MUREX. BOCK-SHELL. 
m 
The young 1 are very obtuse at the point, as if broken olf; 
and are known from the young of M. antiquus, by the elon¬ 
gated beak, and the more regular transverse striae. 
On most sandy shores, v. v. 
7. Mure* gracilis. Slender Rock-shell 
Montagu , pi. 15. f. 5. 
Murex sinuosus. Montagu , pi. 9. f. 8— Dorset Cat. 
pi. -14. f. is. ; 
Murex emarginatus. Donovan , pi. 169. f. 2. 
Shell slender, tapering to a fine point, with ten well de¬ 
fined spires, ribbed longitudinally v and finely but regularly 
striate transversely: on the body volution are fifteen riba, 
tumid in the middle and placed a little obliquely, not con¬ 
tinuing through the whole length of the shell, but inter- 
rupted at the junctures by a fiat space which, commences 
at the upper angle of the outer-lip and running spirally up 
the whole shell; this fiat space is broader or narrower, hi 
always sufficiently distinct, and marked with fine thread¬ 
like lines following its direction round the volutions: aper¬ 
ture oblongroval, narrow, and with its canal occupying 
about half the length of the shell; at the upper angleof 
the outer-lip is a cut or sinuosity, which separates it from 
its attachment to the body volution; outer-lip a little 
spreading, thickened by a rib at the back, with a thin edge, 
slightly crenate or denticulate within; pillar-lip smooth, 
white, but not polished : color yellowish-white, sometimes 
a little glossy, with a tinge of pink, and a pale red band 
commencing half-way up the outer-lip and spirally winding 
round the base of each volution, forming two upon the 
larger one, but growing indistinct, and at last disappearing 
near the tip *. length more than an inch; breadth about a 
quarter of an inch. 
This description drawn from many specimens now before 
us, and which were collected in Dublin bay and the south 
of Devon, seem to combine together the characters both of 
M. gracilis and M. sinuatus, as-de'scribed by Montagu. All 
that we possess, and all that we have seen, have both the 
sinuosity and the fiat striated space between the volutions, 
although in some the latter i 3 very narrow : the ribs on the 
body volution are from six or eight to fifteen or more, and 
- ■ 0 i the 
