353 PHlLINIDiE. 



than at present estimated. Considerable additions, however, 

 have been made to our knowledge on this subject by the re- 

 searches of Kelaart in Ceylon and A. Adams in the Chinese seas. 

 The shell-bearing genera flourished in the period when the sec- 

 ondary strata were deposited. The living species are chieflj^ 

 animal-feeders, preying on other shell-fish and on zoophytes. 



Oedee TECTIBRANCHIATA. 



Animal usually provided with a shell, both in the larval and 

 adult state ; branchiae covered by the shell or mantle. 



Family PHILINIDJE. 



Shell usually present, sometimes wanting, internal, bulliform, 

 but slightly spiral, usually not forming a single whorl; it is con- 

 cealed under the lateral margins of the foot. 



Teeth, central none ; lateral one or two, large, hooked. Ceph- 

 alic disk oblong or subquadrate, without tentacular lobes ; eyes 

 none, or, if present, sessile on the head ; mantle covering and 

 concealing the shell ; foot not produced posteriorly, the sides 

 dilated, thick and fleshy ; gizzard armed with calcareous plates. 



Philine, Ascanias. 



Syn. — Bullsea, Lam. Megistoma, Gabb. Utriculopsis, Sars. 



Bistr. — 20 sp. West Indies, Boreal Atlantic, Mediterranean, 

 East Indies. Fossil, T sp. Eocene. P. aperta, Linn. (Ixxxvii, 

 14, 15). 



Shell internal, white, translucent, oval, slightly convoluted, 

 spire rudimentary. 



Animal pale, slug-like ; mantle investing the shell ; head 

 oblong ; eyeless ; foot broad ; lateral lobes large, but not 

 enveloping ; tongue with two or four series of sickle-shaped 

 uncini ; gizzard with three longitudinal shelly plates. Egg- 

 capsules ovate, in single series on a long spiral thread ; fry 

 with a ciliated head-veil and an operculated, spiral shell. — Loven. 



The animal is blind, like most creatures that seek their food 

 by burrowing. They frequent mud-flats and slimy banks at the 

 entrances of rivers, which they perforate near the surface, and 

 probe with their flattened heads for the small bivalves which 

 constitute their prey ; these they seize and swallow entire, 

 breaking their shells by means of their testaceous, muscular 

 gizzards. 



ohelidonuea, A, Adams. (Hirundella, G-ray. ) Shell con- 

 cealed ; outer lip produced posteriorly into a spur; columellar 

 border inflected. Animal with enveloping side-lobes ; mantle 

 with two appendages behind, like the lateral processes of Hyaltea. 

 P. hirundinaria, Quoy (Ixxxvii, 16, 17). 



