64 BAE-NACLES. 



found on most rocky shores; they attain the largest size in 



the hottest climates, having never been found very far north. 



The British species are small, and not more than two or three 

 in number; they may be found adhering 

 to stones near low -water mark. AYe give 

 a figure of one of these called the Tufted 

 Chiton, [C. fascicidaris;) this word is from 

 the Latin fasciculus — a little bundle of 

 leaves or flowers, and it refers to the 



hairy tufts that edge the mantle of this marine slug. 



BAENACLES, 



Or, as they are sometimes called, Bernicles, belong to what 

 naturalists term the class CirrJiopoda, sometimes spelled cirri- 

 peda, which appears to be derived from the Latin cirrtis — a 

 tuft or lock of hair curled, and p)^'^'^ — ^ foot; hence the term 

 may be translated hairy -footed. Such of our readers as have 

 seen the Common or Duck Earnacle, fPentalasmis anatifera,) 

 will at once understand the applicability of this term. Many 

 a piece of drift wood comes to land literally covered with 

 long fleshj^ stalks, generally of a purplish red colour, twisting 

 and curling in all directions, and terminating in delicate 

 porcelain-like shells, clear and brittle, of a white colour, just 

 tinged with blue, from between w^iich project the many- 

 jointed cirrld, or hair-like tentacles, which serve the purpose 

 of a casting net, to seize and drag to the mouth of the 

 animal, its prey, which consists of small moUusks and Crustacea. 



This is the Earnacle about which such strange stories are 

 told by old writers, who affirmed that the Earnacle or Erent 

 Goose, that in winter visits our shores, is produced from these 

 fleshy foot -stalks and hairy shells by a natural process of 

 growth, or, as some philosophers of our day would say, of 

 development. Gerard, who, in 1597, WTote a ''Historie of 

 Plants," describes the process by which the fish is transformed 

 into the bird; telling his readers that as ''the shells gape, 

 the legs hang out, that the bird growing bigger and bigger 



