206 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



Family II. Macrostomata. 



What spread ye now upon the sounding shore, 

 In yom- wild mystic dance, ye circling waves ? 

 Sea-weeds and sheUs, of varying form and hue ; 

 But chief, the shell of ]\Iidas, that choice shell 

 Thau which no others brought by cm-ious hands, 

 From out the waters, hath more perfect beauty. 



Shells of the Macrostoyiiata are slightly convoluted, per- 

 forated occasionally with a regular series of holes, having 

 a short spire and large aperture ; and sometimes the shell 

 is almost entirely enveloped by the mantle. 



Pour genera belong to tliis family — Yelutina, SigaretuSj 

 Stomatia, and Haliotis. Each have, doubtless, some pecu- 

 liar or interesting characteristics, both as regards the mol- 

 luscous inhabitant and his shell ; but as yet, no facts 

 deserving of mention liave been obtaiued, and, therefore, 

 passing over their generic descriptions, we shall speak only 

 of the Haliotis, or Sea-ear, as being the most evolved and 

 depressed of spiral shells, and presenting a singularity of 

 structure by which it is readily distinguished. The sin- 

 gularity consists in a row of equidistant perforations on 

 the left side of the shell, made by the animal in his progress 



