The Purples. Dog Winkles 



He is almost always eating, or in quest of food; if at rest on a 

 rock you may believe he is digesting a full meal. 



The starfish, also a lover of oysters, sometimes falls upon 

 his molluscan rival. By stealth he gathers several purples in 

 his five fingers, laying hold of them with the delicate suckers, 

 and bringing them to the central mouth. The stomach turned 

 wrong side out envelops the purples which are dissolved out of 

 their shells by the strong digestive fluids the stomach walls secrete. 

 Hermit crabs, secure in borrowed tenements, sometimes attack 

 and destroy a colony of purples by a concerted attack. 



The egg capsules of this species are like delicate pink grains 

 of rice set on tiny stalks. They are found in groups on protected 

 rock surfaces. "A single individual has been observed to produce 

 245 capsules." — Cooke. Each contains twenty to forty em- 

 bryos. The active period of breeding is from January to April, 

 on English coasts, but egg-laying goes on all the year round. 

 The capsules are called "sea cups." 



"Horse Winkle" is the Irish name for this purple "Dog 

 Winkle" and "Sting Winkle" are English nicknames. 



The original home of this species may have been northern 

 Europe. Here it attains its maximum size. It migrated to 

 America by way of Iceland and Nevd'oundland, no doubt, and 

 down the Atlantic coast to Florida. Our forms are smaller and 

 duller than the European. 



The operculum of P. lapillus and other small univalves is 

 the "eye stone," kept by druggists. A cinder in the eye, or par- 

 ticles of dust, adhere to the surface of the eye stone as the muscles 

 move it about under the eyelid. Similarly, a flax seed removes 

 irritating particles. 



Thrown in a dish of water with a dash of muriatic acid these 

 little calcareous bodies move about as if alive. The energy they 

 exhibit is chemical, of course, but ignorant people "tell fortunes" 

 by the aid of these animated objects. 



The Florida Purple {P. Floridana, Conr.) has an elevated 

 spire of angled whorls with fine nodules around the shoulders, 

 it is spirally grooved and banded with yellow and black and 

 longitudinally cross-banded with black. Lip and columella are 

 orange; aperture paler, often banded. Canal somewhat long. 

 Length, i^ to 2 inches. 



Habitat. — North Carolina to Florida. 



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