70 THE DISPERSAL OF SHELLS. 



shells upon the toes of the same foot, two newts have 

 been seen each carrying four shells, and toads have 

 been dredged with as many as six shells upon their 

 toes. 



The first record, as far as I have ascertained, of fresh- 

 water bivalves clinging by closure to other creatures is 

 contained in Knapp's " Journal of a Naturalist," 

 published in 1829, and has reference to the ** common 

 newt [lacerttis aquaticus) " : — 



*' I have seen the boys in the spring of the year draw it 

 up by their fishing lines, a very extraordinary figure, 

 having a small shell-fish {telliiia coi^nea) [~ Sp/i cerium 

 corneum] attached to one or all of its feet ; the toes of 

 the newt having been accidentally introduced into the 

 gaping shell, in its progress on tlie mud at the bottom 

 of the pool, or designedly put in for the purpose of 

 seizure, when the animal inhabitant closed the valves 

 and entrapped the toes. But from whatever cause these 

 shells became fixed, when the animal is drawn up 

 hanging and wriggling with its toes fettered all round, it 

 affords a very unusual and strange appearance." ' 



In 1885 Mr. R. W. Goulding recorded the finding of 

 a newt with a Cyclas (probably 5. corneum) upon one of 

 its feet in a pond near Louth, Lincolnshire,^ and Mr. 

 Heathcote on two occasions in 1889 found shells of S, 



* J. L. Knapp, "Journal of a Naturalist," 1829, p. 305 ; Mr. F. J. 

 Rovvbotham called attention to this passage in " Nature," xxv. 

 (1882), 605. 



2 R. W. Goulding, " Science Gossip," xxi. (1885), 238-9, and see 

 also p. 249. 



