. The popular natural history . Zoology. 512 WENTLETRAP SHELLS. could boast There was hardly any sum which a wealthy connoisseut or virtuoso, as the fashion was then to call those who were fond of naturali history, would not gfive for an especially large and perfect example of this really pretty shell. Now, however, its glory has departed, for a tolerably good specimen may be procured for a few shillings, and a Wentletrap which would a few years ago have been sold for fifty pounds can now be purchased for fifteen shillings. Putting aside, however, the question of rarity or cost, this shell is
. The popular natural history . Zoology. 512 WENTLETRAP SHELLS. could boast There was hardly any sum which a wealthy connoisseut or virtuoso, as the fashion was then to call those who were fond of naturali history, would not gfive for an especially large and perfect example of this really pretty shell. Now, however, its glory has departed, for a tolerably good specimen may be procured for a few shillings, and a Wentletrap which would a few years ago have been sold for fifty pounds can now be purchased for fifteen shillings. Putting aside, however, the question of rarity or cost, this shell is a very interesting one, both for its beauty and the mode of its construction. It is purely white, and partly transparent, the elevated ridges being of a more snowy white than the body of the shell, on account of their superior thick- ness, which does not permit the light to pass through them as in the case of the thinner body. The whorls of this shell are separate from each other and, apparently bound together only by the projecting ridges, so that the general appearance is as if a long conical tube had been loosely coiled, and each whorl kept in its place by a succession of shelly elevations. This beautiful shell is found in the Indian and Chinese seas. The smaller figure, showing the shell attached to the animal, represents. COMMON WENTLETRAP.—[Scolaria communis^ STAIRCASE WENTLEl'RAP.—(Scalariaprettosa.) the Common or False Wentletrap, a species tolerably common upon our coasts. In this shell, the whorls are united together and furnished with a number of elevations, which, however, are not nearly so bold as those of the preceding species, but thick in proportion to their height, set obliquely on the shell, and smooth. We now arrive at another family, termed the Litorinidfe, or Shore Molluscs, because the greater number of them frequent the coasts, and feed upon the various algae. The shell is always spiral and never pearly, by which latter characteristic it may
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1884
