SHELLS. 101 



ways, and is sometimes dried and salted for sale. It 

 occasionally measures upwards of four feet in length. 



Many cartilaginous fishes belonging to the ray and shark 

 tribes are found along ihe Indian shores, and the file-fish 

 (genus Baltstcs) are very numerous. The Ostracions or 

 trunk-fish are distinguished by a bony crust or covering. 

 The triquetral trunk-fish (0. triqucter) is about a foot long. 

 It feeds on the smaller Crustacea, shellfish, and marine 

 worms, and is itself much esteemed by East Indians as an 

 excellent fish for the table. Species belonging to the 

 genera Diodon, Teiradon, Pegasus, and others, inhabit tho 

 fresh and saline waters of Hindostan. 



CHAPTER V. 



The Shells and Insects of India. 



Sepia-Conus-Oliva-Cypra-a-Ovula-Marginella-Volma-Mitrffl 

 —Terebra—Ebunia-Biicciinim.&c— Bivalves- Spondyli—Peclens, 

 4e — Fr^sh-water Shells— Pearl-fisheries— Insects— Coleopterous 

 Injects— On houterous Insects— Hemi[iterous Insects— Kernies—Gez 

 or^Manna— Hjnietioiiterous, Neuropterous, and Dipterous Tribes— 

 Silk-worm. 



If, while engaged with the vertebrated or higher classes 

 of the animal creation, we found ourselves embarrassed by 

 the muhitude of our materials, and, equally delighted with 

 the beautiful forms and exquisite adaptation of struc'ure 

 which characterize so many species, were occasionally at 

 a loss in our selection, how much more must that same 

 difficulty press upon us when we enter on the examination 

 of the lower tribes ! When we consider that the ascertained 

 insects of Great Britain alone are more than ten times as 

 numerous as the known quadrupeds of the entire surface 

 of the whole earth, we may conceive how vast a field tho 

 science of Indian entomology would lay before us were we 

 to venture upon any thing approaching to a detailed expo- 

 sition of its wonders. But it is not to be expected that a 

 gf neral work like the present should achieve what even 

 ^ I?. 



