TRANSACTIONS 



OV TUB 



NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



I. 



NOTES ON THE COMMON LIMPET 



BY DAVID ROBERTSON, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



[Read 23rd March, 1SS4.] 



This last summer, while at the coast, I took the 

 opportunity of making a few notes on the habits 

 of the Limpet, Patella vulgata, Linn., with the view of 

 verifying a few points regarding the i^eriodic move- 

 ments of the animal in its natural haunts, its mode of 

 cropping the filamentous algse, and the power it is said 

 to possess of scooping out cavities in the sandstone 

 rocks. 



Aristotle described the habits of the limpet, and 

 showed that it leaves its place on the rocks and goes 

 out to feed. This was confirmed by Reaumur, al- 

 though Borelli and others asserted that the limpet 

 remained all its life fixed to the same spot. Bouchard- 

 Chantereaux stated that he had often seen the limpet 

 crawling, especially just after the tide had gone out. 

 The young limpet moves freely about, and shifts its 

 quarters ; but after attaining a growth of probably a 

 few days, it affixes itself to a particular spot, which it 

 only quits, when covered by the sea, on the return 

 of each tide.* 



Seeing that these statements do not altogether 

 agree, I shall endeavour to supplement them with a 

 few facts which came under my own observation. 

 To ascertain the movements of the animal in its 



* Jeffreys, British Conchology, iii. 231. 



