PERILS OF THE OYSTER. 233 



The whelk-tingle gets at the meat of the oyster by 

 boring the shell with his sharp tongue, which causes the 

 mollusc to open its valves. 



Buckland wisely recommends that the capsular nida- 

 menta of these molluscs so abundant on rocks near low- 

 water mark, and so easily secured should be gathered and 

 . destroyed. 



Wherever oysters are found they are beset by perils. 

 Thus, in Africa and other parts of the world where monkeys 

 abound, one of these animals has been seen to place a stone 

 between the two valves of an oyster-shell, and then securely 

 to drag forth the little victim. Dampier observed another 

 device practised by some poacher monkeys : these crea- 

 tures took up oysters from the beach, laid them on stones, 

 a.nd beat them with another until the shells were demo- 

 lished. 



La Loubere states that the monkeys of the Cape of 

 Good Hope amuse themselves by transporting shells from 

 the shore to the mountain-tops, where they devour the 

 contents at their leisure. 



Even the fox, pressed by hunger, will eat oysters, and 

 the raccoon, when near the shore, eagerly devours them. 



Cunningham (g) says this creature watches for the 

 opening of the shells, and then, putting in its paw, tears 

 out the in-dwellers. 



Barrow states in his account of the Cape, that there is 

 scarcely a sheltered cavern in the sides of the Table Moun- 

 tain, rising immediately from the sea, where living molluscs 

 may not be found on any day of the year. Hither there- 

 fore crows, vultures, and aquatic birds come, detach oysters 

 and similar creatures from the rocks, mount with them in 



(g] " New South Wales." 



