110 MITRA. 



some instances scarcely visible. The siphon is mostly directed 

 forward, and the somewhat short, tapering tentacles have the 

 eyes either situated about half-way or they are placed on the 

 outer side of the base. The head is long and very flat, and the 

 tentacles are very close together at their bases. The proboscis 

 is rarely exserted when they are crawling and lively, but as they 

 become languid after capture it becomes distended with water 

 and protrudes considerably. 



The Philippine Islands would seem to harbor the greatest 

 number of these elegant and beautiful shells, although a great 

 many species were obtained by Mr. Cuming in tropical America. 

 They appear to be chiefly confined to the equatorial regions, 

 scarcely any being natives of cold climates. The transversely 

 ribbed species are frequently found in very deep water, and 

 many have been dredged in twenty and thirty fathoms at Sooloo 

 and in the China Sea. 



Although M. Quoy has rightly termed the Mitra an " animal 

 apathique," the small longitudinally ribbed species crawl about 

 pretty briskly over the smooth sand among the low coral islands. 

 The Mitra episcopates, probably on account of the small size of 

 its locomotive disk, and the ponderous nature of its long shell, 

 is, however, a very sluggish mollusk. Some of the Auricula- 

 shaped Mitres that live among the Philippines, in the shallow 

 pools left by the receding tide, crawl about the stones out of 

 the water, in company with Planaxis and Quoyia. The Mitres, 

 like many of the large Volutes, prefer, however, to associate 

 together, and may be seen in dozens crawling over the sandy 

 mud-flats in shallow water, being most active just as the flood- 

 tide makes. When the tide recedes, they bury themselves 

 superficially in the yielding soil, and are with difficulty discovered. 

 Some of the small-ribbed species cover themselves entirely with 

 the sandy mud, and in that disguised condition travel about 

 with comparative security.* 



Among the Bashu group, and more particularly on the island 

 of Ibayat, the natives form very elegant and commodious pipes 

 from different species of shells, the columella and septa of the 

 convolutions being broken down, and a short ebony stem 



* Arthur Adams, Moll. Voy. Samarang, 26, 27. 



