286 MONTHLY MEETINGS. 



Others are armed with fishing lines, such as the Portugese men- 

 of-war, which have filaments of considerable length, and 

 any creatures coming in contact with their lines are immediately 

 overcome by a subtle poison. Then there is a crab, called the 

 tree crab, which has the singular habit of quitting its native 

 element, and betaking itself to climbing the cocoa-nut tree. In 

 South America there are crabs which pick up pebbles and drop 

 them with great dexterity between the open valves of the oyster's 

 shell. The oyster being unable to close its shell, falls an easy 

 prey to the wily crab. Among fishes proper are found many curious 

 examples ; the pilot fish accompanies the shark and is said to 

 have the wonderful instinct of piloting the shark to its prey. 

 The sucking fishes have a disc on their heads with which they 

 attach themselves with great force to any object, and are often 

 thustransported by ships and even by sharks great distances. The 

 Archer fish has the power of ejecting a drop of water with its 

 lips and bringing down a fly at a distance of two feet. The 

 Electric fish, with its powerful electric stroke, paralyses its prey, 

 whilst the Foe anglers entrap their prey with their complicated 

 fishing apparatus. 



March 1th, 1887. 



Mr. J. H. James read a paper on the "Land and FreshWater 

 Mollusca of Truro and Newquay and their neighbourhoods." He 

 prefaced his list of captures by a short account of the division of 

 the Animal Eangdom to which these Molluscs belong, the mode 

 of formation and coloration of the shell, the dentition and other 

 particulars connected with the life-history of the snail. He 

 exhibited many species and varieties found by him at Truro 

 and Newquay, some of which were new to the County, and one 

 or two of them had not hitherto been supposed to be found in 

 Great Britian. The several genera and families were 

 nicely illustrated by characteristic coloured drawings, by 

 Miss M. M. Whitburn. 



Mr. James stated that the list of Land and Fresh Water 

 Shells of Great Britian and Ireland, prepared by the Concho- 

 logical Society, contained 130 species and 308 varieties. 



Mr. Marquand's list of Land and Fresh Water Mollusca of 

 West Cornwall, published in the proceedings of the Penzance 



