98 Obfervutions refpeillng Oyjhrs, 



be innumerable. Each of thefe young ones expands to a 

 complete oyfter, in the fame manner as the feeds or fruits of 

 thofe plants which have hermaphrodite bloom. I mnft here 

 obferve, that thofe are miftakcn who fpeak of male and female 

 oyfters; for how could procreation be poHible among ani- 

 tnals which either do not change their place during their 

 whole lives, or can change it only perhaps for an inch, and 

 which are capable of no other movement than that of opening 

 a little their fhells ? 



Thefe fhells are very often covered with produiSlions of the 

 coral kind : they are frequently loaded alfo with fmall muf- 

 cles and multhtudes of worms, but only on the convex fide, ' 

 which appears to be the upper one, fo that the animal refts 

 on the flat fide. It frequently happens that both fliells are 

 quite pierced through, and gnawed by worms, in the fame 

 manner as old wood. All thefe enemies endeavour to deflroy 

 thefe harmlefs animals, and the cafe is the fame with the 

 worms which are found between the flefhy parts of their 

 bodv, and in many places more abundant than in others *. 

 A more formidable enemy for oyfle:"s, however, is that eel- 

 formed fifh which at Heiligeland is called nugnogerif but 

 which by fome has been called the five-fingered fifh f. It 

 is found fometimes in oyfter-fliells that are quite clofe, and 

 in which no traces can be difcovered of the firfl inhabitant. 

 It lies in the flicll bent like a ring, and the fifliers unani- 

 moufly alfert that it eats the oyfter. On that account the 



* Befitles thefe worms, there are found, on fhells which have not bec« 

 Jong ' ik en from the fca, another kind, exceedingly fmall, which emit 3 

 phoiphoric light, that may be obfcrved when they are thrown agaitifl a 

 hard body in the dark, or fuft'cred to fall on a ftone. They are mentioned 

 by Lemery in his Diftionary of Drugs. It appears to mc that they ar^ 

 perfeclly fimilar to thofe which I have feen drawn up from the fea en 

 rope";. Linnsas gives to this fpecies the nSme of Nereis noBiluca. 



f Oph'uHoii tmbcrve, a name borrowed by Linnxus from Ronde'ef. 

 Befides the wi iters quoted bj- Linnsus, I (hall refer the reader to Gefneri 

 Jl'ijl. uqi'Mil. p. 10;, under the j4/f.'//. In Klein, p. 55, it is called £«- 

 cketjopus fla-jiis (mlcrh'n. SchelhammerV Anai.^ Xiphia, who had the 

 nugnogen in his poffeflion, may be found in Vciemini Amph'itbcai. Zooto- 

 minim, II. p. 109. A bad ligure of it may be feen n\ Rozier's Obfiyva- 

 <loi7s f.tr !a PhvfiifUc-, Xli. 177S, p. 277. See alfo, Tranfaftions of the 

 Sv.-cdifli Academy, ^'ol. V. p. jiz, and \'<A. Vi, p. 116. 



Endin* 



