240 GASTEROPODOUS MOLLUSCA OF BERWICKSHIRE. 



The venerable Bode, who died A. D. 735, mentions tlio fact in a manner 

 which proves it to have boon familiarly known in his time, when, in all 

 probability, it was really used as a pigment. " There are,'* says he, " on 

 the English shores an abundance of the Cochlea? which yield a scarlet 

 dye. Its beautiful tinge neither fades by the heat of the sun nor by the 

 weather, but the older it is, the more rich and elegant." The knowledge 

 of the fact appears soon to have become confined to a few individuals who 

 handed down the manner of marking linen with it as a family secret ; 

 nor was it again made public until 1684, when Mr William Cole of Bris- 

 tol, having been informed that " there was a certain person living by the 

 seaside, in some port or creek in Ireland, who made considerable gain 

 by marking with a delicate durable crimson colour, fine linen of ladies, 

 gentlemen," &c., and which was " taken out of a shell-fish," discovered 

 after various trials, that it was procured from the P. Lapillus. 

 The fluid, when in the vessel, as already mentioned, is of the colour and con- 

 sistence of cream. As soon as it is exposed to the air, it becomes of a 

 bright yellow, speedily turns to a pale green, and continues to change 

 iin perceptibly, until it assumes a bluish cast, and then a purplish-red. 

 Without the influence of the solar rays, it will go through all these changes 

 in the course of two or three hours ; but the process is much accelerated 

 by exposure to the sun, which also causes the cloth tinted to exhale a 

 very strong fetid smell, " as if garlic and assafoetida were mixed together." 

 u We strongly recommend," says Montagu, " the use of this secretion for 

 the purpose of marking where an indelible dye is desirable ; letters marked 

 on linen or other articles of wearing apparel, from the recent animal, ap- 

 pear indestructible, bidding defiance to chemical process." 



6. CrrRJEA. LINN^US. 



Shell convolute, ovate, bellied, the spire minute or concealed ; aper- 

 ture linear, parallel with the length of the shell, effuse at both ends, 

 toothed on each side, the outer lip thickened and involute. 



1. C. europaa, shell ovate-globose, ash or flesh-coloured, crossed 

 by numerous smooth ribs ; spire obsolete ; base white ; the aper- 

 ture linear with equal teeth ; outer lip thickened, rounded. 

 Length five lines, breadth under three. Dillw. Rec. Sh. 467. 

 Gray in Zool. Jour. iii. 36G. C. pediculus, Pen. Br. Zool. iv. 252. 

 tab. 73. fig. sup. C. coccinella, Lam. Anim. s. vert. vii. 404. 



Hob. Berwick Bay, at low water mark. 



" The variety found on our coast is tlxj C. artica of Montagu, Test. Brit 201." 

 Mr J. Alder. The shell is frequently cast up in our bay, and gathered by the 

 children, who call it sea-cradles or blackamoor's teeth. 



Animal : tentacula two, filiform or slightly tapered, inferior, orange-yellow 

 with pale dots, white and incrassated at the base, the eyes being placed 

 just above and on the outer side of this basilar portion ; mouth furnished 

 with a ribbon-like membranous tongue roughened with minute prickles set 

 in close transverse lines ; syphon projected forwards, tubulous, cleft un- 

 derneath, white tipped with yellow ; cloak covering the shell more or less 

 completely, pellucid, white spotted with yellowish-brown, the edges plain 

 and spotted with black ; foot oblong, extended beyond the shell when in 

 progression, broad and truncate in front, produced into two short processes 

 at the anterior angles, rounded posteriorly, sometimes white tinted with 

 yellow on the sides, and sometimes entirely orange-yellow. The snail can 

 withdraw entirely into its shell. It creeps slowly, and exudes a large 

 quantity of a clear colourless jelly during its progress. When kept in a 



