338 Mr. TV. King on some Shells and other Invertebrate Forms 



The variety littorale lives on hard ground* in the Littoral 

 and Laminarian zones. It is now my opinion that I was wrong 

 in formerly limiting it to grounds " laid bare at low tides." 

 For some years I have been acquainted with a form of Buccinum 



* I have been charged with committmg " an error " in stating that the 

 variety littorale is only found " on pebbly bottoms and rocks." Mr. Albany 

 Hancock, in his " Notes on Buccinum undatum," published in the last 

 Number of the * Annals/ avers, that it " occurs between tide-marks on rocks 

 and mud.'' The statement which I gave is based on my own observa- 

 tions : when living at Sunderland, I often observed specimens of this variety 

 between tide-marks, opposite the Moor, burrowing among pebbles, sand and 

 gravel, and sheltering themselves behind stones and in the crevices of rocks ; 

 but I have never seen any on a muddy bottom : that specimens may occa' 

 sionally occur on mud I do not deny, but that such is a regular habitat I am 

 very much disposed to question ; for these reasons, that a bottom of this 

 kind, " between tide-marks," could neither afford them shelter from the 

 surge of the shore, nor objects to which they could attach their spawn. Even 

 the sea-bottom, inhabited by magnum and pelagicum, cannot strictly be 

 called soft ground, as from the number of stones, and masses o^Modiola vul- 

 garis that are continually being brought up by the fishing lines, its rough- 

 ness must vastly exceed that of a " mussel scarp." 



With reference to Mr. Hancock's other charges, I feel it necessary to 

 state the following pai-ticulars : — 



While Librarian of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Sunderland, 

 and Curator of the Museum in the same town, that is, from 1834 to the close 

 ot 1840, I devoted especial attention to the study of recent and fossil shells. 

 By carefully examining for that purpose the cobles and decked boats, 

 and frequently visiting Hartlepool and the whole coast from the Tyne to the 

 Tees, as also joining for some days in a dredging excursion, I procured a 

 great variety of shells, some of which were rare : my finest Panopcea was 

 got in 1839. Nor was Buccinum undatum overlooked: it was a shell which 

 I always held in particular favour, inasmuch as I believed its various mo- 

 difications illustrated an early and a favourite speculation of mine as to the 

 genesis of species I repeatedly procured the dwarf whitish variety {littorale) 

 at low water opposite Sunderland ; the red rock-inhabiting variety (crassum) 

 from the crab and in-shore fishing cobles of Sunderland and other places ; 

 the large thick-skinned strongly-waved variety (magnum) from the Brat 

 nets of the Hartlepool fishermen ; and the small thin variety (pelagicum) 

 from the decked boats that frequented our deep far-off fishing grounds. 



Was it possible then for any one to be thus procuring these widely dif- 

 ferent forms without being struck with their differences — without knowing 

 something about " their localities and general habits? " — points, which Mr. 

 Hancock, availing himself of the current knowledge of the fishermen as to 

 the depth at which they lived and the nature of the ground they inhabited, 

 " soon ascertained '* of the varieties which he collected " during a short 

 residence at Cullercoats in 1841." 



-. In 1841, having been previously appointed Curator of the Newcastle 

 Museum, I became acquainted with Mr. Hancock, who appeared to be as 

 much interested with the various forms of Buccinum undatum as myself. 

 He was then inclined, he stated, to regard the three forms he had collected 

 at Cullercoats as distinct species ; but more particularly his variety 2. (cras- 

 sum) ; for this reason, that with only a single exception, he had never seen 

 it but without an epidermis. He further stated to me his intention of pub- 



