ANIMALS OF THE SHORE. 47 



abruptly out of the sea not far from the town, and 

 forms a commanding boundary of the prospect, con- 

 spicuous all around. 



I did not obtain much in the way of natural 

 history on the shore, except what I was already 

 familiar with at Petit Tor. Under the large stones 

 at low water Trochus ziziphinus was numerous, a 

 handsome shell, very regularly conical, and marked 

 with triangular spots of purple on a grey ground. 

 The animal also is handsomely coloured, the foot 

 being pale orange, somewhat like the flesh of a melon, 

 spotted and freckled above with" dark brown. Hun- 

 dreds of tiny crimson warts were projecting from the 

 face of the slimy overarching rock, each of which 

 when touched disappeared, and left to mark the spot 

 only the orifice of a minute hole. This was the 

 siphon of Saxicava rugosa, a little bivalve shell, the 

 animal of which is endowed with the power of boring 

 holes in the hardest limestone. And under the flat 

 stones I obtained two or three small specimens of that 

 beautiful scallop, Pecten opercularis^ which is taken 

 in great abundance with the dredge ofi" this harbour. 

 I came home with little desire to see Brixham 

 again. 



THE PAINTED SCALLOP. 



I have before me a small specimen of Pecten oper- 

 cularis, which I have kept for some days in a glass 

 phial of sea-water. The transparency of the vessel 

 enables me to observe it and to w^atch its motions with 

 advantage. An object of unwonted beauty indeed it 

 is. Its ordinary condition is to lie with its valves 



