VOL. XLIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. J5 



A new discovered Sea-Insect, called the Eye-sucker.* By Mr. Henry Baker. 



N" 472, p. 35. 



Mr. B. was lately presented with a couple of small sea-insects, by a gentleman, 

 who said they were found fixed by the snout to the eyes of sprats ; that they are 

 often observed sticking there, and may consequently be supposed to suck their 

 nourishment from thence. 



Fig. 1, pi. 1, represents the animal as seen by the naked eye, and fig. 3 as 

 magnified by the microscope. The length of this little creature, from end to end, 

 is near 3 inches, of which the head is about one quarter-part. Its body is some- 

 what thicker than a hog's bristle, and of a pleasant green colour. A gut seems 

 running through it, and terminates at the anus. The head is light-brown, twice 

 the thickness of the body, and of an oblong figure, tapering towards the snout. 

 It has a pair of fine small black eyes, and a couple of holes, at some distance for- 

 wards, which probably are its nostrils. 



But the most remarkable part of the head is its proboscis or snout ; which is 

 nearly half its length, and does not end in a point, but spreads at its extremity 

 with a considerable aperture. This snout appears of a homy substance, and has, 

 on every side, several large knobs or protuberances; by which, when once in- 

 sinuated into the fish's eye, it must necessarily be fixed there, so as not easily to be 

 removed. But this the figure will more expressively demonstrate. 



Observations on the Hardness of Shells, and on the Food of the Soal-fish. By 

 Mr. Peter Collinson. F. R. S. N°472, p. 37. 



Mr. C. observed at the ruins of the abbey of St. Edmund's-bury, which is 

 built of a kind of stone composed of grit or sand, an infinite number of very 

 minute shells, which appeared to be a species of smooth shining cockle; in se- 

 veral parts of the building, much exposed to the air, the sand was mouldered 

 away, but these small shells remained entire, and their polish not in the least 

 decayed. 



It may be alleged, that a petrifying juice, the same that had united the par- 

 ticles of the sand together, had likewise hardened these, and rendered them more 

 durable than nature had fonned them. But, as we have many instances of shells 

 retaining their natural polish and firmness, where no such allegation can justly 

 be made (for instance, the shells found in chalk-pits, loams, and several other 

 places, where no such juices are hitherto proved to exist) ; yet of so tender shells, 

 long exposed to the weather, and still remaining uncorrupted, the above instance 

 is the most singular, be the cause of their duration what it may. 



• This animal has sometimes been supposed to be a mutilated specimen of tlie pennatula 

 ^losa. Linn. 



