THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 167 



of this character cost the oyster-planters some 810,000. Said "an 

 eminent naturalist," " No fish has teeth strong enough to crush oyster- 

 shells." This is certainly a mistake. I believe that oystermen re- 

 gard a three-year-old oyster as comparatively safe in this respect, and 

 their apprehensions appertain to the younger beds. 



Fig. 6. Sertularia Pinnata. a, a fragment, natural size; a', small portiorj magnified; o, 

 shows the case of a male zooid ; b, Campanvlaria neglecta, magnified. 



At Long Branch, and in fact pretty much on the entire eastern 

 seaboard, is often found the periwinkle, or great sea-snail (Lunatia 

 heros). These are quite numerous. Oystermen have gravely told me 

 that this animal kills the oyster. It has an operculum, or cover to the 

 mouth of the shell, and they say that with this, as a knife, it opens the 

 oyster. All this one might believe but for two difficulties : first, you 

 could as easily open an oyster with the edge of a lady's visiting-card, 

 for the operculum is of soft horn, and not thicker than a card; sec- 

 ondly, this Lunatia is not lunatic enough to try the experiment, as 

 it is constitutionally a strict vegetarian, living upon the juicy sea-let- 

 tuce, and other algae, so that on dietetic principles it has serious ob- 

 jections to the bivalve. 



There is a small univalve, seldom much over an inch in length, 

 which is justly chargeable with murderous assault on the oyster. The 

 watermen very properly call it the drill. The latest name it has re- 

 ceived from the conchologists is Urosalpinx cinerea. It is, however, 

 more generally known among scientific men as Buccinum cinereum. 

 It is a very pretty shell. The tongue is set with three rows of teeth 

 like a file ; it is, in fact, a tongue-file, or dental band, and is called by 

 conchologists the lingual ribbon. (See Fig. 9.) This tongue-file is 

 perfectly flexible, and with it the Buccinum drills a hole through the 

 hard shell of the oyster. Owing to the fact that, when using this 



