Observations on the Animal of Rotella Lam. 35 



light -undertaking, though, a very valuable one in its results, 

 were it to be carefully studied and the species accurately 

 defined. 



VII. — Observations on the Animal of Rotella Lam. 



Communicated to the late Prof. C. B. Adams, by the Rev. S. B. Fairbank, of Bom- 

 bay, and read before the Lyceum, by T. Bland. February, 1853. 



Since I wrote to you I have found Rotella? alive in great 

 numbers, and have had them displaying their curious bodies in 

 plates of salt water. The structure of the animal is so curious 

 that I have drawn a rough outline for you, much larger than 

 life, for distinctness sake. 



The animal is opakish white. The foot large and flexible, 

 the edge often playing up against the shell. A lobe of the 

 mantle (?) marked 10, partly clings to the shell, but does not at all 

 envelop it. The siphon mouth is very curious. This is a tube, 

 the side being slit next the outer lip of the shell, and filled with 

 cilia ! The cilia are tipped with black. Sometimes they gather 

 against the sides, so that you see a tube with a black rim, but 

 usually they are disposed much as I have dotted them in the 

 figure. One tentacle supporting an eye forms an edge of the slit 

 of the siphon, and there is a filament-like tentacle near it, which 

 roots inside the siphon. The other eye-bearing tentacle and 

 its attendant filament are free their whole length. 



I found these Rotellae where the water would leave them dry 



