FEBRUARY, 1882. 135 



very dull indeed. It must have got sadly squashed in 

 the passage of the heavy bag through the water, with its 

 load of pectens on the top of it. This is a visitor from 

 the mud ; and so is the next on the list, a live specimen 

 of pes-pelicani or pelican's foot shell, and it is also 

 transferred to the receptacle for the temporary wanderings 

 of creatures whose future lot has been undecided. 

 Alas ! for the careless act. When we went to seek our 

 small palmipes it had disappeared, and not a single 

 possible adversary, but the pelican's foot was within the 

 bounds of habitation. The myriads of turritelli and 

 other uninteresting specimens have been run over, and 

 we have lifted the last handful of muddy sediment to run 

 it through the finer seive, when in doing so we find a 

 lump that has somehow escaped us, amid the mud in 

 our hand. A novel species of sea-anemone most 

 certainly, we exclaim, and once it is washed clean and 

 transferred to a transparent glass our surmise is to us a 

 surety. This also is the first specimen of the interesting 

 Adamsia that we have met with here, and we watch its 

 reawakening life with much satisfaction. " Send for me 

 when it has shown its character," says our friend ; and 

 seeing we have been so long over this bucketful, we will 

 set it aside, and indulge in a supper of P. opercularis, 

 which we are thankful you are not here to rob us of, 

 as the smell would overcome your severest prejudices, 

 and the beauty of the dishful undermine your most 

 unselfish instincts. 



Stories of nests coming from all sides, we were 

 wondering whether those birds that nest earliest in 

 ordinary seasons would also be deluded into starting 

 operations, like the redbreast and the sparrows. So, 

 finding ourselves in the vicinity of the heronry we 



