2l6 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



* 



base, and the long curved tubular tongue ready for service ; 

 but the most singular feature is that his mantle is used not 

 merely to clothe the delicate body, but a portion of it comes 

 outside, and closely wraps the greater part of the shell. In its 

 younger days it had not its present beautifully arched lip, 

 which almost closes up the doorway of the shell, and leaves 

 but a narrow slit, delicately denticulated, to allow the foot and 

 mantle to pass through. Before maturity it had a wide mouth, 

 with a sharp thin edge to the outer lip, but that, you see, has 

 now grown over towards the inner lip. The colour of the shell 

 may be described as a flesh-tint on the upper surface, varying 

 in intensity to both lighter and darker. Many specimens bear 

 on the crown of the shell three ill-defined blotches of a very 

 dark brown. The under surface is white. The whole shell 

 is ornamented by very regularly disposed transverse ribs, 

 which are rounded and polished. 



There are several other cowry-like shells to be found gener- 

 ally distributed, but by no means so plentifully on our coasts. 

 One of these is the Smooth Margin-shell (Erato lavis), smaller 

 than the Cowry, and with the lip curved outward, instead of 

 inward as in the Cowry : it has thus an external margin, whence 

 the name. It is white and exquisitely smooth. The animal 

 is very similar to Cypraa, and it envelops its shell in the 

 same fashion. Of similar habit is the Poached Egg (Ovula 

 patuld], though the shell is very different. The mouth of the 

 shell gapes widely, and the lip is thin and sharp. Its colour 

 is white with a pink tinge, and its appearance is so suggestive 

 of its name that there is little likelihood of mis-identification. 

 It is a South Coast form. 



A solid-looking shell, with a highly-polished surface, over 

 which three lines of arrow-heads are chasing each other, a 

 perforation of the shell just outside the inner lip, a fairly 

 wide mouth, closed when at rest by an operculum : these are 

 the principal features of the Necklace Natica, so-called because 

 it deposits a large number of eggs, so agglutinated into a broad 



