The shell is ovate or ovate-conical and elongated. The spire is moderate and pointed. The aperture is oval or oblong with a deep notch anteriorly and without a siphonal canal. The columella is plain, not flattened, swollen above, and often covered with a wide and flattened calcareous callosity, of more diaphanous substance. There sometimes exists a fold at the base of the columella. The outer lip is plain, quite thin, sometimes recurved, and forming a margin on the exterior. The thin, horny operculum is ovate and concentrically striate.^[2]

The soft body is elongated and spiral. The foot almost always considerable and subelliptical. It is shielded or two-lobed before, emarginated behind, bearing an operculum. The mantle is simple and forms a thin-edged flap over the branchial cavity. It is provided with a branchial siphon, projecting, thick, very long and dorsal, issuing from the emargination at the base of the shell. The head is rather thick, furnished with two conical, depressed tentacles supporting the eyes upon the outer side, (sometimes the eyes do not exist, but this case is extremely rare) . The mouth is provided with a retractile trunk, armed with minute teeth. The radula acts as a rasp. The sexes are separate. The love dart of the male is considerable, without an exterior furrow at its base.^[2]

All animals are carnivores and scavengers, feeding on dead or damaged marine animals. They are provided with a cylindrical trunk, susceptible of being much elongated or of being concealed entirely within the body. This trunk is armed at its extremity with beaks, which enable the animal to pierce the shell of other molluscs and crustaceans, upon which it preys.^[3]

The sexes are separate. The shells of the males are generally smaller, and less inflated than those of the females. The males are provided with a very large love dart, i.e. an exciting appendage, which, in a state of repose, is situated under the right edge of the mantle.

The eggs are generally united together. They are sometimes driven and transported by the waves to distances far removed from the places where they had been deposited; whence the same species of Buccinum are often found in very different climates.^[2]

The whelks are met with in all seas, especially upon rocks, where they occur in large numbers. The warmest climates furnish the species most brilliant in coloring. Some species serve for food to the inhabitants of many countries, particularly upon the shores of the English Channel and the North Sea.^[2]

Species in the genus Buccinum include:^[4]

This is a long list because, originally, all species resembling a Buccinum were categorized in this genus. Most of them have become synonyms in the course of time.

• Golikov A.N. (1980). Molluscs Buccininae of the World Ocean [in Russian]. Fauna of USSR, Mollusks. 5(2): 1-466.
• Golikov A.N. & Sirenko B.I. (1988). New data on the systematics of the subfamily Buccininae (Gastropoda, Pectinibranchia, Bucciniformes) [Новые данные к построению системы подсемейства Buccininae (Gastropoda, Pectinibranchia, Bucciniformes)]. Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta Akademii Nauk SSSR

• Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Editio decima, reformata (10th revised edition), vol. 1: 824 pp. Laurentius Salvius: Holmiae.
• Valenciennes, A. (1858). Note sur une suite intéressante de coquilles rapportées des mers du Japon, et de la Manche de Tartarie, par M. le Dr Barthe. Compte Rendu des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences. 46: 759-762.
• Montfort P. (Denys de). (1808-1810). Conchyliologie systématique et classification méthodique des coquilles. Paris: Schoell. Vol. 1: pp. lxxxvii + 409 (1808). Vol. 2: pp. 676 + 16 (1810)
• Ida Shepard Oldroyd, The marine shells of the west coast of North America, Volume 2, Deel 1, p. 252