14 JANUAKY. 



this notcli are carnivorous, while those with simple lips 

 are herbivorous. The Trochus gnaws or rather rasps 

 away the tender growth of marine vegetation, or the 

 fronds of the grown Algce, with its remarkable palate- 

 ribbon, all studded with reversed points, of which I may 

 find another opportunity to speak. The Dog- whelk, on 

 the other hand, acts the part of a cannibal ogre, feeding 

 on his simpler brethren of the bivalve shells ; storming 

 their stony castles, in which they seem so secure, by 

 open violence. 



Look at this old valve of a Mactra. Like hundreds 

 more that you may pick up at high water-mark, it is 

 perforated by a tiny hole near the hinge, so smooth and 

 so perfectly circular, that you would suppose a clever 

 artisan had been at work drilling the massive stony 

 shell with his steel wimble. No such thing : the Dog- 

 whelk has done it : this is the breach which he so 

 scientifically effected in the fortress; and hence he 

 sucked out the soft and juicy and savoury flesh of his 

 miserable victim. 



In order to understand his plan of operations, let us 

 put down our captive, and see him crawl. He is not 

 long before he begins to march, on his broad oblong 

 foot, which, as you observe, is cream-coloured, elegantly 

 splashed and speckled with dark-brown. But before 

 he moves he thrusts out a long cylindrical proboscis 



