SEA-SNAILS AND SEA-SLUGS. 215 



its own base appetite. The fishermen have actually noticed 

 it in the act, and seeing the peculiar boring apparatus at work, 

 have thought this a sting. It is far worse than that, for a sting 

 may be survived, but no mollusk, I believe, gets over the 

 attack of the boring tongue, which changes its function when 

 the boring is finished, and becomes an instrument for tearing 

 and masticating its victim's flesh. 



The exotic representatives of the great Cone -family of shells 

 are familiar and admired objects in collections as well as on 

 nick-nack tables in the drawing-room. We have no native 

 species of the genus Conus, but we have a number of repre- 

 sentatives of the family in the Pleurotomas and Mangelias, 

 though they do not approach very closely to the typical form 

 of a Cone-shell, with which we commonly associate the spotted 

 Cone (Conus marmoreus) of Chinese seas. The Seven-ribbed 

 Conelet (Mangelia septangularis] is like a tiny Buckie-shell 

 it is but half an inch long with bold longitudinal ribs, of 

 which you can count seven in one revolution of the shell. 

 The shell is thick, of a dull pinkish hue, and unprovided with 

 an operculum. The outer lip is notched where it joins the 

 previous whorl. There are several British species. 



One of the most charm- 

 ing of our native shells is 

 the little Cowry (Cyprcea 

 europed), which is so pier- 

 tiful on most of our shores. 

 Most of us who have visited 

 the sea-shore in childhood 

 have had the delight of 

 COVVKV - hunting for this shell, 



empty and clean, among the ingredients of a fine beach ; but 

 probably some of those who are most familiar with it as an 

 empty shell would scarcely recognise it for the same species 

 if they saw the living Cowry gliding along with his shell on 

 his back. He carries a pair of tentacles, with eyes at their 



