240 GASTEROPODOUS MOLLTJSCA OF BERWICKSHII^E. 



Tenerablc Bode, who died A.D. 735, mentions the fact in a manner which 

 proves it to have been familiarly known in his time, when, in all pro- 

 bability, it was reallj' used as a pigment. " There are," says he, " on the 

 English shores an abundance of the Cochleae which yield a scarlet dye. 

 Its beautiful tinge neither fades by the heat of the sun nor by the 

 weather, but the older it is, the more rich and elegant." The knowledge 

 of the fact appears soon to have become confined to a few individuals who 

 handed down the manner of marking linen with it as a family secret ; nor 

 was it again made public until 1684, when Mr William Cole of Bristol, 

 having been informed that "there was a certain person living by the sea- 

 side, in some port or creek in Ireland, who made considerable gain by 

 marking with a delicate durable crimson colour, fine linen of ladies, 

 gentlemen," &c., and which was "taken out of a shell-fish," discovered 

 after various trials, that it was procured fi'om the P. Lapillus. 

 The fluid, when in the vessel, as already mentioned, is of the colour and con- 

 sistence of cream. As soon as it is exposed to the air, it becomes of a 

 bright yellow, speedily turns to a pale green, and continues to change 

 imperceptibly, until it assumes a bluish cast, and then a purplish-red. 

 Without the influence of the solar rays, it will go through all these changes 

 in the course of two or three hours ; but the process is much accelerated 

 by exposure to the snn, which also causes the cloth tinted to exhale a very 

 strong fetid smell, "as if garlic and assafcetida were mixed together." 

 We strongly recommend," says Montagu, "the use of this secretion for 

 the purpose of marking where an indelible dye is desirable ; letters marked 

 on linen or other articles of wearing apparel, from the recent animal, 

 appear indestructible, bidding defiance to chemical process." 



6. CYPE.a;A. LlNN^US. 



Shell convolute, ovate, bellied, the spire minute or concealed ; aper- 

 ture linear, parallel with the length of the shell, effuse at both ends, 

 toothed on each side, the outer lip thickened and involute. 



1 . C. europcea, shell ovate-globose, ash or flesh-coloured, crossed by 

 numerous smooth ribs ; spire obsolete ; base white ; the aperture 

 linear with equal teeth ; outer lip thickened, rounded. Length 

 five lines, breadth under three. Dillw. Eec. Sh. 467. Gray in 

 Zool. Jour. iii. 366. C. pediculus. Pen. Br. Zool. iv. 252. tab. 73. 

 fig. sup. C. coccinella. Lam. Anim. s. Vert. vii. 404. 



Hah. Berwick Bay, at low water mark. 



" The variety found on our coast is the C. artica of Montagu, Test. Brit. 201." 

 Mr J. Alder. The shell is frequently cast up in our bay, and gathered by 

 the children, who call it sea-cradles or blackamoor's teeth. 



Animal : tentaeula two, filiform or slightly tapered, inferior, orange-yellow 

 with pale dots, white and incrassated at the base, the eyes being placed 

 just above and on the outer side of this basilar portion ; mouth furnished 

 with a ribbon-like membranous tongue roughened with minute prickles 

 set in close transverse lines ; syphon projected forwards, tubulous, cleft 

 underneath, white tipped with yellow ; cloak covering the shell more or 

 less completely, pellucid, white spotted with yellowish-brown, the edges 

 plain and spotted with black; foot oblong, extended beyond the shell 

 when in progression, broad and truncate in front, produced into two short 

 processes at the anterior angles, rounded posteriorly, sometimes white 

 tinted with yellow on the sides, and sometimes entirely orange-yellow. 

 The snail can withdraw entirely into its shell. It creeps slowly, and 

 exudes a large quantity of a clear colourless jelly during its progress. 

 When kept in a glass of sea-water, its favourite position was near the 



