ORDER TRACHELIPODA. 43 



even more, has been given for a well-preserved specimen. 

 Travellers relate that the Scalaria? are much sought 

 after and highly prized by the women on the coast of 

 Amboyna, and at Batavia, where they are used as ear- 

 rings, and in forming necklaces. They are, although 

 rarely, as much as four inches in length. It is said, 

 that there was a specimen in the cabinet of the 

 empress Catherine of Russia, still larger ; but the most 

 usual size is from one to two inches in length. A 

 fine specimen of this shell ought to be semi-transparent 

 like porcelain, of a light brown, tinged with rose-colour, 

 and the ribs of a beautiful opaque white. 



The Iris Ear-Shell, {Haliotis Iris.) 



The UaliotideSj or sea-ears, are very splendid shells; the 

 species are numerous, and some of them are extremely 

 common. The place in the system which this shell 

 ought to occupy, appears to have caused many doubts in 

 the minds of modern naturalists, and consequently, we 

 find it continually shifted from one part to another in 

 the different works of Lamarck and Cuvier. When 

 moving from place to place in search of food, the animal 

 and its shell present a very pleasing sight, the slender 

 tentacula which appear through the different holes which 

 ornament the margin of the shell, gracefully waving in 

 all directions ; these tentacula are supposed to be breath- 

 ing-tubes. In the young shell, the number of perfora- 

 tions is not so great as in an adult, one being formed at 

 each progressive stage of the creature's growth. Some- 

 times the holes which were first formed become, by age, 

 filled up. The proportions of the shell, also, vary mate- 

 rially, so as to render the separation of species very 

 difficult and uncertain. 



D 2 



