkled, or Old Woman 
Triton, so called because the corrugated and rudely oval mouth, with its white crumpled 
folds, is thought to bear some distant resemblance to the face of an old woman surrounded 
with a close cap. The Wrinkled Triton is comparatively a small species, as may be seen from 
the proportions preserved in the figure. 
Behind the larger figure is seen the Twisted Triton, represented in the act of crawling, 
and given, not so much to exhibit any peculiarity of its shell, which is hidden behind that of 
the larger species, as to show the form of the animal, its large foot, and eyes placed at the 
bases of the tentacles. The operculum of this animal is small and leaf -shaped, the nucleus 
being at one end. 
