358 



DICECIOUS MOLLUSCA. 



This curious nest is an example of M. Lund's second 

 Class, Order ii. ** ; and the very beautiful one figured (Fig. 

 73) on the shell of a mussel illustrates the second Order of 



Fig. 73. 



his first Class, Family 2*. I found it in a small collection 

 brought home, I believe, from the East Indies,* by a sailor 

 to ornament the cupboard of a humble dwelling. Each cap- 

 sule of the close-set cluster is inversely conical, and nearly 

 an inch in height, with its top elegantly cut in the manner 

 of the embrasure of some ancient fortalice. It contrasts 

 strongly with the neat simplicity of the egg-case of the 

 Purpura lapillus (Fig. 74), which Ellis calls the " sea- 



Fig. 74. 



cup."f The nidus of this common Mollusk is in the form 



Gould's Invert. Massacbusets, p. 295, fig. 206. See also Lister Hist. 

 Conchyl. pi- 879 and 881. Owen's Lect. Invert. Anim. 309. 



* In Baster's Opusc. Subs. i. tab. vi. fig. 3, a very similar one is repre- 

 sented. It is copied from Browne's Hist, of Jamaica. 



t Ellis Corallines, 87, pi. 32, fig. c. c. 



