The Shell-bearing Sea Slugs 



polished surface. I have boiled my bubble shells with the utmost 

 care, and delicately set about extracting the fleshy parts from 

 shells. Alas! every time they went the way of all bubbles. 

 In fragility, as well as in form and coloration they are like the 

 shells of certain birds' eggs. Like other collectors, I have grate- 

 fully accepted shells cleaned by the little black side-stepping 

 crabs that throng the rocks of the breakwater and the old jetty. 

 Length, 2 inches. 



Habitat. — Southern California. 



The largest bubble shell is B. ampulla, Linn., from the 

 Philippines, as big as a hen's egg. The most vivid in colouring is 

 B. cruentata, A. Ads., "the blood-stained Bulla," from the 

 Moluccas. 



The Florida Bubble (B. occidentalis, A. Ads.) is small, 

 but it has the characteristic apical pit, and gaping mouth as long 

 as the thin, oval shell. The body is large, the foot lobes turning 

 back so as to envelope the shell almost completely. The surface 

 is polished, minutely scored both ways, pale mottled with warm 

 brown in a vague pattern. On the gulf coast of Florida the beach 

 is sometimes strewn thickly with these shells after a storm. They 

 are West Indian, and venture no further north than Florida, 

 chiefly on sandy beaches toward the southern end. Length, ^ inch. 



Genus HAMINEA, Leach 



H. solitaria, Say, is a little bubble shell, bluish white or 

 brownish, thin and fragile, finely striated, found in muddy, 

 sheltered bays south of Cape Cod. In the neighbourhood of 

 Woods Holl, Mass., and along the shallow borders of Vineyard 

 Sound it is abundant. Length, f inch. 



Habitat. — Atlantic coast. 



H. vescicula, Old., is a fragile, pale yellowish green species 

 of the west coast. It has the form of the typical bubble shell, 

 and lives in muddy shores near the mouths of rivers, mingling 

 with a vegetable diet such small Crustacea and shell fish as it is 

 able to capture and swallow. The powerful gizzard, armed with 

 teeth, does the rest. 



The Green Bubble Shell {H. virescens, Gld.) prolongs 

 the lip into a scoop which is quite inadequate to protect the 



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