CONTINUED. 359 



animal is in motion ; but the long, tapering tentacles are 

 stretched out to their full extent, and the siphon is directed 

 more frequently forwards than over the back of the 

 animal. The animal of Ficula ficoides is light, marbled 

 violet, and the head and tentacles are white ; six white, 

 opaque spots are arranged round the upper surface of the 

 edge of the foot ; the rest of the body is light delicate 

 pink, with marbled markings of a darker pink. 



In another species which I observed, and of which 

 I also made a drawing, (the Ficula Icevigata, Reeve) the 

 mantle is bright pink, mottled with white and deeper 

 pink, the under surface of the ventral disc being of a 

 dark-chocolate colour, with yellow, scattered spots ; the 

 head and neck are pink, and also coloured with yellow spots. 



The Ficula shells, seen in cabinets, convey but a poor 

 idea of these handsome mollusks, observed in the living 

 state, crawling rapidly along, bearing their light, elegantly- 

 formed shells, easily and gracefully, with their siphon 

 erect, their foot expanded, like a broad flattened disc, and 

 their bodies ornamented with delicate colours, beautifully 

 marbled, and moving their long, flat heads, and peering 

 about with their large, bright black eyes, in a manner 

 which is surprising, when one considers the position 

 these animals occupy in the scale of creation, and that 

 but a very small share of intelligence is, in general, sup- 

 posed to be the lot of most mollusca. 



At Sooloo, I first had the good fortune to discover 

 and describe the animal of Terebettum, and thus to solve 

 the enigma of the true position of this shell in the con- 

 chological system. Although it should be placed, most 

 probably, between Conns and Strombm, it has been 



