66 



POISONOUS BITE OF CONUS 



and the native explained that had he not taken these precautions 

 he would have died. Instances have heen 

 recorded of poisonous wounds being inflicted 

 by the bite of Co7ius aulicus, C. textile, and C. 

 tidipa. According to Mr. J. Macgillivray ^ C. 

 textile at Aneiteum (S. Pacific) is called intrag, 

 and the natives say it spits the poison upon 

 them from several inches off! Two cases of 

 l)ites from C. textile occurred to this gentle- 

 man's notice, one of which terminated fatally 

 l)y gangrene. Sir Edward Belcher, when in 

 command of the Samarang, was bitten 2 by 

 a Conus aulicus at a little island off Ternate in 

 the Moluccas. As he took the creature out of 

 the water, it suddenly exserted its prol-oscis 

 and inflicted a wound, causing a sensation 

 similar to that produced by the burning of 

 phosphorus under the skin. The wound was 

 ^'lC';^^txlTcoZ a small, deep, triangular mark, succeeded by a 

 imperialis L., x 50, -^yatery vcsicle. The natives of New b-umea 

 poroir duct."'' "^ have a wholesome dread of the bite of Cones. 

 Mr. C. Hedley relates ^ that while collecting on 

 a coral reef he once rolled over a boulder and exposed a living 

 C textile. Before he could pick it up, one of the natives hastily 

 snatched it away, and explained, with vivid gesticulations its 

 hurtful qualities. On no account would he permit Mr. Hedley 

 to touch it, but insisted on himself placing it m the bottle of 

 spirits. 



Mimicry and Protective Coloration 



Cases of Mimicry, or protective resemblance, when a species 

 otherwise defenceless adopts the outward appearance of a better 

 protected species, are rare among the Mollusca. Karl Semper* 

 mentions an interesting case of the mimicry of Helicamon tigrinus 

 by Xesta Cumingii, in the Philippines. It appears that all 



1 Zoologist, xviii. (1860) p. 7136. 



" A. Adams, Samarang, vol. ii. Zoology, p. 357. 



3 In Thomson's British Nno Guinea, p. 283. 



4 Animal Life, p. 395. It should be mentioned that Yon MollendorfT {Bcr. Senck. 

 Ges. 1890, p. 198) ridicules the whole theory. 



