58 THE DISPERSAL OF SHELLS. 



the North of Ireland fished for pearl-mussels some with 

 their toes, some with wooden tongs ; and " some by 

 putting a sharpened stick into the opening of the shell 

 take them up." ' The Rev. J. W. Horsley, while trolling 

 with a dead fish for pike, once brought up a large 

 Unio which had closed upon the bait. A friend of Mr. 

 W. D. Crick's, as the latter told Mr. Darwin, often, while 

 fishing in rapid streams, caught small Uniones upon 

 the hook, and Mr. F. Darwin, when fishing off the shores 

 of North Wales, several times caught mussels in a 

 similar way.^ According to Mr. D. Pidgeon, heart- 

 cockles {Isocardia cor) have been known to close upon 

 the shanks of accidentally intrusive fish-hooks with such 

 force as to crush the edges of their shells against the 

 steel wire, and they permit themselves to be drawn in 

 with the line to which the hook is attached, many 

 having been thus taken by the long-line fishermen on 

 the Irish coast.'' Marine bivalves, such as cockles, 

 mussels, etc., have several times been found clinging to 

 the toes or bills of birds of various kinds,'' and the 



* " Philosophical Transactions," xvii. (1693), 660. 



- Darwin, " Nature," xxv. (1882), 529-30. 



3 D. Pidgeon, " Nature," xxv. (1882), 584. 



■* Instances of the capture by marine bivalves of fish, mice, a 

 rat, foxes, etc., have also been recorded : see as to fish, " Popular 

 Science Monthly," xvii. (1S80), in ; oyster and mouse, "Science 

 Gossip," 1875, p. 68 ; oyster and mouse, " Daily Telegraph," quoted 

 in the " Field," Ixvi. (1885), 499 ; oysters and mice, several cases, 

 " Bell's Weekly Messenger," etc., quoted in Loudon's " Mag. Nat. 

 Hist.," ii. (1829), 150; oyster and young rat, caught by the tail, 

 " Life Lore," ii. (1890), 216 ; mussel and fox, caught by the tongue, 

 Loudon's "Mag. Nat. Hist.," viii. (1835), 227-8 ; oyster and fox, 



