NATURAL HISTORY. 
53 
GALLERY.] 
bodies ; their eyes are sessile, or placed on a very short tubercle near 
the base, or on the tentacles. 
The family of Murices (Muricidje, Cases 3—8) have a more or less 
elongated straight syphon, and the shell has a straight tubular canal for 
its protection ; the animal, at certain periods of its growth, expands the 
edge of its mantle, and, during this time, deposits appendages on the 
edge of the shell for their protection ; these expansions of the mantle 
are then gradually withdrawn, and the portion of shell which the ani¬ 
mal forms between this time and the next developement of the append¬ 
ages, is of the common shape : but the expansions produced for their 
protection are left on the surface of the shell, forming variously shaped 
bands across the whorls, which have been called varices , from some of 
them looking like dilated veins; these varices , and the spines upon 
them, being formed on the expanded appendages of the mantle, exactly 
correspond to them in form, and afford good characters for the de¬ 
termination of the groups and species. In some of these animals the 
periodical expansions of the mantle are round, forming a convex simple 
granular varix on the shell, and the inner lip of the shell is generally 
granulated ; as in the genera Ranella , where there is half a wffiorl be¬ 
tween each varix, and Triton , wffiere there is a varix on each two-thirds 
of a whorl. In the Murices , on the contrary, the expansions of the 
mantle are generally produced into elongated processes, the varices are 
consequently spinose or variously branched, and there is only one-third 
(or often less) of a whorl between them. The Pollia chiefly differ from 
the triton in having only indistinct or rudimentary varices. The gri¬ 
mace ( Personae) are Tritons with a contracted irregular mouth and 
thin varices ; and the Typhis are Murices which have a tubular spine 
on the hinder part of the whorl near the spine. The inner lip of 
these shells is smooth. 
In the other genera of this family the animal does not, or only very 
slightly, dilate the mantle at any period of its growth, so that the shell 
has a uniform surface, or marked with only slightly concentric waves, 
which may be considered as the rudimentary states of varices, or rather 
as similar to the intermediate cross ridges which are found between the 
varices in the Tritons and Murices , and which mark the places where 
the animals have rested for a short period. These ridges are generally 
fringed with an expansion of the periostraca, like the varices . In some 
of the genera, as Pleurotoma, Conus , Fusus, and Pyrula , the pillar of 
the shell is smooth. In others, as Turbinellus , Fasciolaria, and Can - 
cellaria , this part is plaited as in the Volutes , but they are known from 
the latter by the canal of the syphon being more elongated. The 
Cones are said to feed chiefly on sea-plants, and are much attacked by 
the Purpura , &c. 
Struthiolaria and Aporrhais have the animal of this family, but the 
syphon is bent to the right side, and the outer lip of the shell is only 
perfected once in the animal’s life, as in the Strombs. The outer lip 
of the former is merely thickened and bent back ; of the latter it is often 
spread out, and sometimes divided into lobes, like the Pteroceras, or 
spider-claws. Indeed the latter have been generally confounded with 
the Strombs. And it is difficult by the shell alone to separate either 
of the genera from Rostellaria , which is said to have the animal like 
the other Strombidce. 
