TRANSPLANTATION OF BIVALVES. 8l 



attached for some little time, for the toe had been 

 chafed, and the observer heard from boys in the 

 neighbourhood that the bird had been seen about for 

 several days, and it seems^ therefore, that the shell 

 " had not released its grasp even when the duck lit 

 upon the water, as it must frequently have done in 

 the intervals of time between observation."' In the 

 same year Mr. H. V. Chapman submitted to the Field 

 the foot of a snipe, with a shell of Sphcerium corneum 

 attached to the hind toe, stating that the bird had 

 been shot by him, while " sailing over my head with 

 apparently a leg down."^ The foot and shell have 

 since been presented to the British Museum, and are 

 now exhibited in the British-room at Cromwell road ; 

 the bird is said to have been shot near Rye, Sussex. 



It is clear, I think, from these cases that bivalves 

 may be occasionally carried to vast distances by birds, 

 which, of all highly organized animals, are the least 

 confined by geographical barriers ; many annually 

 migrate over large tracts both of land and sea, and they 

 are occasionally blown far over the ocean by violent 

 gales. It may be objected, perhaps, that shells are 

 likely to drop off during long journeys, but I do not 

 think this will often happen, for when bivalves once 

 firmly close upon an object they generally hold on for 

 a considerable time. But it is certain, of course, that 



^ J. W. Fewkes, " Ducks transporting fresh-water clamp." 

 Auk, i. (1884), 195-6. 



2 H. V. C [hapnyan], "Accident to a snipe," Field, Ixiv. (1884), 

 597, and see also p. 760, 



a 



