72 THE DISPERSAL OF SHELLS. 



in a pond at Birch, a newt had four shells clinging to it, 

 two on one hind foot, and one on each of the fore feet. 

 A specimen with four shells attached had been pre- 

 viously taken in 1883 in a ditch at Goosnargh, the 

 creature being so much encumbered that it stumbled 

 along with difficulty.^ The entrapped toes, according 

 to this naturalist, are frequently much swollen, which 

 seems to show that the shells often remain attached 

 for a considerable time. In 1881, Mr. Norgate informed 

 Mr. Darwin that the newts in his aquarium frequently 

 had one foot caught by a small fresh-water bivalve {S. 

 corneum ?) ; this, he said, made them swim about in a 

 very restless manner, both day and night, for several 

 days, until the toe to which the shell was fixed was 

 completely severed.^ Mr. Jenkins states that he also 

 has seen newts caught in this way in aquaria. The 

 taking of a new^t, the lower jaw of which was firmly 

 clasped by the valves of a Pisidium, was recorded by 

 Mr. Heynemann in 1870.^ 



Mr. J. T. Riches, in a note published in 1877, mentioned 

 that he once received a living frog (which had been 

 found upon a bank by the side of a canal) with a full- 

 sized shell of Cyclas cornea [=5. cor^ienni] upon one of 

 its toes. The shell remained attached until, after two 

 days, it was removed by the observer."' A recently killed 



^ R. Standen, " Science Gossip," xxi. (1885), 281. 

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



3 D. F. Heynemann, " Bericht liber die Senckenbergische 

 naturforschende Gesellschaft," 1870, p. 130. 



* J. T. Riches, " Science Gossip," xiii. (1877), 93. 



