NOTES ON THE COMMON LIMPET. 11 



to the rock around, the shape of the mipression 

 was singular. Looking into the water I saw 

 several limpets there. I ^vas not long in spying 

 my friend who was from home, and found him 

 leaving the others and making his way steadily 

 back to his habitat. I watched his course : he ar- 

 rived, and I at once perceived a difficulty which he 

 made nothing of, viz., the getting adjusted; he 

 slewed himself round and fitted a little notch that 

 ^vas in the edge of his shell to a small piece of pro- 

 jecting quartz with wonderful readiness. He was 

 tight in a moment ready to resist the heaviest 

 breakers or any enemy." 



It would have been interesting to know if the 

 limpet continued to take advantage of this lockfast, 

 and whether the notch in the shell was not caused 

 by his studiously propping himself up against the 

 projection. The shell as represented is of rather a 

 singular shape, and suggests the probability that its 

 natural expansion had been interfered with, either 

 by the choice of the occupant or by force of circum- 

 stances. 



In situations where balani abound I have never 

 found the limpet beyond the bare space surrounding 

 its site, probably because it could not or was not 

 inclined to walk over the sharp points of the balani. 



Occasionally those near high water have a tuft of 

 Fucus vesiculosus growing on the shell, and in some 

 cases bushes seven or eight inches long, which 

 would be dangerous appendages for a limpet to be 

 encumbered with under a rolling sea. Further 

 down on the tidal belt, where the rocks were clean 

 and smooth, the limpets were occasionally found to 

 have settled down a few inches from the spot 

 which they had left, and again by another tide or 

 two were back on their old site. 



The following experiments, made with a limpet in 

 confinement, confirm the above statements; although 

 we cannot expect that the natural habits of the 

 animal will be shown so well in confinement as in 



