LIMA. 91 



of our feathered songsters in woods and hedges, like 

 schoolboys. A very intelligent naturalist, Mr. David 

 Robertson of Glasgow, has favoured me with more in- 

 formation respecting the habits of L. Mans in Scotch 

 waters. He says, " In confinement they build freely ; 

 and so far as my observations go, they live longer in 

 that state when they are supplied with the requisite 

 materials, but failing such supply they frequently make 

 nests of their own byssus. They also spin their byssal 

 threads to assist them in ascending perpendicular or 

 steep places; and, like the common mussel, the Lima 

 often suspends itself by one or more fibres. Its attach- 

 ment, however, is only slight; for the least irritation 

 or alarm causes it to detach itself from the cable and 

 bound off. It does not seem to be particular as to the 

 kind of building-material which it uses. At Lochronsa 

 in Arran I found their nests among the muddy roots of 

 Phyllophora rubens, without the addition of any harder 

 substance. At Rothesay the nests are made of small 

 gravel ; and at Cumbrae they soon fill the dredge, being 

 formed of thick and matted clusters of nullipore. On 

 this bank I never find them free ; they are all encased, 

 at all seasons of the year, young and old, from the size 

 of a pea to the full-grown state, each having its own 

 separate nest. A remarkable peculiarity of Lima con- 

 sists in the tenacious grasp of its tentacles. Some- 

 times when my finger touched the animal, it was rapidly 

 seized by the tentacles, as by those of an Actinia, and 

 so firmly that I have thus dragged the Lima round the 

 tank. It seldom let go its hold till the tentacles were 

 torn away, or (as I believe) voluntarily thrown off by 

 the animal. The tentacles so detached still adhere 

 closely to the object they have grasped, their free ends 

 twisting about as if in conscious life, and they are with 



