PATELLA. 119 



At any rate, he occasionally moves by crawling, particularly 

 when young, and is so proud of the achievement, as to mark 

 his progress by scraping the rock with the edges of his shell. 

 In advanced life he becomes too idle for the exercise, and 

 often creeps into confined niches, which he outgrows, and 

 where he becomes a fixture for the rest of his life. Speci- 

 mens are found to have remained so long in one position as 

 to have excavated a slight cavity, or at least have marked a 

 ring underneath them. This sedentary habit accounts for 

 the great irregularity in the shell, which is forced to conform 

 in growing to the irregularities of its position. 



Limpets, although sometimes eaten, are not recommended 

 as food ; yet have they often afforded a providential supply 

 to the shipwrecked mariner, cast upon their rocky dwell- 

 ings, or to the poor of a coast at times when better food 

 was scarce. Only three or four summers since, I remember 

 seeing at Hastings numbers of women and boys on the low 

 rocks, with pots and pans, which they were filling with lim- 

 pets, as they declared, to boil and eat. They were people 

 on tramp, waiting for harvest-work, and in the meantime 

 were glad to get any supplies within reach. The Patella 

 vulgata is much used as bait by fishermen; while the P. ath-' 

 letica, often thought to be the same species, is distinguished 



