306 ZOOPHAGOUS GASTEROPODS. 



carnivorous tribes, than which there are apparently no animals 

 less fitted to gain access to their strong-holds, so that even 

 Blainville has expressed himself incredulous on the point.* 

 But the fact is certain, and has been known since the time 

 of Aristotle ; -f- nor, indeed, is it hastily to be believed 

 that such an improbable statement would have been made 

 by the Stagyrite, had it not rested on his personal observa- 

 tion. The Purpurae prove extensively destructive to mus- 

 sels and other littoral bivalves : the Buccina feed upon those 

 which burrow in sand in somewhat deeper water ; and it is 

 very probable, considering the similarity of their organisa- 

 tion, that all the whelks and rock-shells, and perhaps all the 

 pectinibranchial zoophagous Gasteropods, have the same 

 taste, and an equal capacity of gratifying it. How, you 

 ask, and by what means ? Do they glide insidiously, and 

 pop a stone between the valves, to prevent their closure ? or 

 do they venture slily to insinuate their foot, and seize upon 

 the unwary inmate ? The first they cannot do, and the 

 latter I should deem a hazardous attempt ; but nevertheless 

 it is affirmed that the Buccinum undatum really runs the 

 hazard in its attacks upon the Clam (Pecten opercularis), to 

 which it bears a great enmity. £ This is not, however, their 

 usual method, which is — what you might never guess — by 

 boring a hole in one valve, through which they reach their 

 miserable victim. On examining a number of valves of dead 

 shells, of Mactrae and Anatinae especially, you will perceive 

 in many, and generally near the beaks, a small circular hole 

 drilled with a neatness that the gimlet of the artisan could 

 not more than emulate ; and these holes are the workman- 



* As Rondcletius did before him. He maintains that the Purpurae can 

 only draw out and suck the snails. Hist, des Poiss. ii. 45. 



t Hist. Anim. lib. iv. cap. iv. sec. 148 — 9. 



X " Ts commonly taken in dredging by fishermen, who either use the 

 animal for bait, or destroy it, from a supposition that it is very destructive to 

 the Large Scollop, Pecten maximus, by insinuating its tail (as it is termed) 

 into the shell, and destroying the inhabitant : this, we have been assured, 

 they will do even in a pail of sea-water." Mont. Test. Brit. p. 238. The 

 mode in which they anciently fished for the Purpurae proves the danger. 

 " Now these purples are taken with small nets, and thinne wrought, cast into 

 the deep ; within which, for a bait to bite at, there must be certain winckles 

 and cockles, that will shut and open, and be ready to snap, such as we see 

 those limpens be, called mituli. Halfe dead they should be first, that, being 

 new put into the sea again, and desirous to revive and live, they might gape 

 for water : and then the purples make at them with their pointed tongues, 

 which they thrust out to annoy them ; but the other, feeling themselves 

 pricked therewith, presently shut their shells together, and bite hard. Thus 

 the purples, for their greedinesse, are caught and taken up, hanging by their 

 toneues." Holland's Plin. i. 259. 



