Mermaid's head

(Zool.) a European spatangoid sea urchin (Echinocardium cordatum) having some resemblance to a skull.

See also: Mermaid

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.
References in classic literature ?
So signal is the failure of all attempts to make this separation of the good from the tax, that the experiment would not be tried,--since to try it is to be mad,--but for the circumstance, that when the disease began in the will, of rebellion and separation, the intellect is at once infected, so that the man ceases to see God whole in each object, but is able to see the sensual allurement of an object and not see the sensual hurt; he sees the mermaid's head but not the dragon's tail, and thinks he can cut off that which he would have from that which he would not have.
It has been vandalised several times over a century as the mermaid's head was stolen in 1964 and 1998 and arm was cut off in 1984.
The Little Mermaid's head was found outside the cable television station, which had offered a pounds 2,000 reward for its return.