64 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



elongate or contract at pleasure, the animals are enabled to burrow 

 and to go " up and down stairs " with great rapidity. It requires 

 dexterous management to capture the Razor-shell alive. When they 

 are wanted for food or for bait, the usual plan is to shoot into the sand, 

 alongside of a " spout," a hooked iron rod, which must be at once 

 pulled out again obliquely, so as to fetch the shell. 



A better way is to drop a little salt on its tail, or at least on its 

 siphon-orifices. If this be done, the animal will rise partly out of its 

 burrow for it hates undiluted chloride of sodium and may then be 

 captured, if you be quick. But, if you should fail to seize the creature 

 at the first attempt, in vain would you pour salt in the burrow ; the 

 mollusk now sees the artifice, and is not to be imposed upon a second 

 time. 



The Asperc/illum, or Watering-pot Shell, derives its name from its 

 perforated disk, which much resembles the snout of a watering-pot. This 

 animal burrows into sand or bores into stone, wood, or thick shells. 



Fm. S. 



ASPEEGILLUM, OR WATEREJG-POT. 



When in its burrow, its narrow end, containing the openings of its 

 siphon, protrudes. To the same group belongs the Flask-shell, which 

 perforates shells of every kind, attaching them to itself by means of 

 some natural cement. It thus often constructs around itself a casing 

 like a flask, and hence its name. 



We will close this notice of the Borers of the Sea with some ac- 

 count of the Mya arenaria, or Gaper-shell, which burrows into sand, 

 and which derives its name, gaper, from the fact that its bivalve-shell 

 gapes, to allow its long, stout tube to protrude. " It inhabits sandy 

 and muddy shores," says Wood, " and, to an inexperienced eye, is 

 quite invisible. The shell itself, together with the actual body of the 

 mollusk, is hidden deeply in the mud, seldom less than three inches, 

 and generally eleven or twelve inches from the surface. In this posi- 

 tion it would be unable to respire were it not for the elongated tube, 

 which projects through the mud into the water, and just permits the 

 extremities of the siphons to show themselves, surrounded by the 

 little radiating tentacles which betray them to the experienced shell- 

 hunter." 



