358 HABITS OF FICULA 



What can be more different than the shells of P/iorus, 

 Terebellum, Strombus, and Rostettaria ? and yet my ob- 

 servations of their animals have proved them to be inti- 

 mately connected, with the same habits and necessities, 

 and living in the same peculiar manner. Since the 

 labours of Cuvier, Blainville, Gray, and others, naturalists 

 have never doubted the importance of studying the 

 animals that construct the beautiful shells preserved in 

 our cabinets, and which serve the purpose of protecting 

 the more delicate viscera of the inmate, or for affording 

 a safe asylum for their eggs ; but the peculiar details of 

 the animals have not been sufficiently made use of as 

 generic and specific distinctions. 



The employment of the dredge gave me an opportunity 

 of here first observing the animal of Ficula, which very 

 much resembles that of Dolmm in the large, thin, flattened 

 foot, rounded in front, with two sharp, angular, lateral 

 processes, and extended and acuminated behind ; in the 

 long, recurved siphon, and slender, tapering tentacula ; in 

 having a long extensile and retractile proboscis; in the posi- 

 tion of the organs of vision ; and in the general shape, 

 structure, and lightness of the shell ; while the singular 

 fact of the mantle covering the sides of the shell, would 

 seem to approximate it to Calpurnus, Ovulum, Marginella 

 and the Cowries. 



Although exceedingly timid and sensitive, the Ficula 

 is a very lively animal, when observed in its native 

 waters, crawling along with considerable velocity, and, 

 owing probably to the lightness of its shell, able to 

 ascend with facility the sides of a glass vessel, which held 

 it captive. The proboscis is rarely exserted when the 



