JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGV. 399 



THE HABITAT OF MONTACUTA FERRUGINOSA. 



By J. T. MARSHALL. 

 (Read before the Conchological Society, July 8th, 1891). 



Collectors have experienced a difificulty in finding this species 

 in a living state. Valves are plentiful on many parts of our 

 shores, and also from dredgings in muddy sand, but a living 

 example has hitherto been considered a rarity. I have obtained 

 several perfect examples from fish stomachs, but never dredged 

 one alive. 



Forbes and Hanley pronounce it ' a scarce shell,' and 

 Jeffreys says it ' is seldom found in a perfect state.' This is, 

 however, owing to its habitat having been entirely overlooked. 

 Jeffreys gives as its habitat ' muddy ground on all our coasts, 

 from 7 to 85 fathoms,' and Forbes and Hanley ' sublittoral.' 

 Alder, who described the animal and gave many interesting 

 details of its habits in captivity, did so from a single specimen 

 found in the stomach of a haddock, still alive, so that evidently 

 these writers at least were ignorant of its true habitat. 



In 1870, while at Guernsey, I was one day collecting 

 Montaaita siibstriata from the spines of Spatangus purpiireus 

 at a very low tide, which does not allow much time for obser- 

 vation, but I then occasionally observed a specimen of Monta- 

 aita ferniginosa on the spines of the Spatangus, and eventually 

 procured about a dozen examples, though' did not take much 

 note of the fact at that time beyond mentioning it to Dr. Jeffreys, 

 who recorded it in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, in 

 his ' Lightning' Report (No. xlv., p. 698). Although I have fre- 

 quently visited the Channel Islands since, I could never renew 

 my acquaintance with the Montacutce until the Spring of 1888, 

 when, being at Guernsey again during an unusually low tide, I 

 found some very fine Spatangus purpureiis containing its usual 

 companion Montacuta substriata, with the interesting addition of 



