SEPTEMBER, 1882. 227 



favourite shell with children. The animal contained in 

 it is most active; with a mantle that comes out and 

 covers the whole shell, or rather, might we not more 

 justly say, a shell into which it draws its otherwise en- 

 circling body ! This little mollusc has a congener, with 

 a shell as smooth as glass, and in fact of quite a vitreous 

 appearance, and it also, when scrambling about, has its 

 shell inclosed within its mantle. Two of these clear little 

 shells, (Marginella laevis), have recently fallen into our 

 hands, and one is now actively scrambling out of the 

 water in the basin and up the sides. Let us examine it, 

 and we will be surprised to find that the mantle is all 

 barred exactly as the shell is in the cowrie, and under 

 the lens, even the clear glassy surface has wave-like 

 indications, as if our delicate little friend were making 

 an effort to reach the simpler, stronger, more durable 

 formation of Cypraea, This may well have been the 

 intermediate development of the cowrie, whose shell, by 

 being ribbed or corrugated externally, is thereby in- 

 definitely strengthened, and fitted to cope with the very 

 varied positions in which this widely-spread shell is found. 



We have not hitherto met with such fine specimens of 

 the web-footed starfish, (Palmipes), as in our loch here. 

 We recently procured a brilliantly tinted specimen, 4| 

 inches in diameter ; the upper surface not only nicely 

 marked with pink, but a beautiful pink border extending 

 for a quarter of an inch along the edge of the lower side ! 

 We so seldom find colour on the under side of flat mud 

 frequenters, that this exception appears to us worthy of 

 attention. 



A tale of starfish ! a long tail too, for they are spread 

 along the whole way we have been traversing to-day, of 

 extraordinary dimensions and in equally remarkable 



