LITTORINA. 371 



undermentioned localities are suspicious : — Nice (Risso, 

 and ^'^subfossile"); Palermo (Philippi, wlio however 

 doubted this species being indigenous to Sicily); and 

 Algiers (WeinkaufF). 



The old English name of " periwincle '^ is supposed 

 to have been a corruption of petty winkle or wilk. 

 Lister says that the Scarborough fishermen called them 

 ^' couvins '' ; and he adds that they were much sought 

 after by the Flemings. According to Dale, they were 

 called in Sufi'olk " pinpatches/^ The ancient vernacular 

 names for them were in Swedish ^^ kupunge/^ in French 

 ^' bigourneau/^ '' vignot/^ or '^ \dgnette/^ and in the Bre- 

 ton dialect " vrelin ^^ or " brelin/^ Throughout Shet- 

 land they are known as "wilks/^ In Stromas time th 

 Scandinavian peasants used to believe that, whenever 

 these shell-fish crept far up the rocks, it indicated a 

 storm from the south. The habits and anatomy of the 

 common periwinkle, and of some other marine testa- 

 ceous mollusca, were carefully described by the late 

 Mr. Osier in the ^ Philosophical Transactions ' for 1832. 

 With respect to the phytophagous kinds, he states that 

 they have three distinct modes of feeding. ^'^They 

 browse with opposite horizontal jaws — they rasp their 

 food with an armed tongue, stretched over an elastic 

 and moveable support — or they gorge it entire. Tro- 

 chiis crassus \T, lineatus] is a convenient example of 

 the first, Turbo littoreus [L. litorea] of the second, and 

 Patella vulgata of the thii'd.''^ With respect to the 

 tongue of L. litorea (^^a flat strap-shaped organ and 

 more than two inches long"^) he observes, '' It presents 

 thi'ee longitudinal ranges of teeth, which recline back- 

 wards, and are set like scales, with very little elevation 

 of their edges. In the two outer rows the teeth are 

 single, irregularly crescentic in shape, and set by their 



