ANIMALS SENT BY POST. 81 



cases were of tin ; they were larger, mucli, than my require- 

 ments ; but this was no occasion for drawing fine lines. The 

 nuts were edible, the case transportable. An investment was 

 straightway made, and my agitated mind was once more at 

 peace. 



The case was large enough to contain, besides a quan- 

 tity of Anemones, a wide-mouthed bottle, in which I had 

 consigned a fine specimen of that boring bivalve named 

 Fholas dactylus (Plate II., fig. 3), three of which had been 

 brought to me in a lump of wood, wherein they had bored 

 themselves a local habitation. Although these Molluscs live 

 in rocks and wood, they seem to flourish perfectly when 

 removed, and left in sea-water. I risked one in the experi- 

 ment, and was uneasy, next morning, at finding he had 

 elongated himself to more than half again his original size ; 

 but observing the currents still active from his siphon, and 

 that, on being touched, he shrunk to his original size with 

 great sensitiveness, I concluded he was healthy, — a con- 

 clusion supported by observing precisely the same phe- 

 nomena exhibited by the two PJiolades still in the wood. 

 As, therefore, the Pholas lived out of his woody home, and 

 as I had three specimens, I could do no less than send one 

 of them to an amateur ; and thus it came that I despatched 

 the wide-mouthed bottle in the tin case, which arrived 

 without accident. After keeping my two borers for some 

 time, one of them fell a victim to anatomical curiosity ; as 

 for the third, VappHit vient en mangeant, and I dissected 

 him also. 



The reader has doubtless heard about the boring Molluscs, 



