136 
Fam. LITTOKINID.E. 
L/rrOE/AL4.— PERIWINKLE. 
LiTTOiiiNA LiTTOREA, Linnseus. Periwinkle. — Shell 
spiral, solid ; whorls six or seven in number, covered with 
longitudinal strise ; apex very pointed ; aperture nearly 
round and large ; pillar lip flat, broad, and white ; 
outer lip sharp, sometimes white, and occasionally 
showing the colour of the exterior of the shell through. 
Interior of the shell a dark brown. Operculum dark 
horn-colour. 
In Anglo-Saxon, the periwinkle is called sea-snoigl, 
or sea-snail; in Ireland, the horse- winkle and shellimidy 
forragy, and at Belfast, whelks; in Cornwall, gwean ; 
and in the north, corvins ; and the French give it the 
name of sabot, or wooden shoe, as well as vignot or vi- 
gnette, and higorneau. In Brittany it is called, as else- 
where observed, vrelm or brelin and few persons who 
have paid a visit to the seaside can have failed to re- 
mark this common shell, which, at low tide, may be seen 
crawling over the tangled masses of seaweed. Many 
pleasant hours do children pass in gathering basketfuls 
of periwinkles, taking them home and boiling them, and 
enjoying a hearty meal, with the accompaniment of good 
thick slices of bread-and-butter. Periwinkles vary much 
in colour, some being of a dark olive-green, nearly black 
or of a pale greenish-white, like the specimen figured ; 
and others red or. rufous-brown, with narrow bands of 
smoke colour. Varieties of form also occur, and I pro- 
cured from Exraouth two curious specimens, with the 
whorls angular and the edges sharp, instead of rounded. 
* Jeffreys’ Brit. Concli. toI. iii. p. 371. 
