174 LOCH CRERAN. 



for this prolific production of eggs, and it may probably 

 be found in the lower class life of the sea, such as preda- 

 tory mollusca, which will penetrate to the embryo and 

 devour it. 



He is " in chancery," and no doubt about it ! But 

 whatever was he doing in that gulley ? We had been 

 trampling the mossy tree trunks and enjoying to the full 

 the charming weather, to which we have been so long 

 unused, when our eyes caught sight of the wizened head 

 bones of a departed woodcock, which we lifted and 

 glanced at. This was the prison-house and here was the 

 prisoner. But what, we again ask, was he doing there ? 

 A small mollusc with a whorled shell a species of 

 clausilia had endeavoured to pass from the large eye 

 orbit through the opening into the brain, and again from 

 the brain cavity through to the other orbit. Had it gone 

 wholly into the brain cavity first and then out at the other 

 side this might readily have been managed ; but the shell 

 would not take the necessary bend, and the deep suture 

 above the aperture of the shell kept it from returning, 

 the slight osseous band that divides the entrance to the 

 brain catching and retaining it. We learn from Jeffreys 

 that these molluscs are vegetable feeders ; and the brain 

 of a woodcock is not commonly chosen to lay out a 

 kitchen garden in ! Was it merely taking a short cut to 

 a choice bit of greenery, and thought that when its head 

 got through it was all right, like a schoolboy with his 

 head between iron railings ? Appearances are against 

 him, and if he was really a brain sucker, like so many 

 others in higher walks of life, he has been born " to be 

 made an example of," and we had better all take warning 

 in time. 



Less than a yard off the road the earthy side of an up- 



