CHITONS. C6he 
blunt and rounded, is the best adjunct. The 
operator must apply the point of this close to the 
extremity of the Chiton, without actually touching 
it; then, striking a smart blow with the palm of 
his other hand on the handle of the knife, the 
animal is dislodged by the shock, before it has any 
opportunity to confirm its hold. To prepare it now 
for the cabinet, it must be thrown into fresh water 
for several hours, and when quite dead, which may 
be known by the relaxation of muscular rigidity, 
the foot and all the soft parts must be cut out 
of the concavity of the mantle. The latter must 
then be placed on a narrow strip of board, exactly 
as if the animal were crawling, to which it must 
be tightly bound by threads passed round and 
round in every part, and laid to dry in the shade. 
Specimens prepared in this way will possess a 
natural appearance, and will never curl up in any 
state of the weather. 
The flesh of the larger chitons is red and coarse; 
it is, however, eaten by the negroes of the West 
Indies, who compare it, by a certain exercise of 
imagination doubtless, to beef. ‘There is a species 
found in the same locality, reported, I know not on 
what foundation, to be poisonous. 
We have about fifteen species of this genus 
enumerated as British, 
of which one of the 
largest, as well as most 
common, or at least most 
generally distributed, is 
the Tufted Chiton (C. 
fascicularis). Itis about 
three-fourths of an inch 
in length, with the shelly plates striated and granu- 
M 
TUFTED CHITON. 
