140 



THE SEA. 



THE SCALLOP (Pecten). 



heads and feet, locomotion being effected by a set of tentacles (arms or legs, as you will). 

 The cuttle-fish and devil-fish (or octopus) are types of this important series of animals. 

 The vastness of the subject ' precludes the possibility of details, and for evident 



reasons a few of those inhabiting- the sea itself can only be 

 considered here. Among the " Gasteropods/' as they are 

 familiarly termed, the limpets constitute a numerous family. 

 The scientific name Patella (a deep dish or knee-cap) was given 

 to them by Linnsous, the form of their shells fully warranting 

 the title. Some of them, are oval, others circular; but all 

 terminate in an elliptic cone. Otherwise they are varied 

 enough, some being smooth, but others having ridges or 

 scales on the outer surface, the edges being often dentated. 

 Their colours are very varied. The head of the animal itself 

 has two horns and two eyes ; its foot is a thick fleshy disc, 

 and when it means to hold on to a rock we all know 



how difficult it is to dislodge it, for the said foot becomes a kind of sucker. Some of 

 those from the coast of Africa and the Antilles, &c., have elegant forms, as witness Patella 

 umlell'a, P. granatina, P. longicosta, and others. Although often eaten, 

 they are very tough and indigestible. In Southern seas they attain 

 to a great size; for example, in the Straits of Magellan the natives 

 use for culinary purposes species as large as a slop-basin. 



Well-known shells are also those of many species of Trockus ; the 

 spiral shell has literally a spiral animal inside it. So also some of 

 the fifty species of Turlo, which are often marbled in beautiful colours 

 outwardly and superbly nacred within. So again the winding pyra- 

 midal shells of the Turritella, many of which are found in every sea. And once 

 more, what mantelpiece of old was not adorned with a pair or more of cowrie shells 

 (Cyprce), natives of every sea! They range from the little whitish money cowrie, actually 



used in place of coin in parts of Africa to-day, 

 to handsome shells of large size. The animal 

 which inhabits this shell is elongated, and has 

 a head with a pair of long tentacles, each 

 having a very large eye. The foot, as one 

 example specially will show (Cyjjra ligris) is 

 an oval sucker, capable of great tenacity. 



In every eonchologist's collection will be 

 found some of the mitre shells, so called from 

 their resemblance to a bishop's mitre, and 

 principally obtained from Indian and Aus- 

 tralian seas. So, again, the Valuta, with 

 their oval and graceful forms. The animal 



inhabiting the latter has a very large head, provided with two tentacles and a mouth furnished 

 with hooked teeth. The foot is very large and projects from the whole mouth of the 



THE LIMPET (Patella}. 



SPONDYLUS. 



