1 6 JANUARY. 



of the meat within than at any peculiar facility in the 

 perforation he brings the tip of his extended prohoscis 

 to the point, so that the silicious teeth can act on the 

 shell. Hard as is the calcareous shell, it is not proof 

 against the flint; for, without any solvent excretion, 

 the aid of which some physiologists have been ready to 

 suppose, these glassy points, grating round and round 

 as on a pivot, soon wear away the substance, and 

 gradually bore the tiny aperture which exposes the 

 sapid morsel. 



Continuing our researches, we find, deep in a rocky 

 pool under a tuft of weed, a shell of a peculiar form, 

 because of the enormous expansion of its outer lip. It 

 is known as the Pelican's-foot, 1 from the resemblance 

 which this lip with its diverging ribs bears to the web- 

 bed toes of a water-fowl This, too, is a carnivorous 

 species ; and though it is somewhat rare to detect the 

 animal moving, even though kept alive in captivity, 

 yet by carefully examining this one in its deep pool, 

 before we disturb its equanimity, we can just see the 

 proboscis protruding from the wide square notch in the 

 shell, and discern that it is rather prettily coloured, 

 being marked with spots of opaque white on a rose- 

 coloured ground. 



1 Aporrhais pes-pelicani, which the reader will see figured in the centre 

 of Plate I. 



