32 THE SEA-SIDE AND AQUAKIUM. 



Now, any person reading the above graphic sketch 

 by Mr Bates, would naturally be inclined to look 

 upon the Purpura as an animal possessing rather 

 more than an ordinary share of intelligence or in- 

 stinct. This feeling, however, will be considerably 

 modified after perusing the following incident, which 

 lately came under my own observation. 



In order to give my Blennies a treat by change of 

 diet, I cut open a large-sized Mussel, and let it drop 

 to the bottom of the tank. The fish soon caught 

 sight of this object, and tore away with great eager- 

 ness the quivering flesh of their late companion, and 

 eventually left the empty shell overturned among the 

 pebbles. A Purpura shortly thereafter gliding along, 

 took up his position in one of the valves. He re- 

 mained firmly fixed there for several days, and suc- 

 ceeded in boring through the shell, doubtless expecting 

 to get a fine bonne louche. In this, of course, he was 

 mistaken, his labours being entirely unrewarded, ex- 

 cept by receiving my sympathy for his disappointed 

 hopes. 



Such a remarkable instance of instinct at fault I 

 had never witnessed hitherto. It rivals the stories 

 told of the hen sitting upon a piece of chalk, thinking 

 it was an egg "the flesh-fly, that deposits their 

 eggs upon the blossom of the carrion plant, where the 

 young must inevitably perish from hunger, instead of 

 real flesh" or the poor bee, that settled upon an 

 anemone, thinking it was a flower of the garden, and 

 so perished. 



