CURIOUS FOSSIL SHELL. 19 



echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle, or mallet, 

 the tree nodded to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. 

 At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from 

 her nest; and, though her parental affection deserved 

 a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which 

 brought her dead to the ground. 



LETTER TIL 



TO THE SAME. 



THE fossil shells of this district, and sorts of 

 stone, such as have fallen within my observation, 

 must not be passed over in silence. And, first, I 

 must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that 

 was ploughed up in the chalky fields, near the side 

 of the Down, and given to me for the singularity 

 of its appearance, which, to an incurious eye, seems 

 like a petrified fish of about four inches long, the 

 cardo passing for a head and mouth. It is in 

 reality a bivalve of the Linnsean genus of mytilis, 

 and the species of crista galli : called by Lister, 

 rastellum ; by Rumphius, ostreum plicatum minus; by 

 D'Argenville, auris porci, s. crista galli; and by those 

 who make collections, cock's comb. Though I ap- 

 plied to. several such in London, I never could meet 

 with an entire specimen ; nor could I ever find in 

 books any engraving from a perfect one. In the 

 superb museum at Leicester House, permission was 

 given me to examine for this article ; and though I 

 was disappointed as to the fossil, I was highly gra- 

 tified with the sight of several of the shells them- 

 selves in high preservation. This bivalve is only 

 known to inhabit the Indian Ocean, where it fixes 

 itself to a zoophyte, known by the name gorgonia. 

 c 2 



