EXAMPLES. 135 



shell as its support, a not quite adult Garden Snail 

 (Helix aspersa), within which a Pagurus Pindeauxii 

 had taken up his abode also. The Adamsia was 

 prettily spotted, though so young ; its position was, 

 as usual, the inner lip of the shell. This curious 

 specimen, interesting on more than one account, was 

 dredged in eight fathoms off Whitenose in Weymouth 

 Bay, a mile or two from land, on the 12th of Sep- 

 tember, 1853. It lived in captivity five days. 



My notion is further confirmed by what takes 

 place in the disease and death of the animal. When 

 the Crab deserts the shell or dies out, the Anemone 

 for a while expands as usual. But, after a week or 

 two, it is evidently seen to be languishing ; and soon 

 its adhering base begins to peel off and shrink away 

 from the shell. Now, this process commences at the 

 suture, and as it goes on the suture divides, the lateral 

 portions separating more and more fi'om each other, 

 by shrinking ; reversing exactli/ the steps hy ichich the 

 anmdar hahit was assumed, and which I have de- 

 scribed above. At length, the connexion of the 

 animal with the shell is wholly dissolved, and the 

 former collapses into a shapeless lump of flesh, from 

 which the integuments sloug away in gelatinous 

 shreds, and the whole swiftly becomes a putrescent 

 mass. 



Since the above was written, Mr. Thompson has 

 favoured me with an account of an Adamsia so aber- 

 rant in its habit as to require a modification of the 

 statement that a shell is always chosen. My friend 

 writes as follows : — " I have lately obtained a spe- 

 cimen of Adamsia palliata, dredged in three fathoms' 



