66 



POISONOUS BITE OF CONUS 



and the native explained that had he not taken these precautions 

 he would have died. Instances have been re- 

 corded of poisonous wounds being inflicted by the 

 bite of Conus aulicus^ C. textile^ and C. tulipa. 

 According to Mr. J. Macgillivray ^ C. textile at 

 Aneitum (S. Pacific) is called intrag, and the 

 natives say it spits the poison upon them from 

 several inches off ! Two cases of bites from C, 

 textile occurred to this gentleman's notice, one of 

 which terminated fatally by gangrene. Sir Ed- 

 ward Belcher, when in command of the Samarang^ 

 was bitten ^ by a Conus aulicus at a little island 

 off Ternate in the Moluccas. As he took the 

 creature out of the water, it suddenly exserted its 

 proboscis and inflicted a wound, causing a sensa- 

 tion similar to that produced by the burning of 

 phosphorus under the skin. The wound was 

 Fig. 27.— A tooth a small, deep, triangular mark, succeeded by a 

 ^oi'conust^pe- watcry vesicle. The natives of New Guinea have 

 riaiis L., X 50, a wholcsome dread of the bite of Cones. Mr. C. 

 Sdpofonduct Hedley relates ^ that while collecting on a coral 

 reef he once rolled over a boulder and exposed a 

 living C. textile. Before he could pick it up, one of the natives 

 hastily snatched it away, and explained, with vivid gesticula- 

 tions, its hurtful qualities. On no account would he permit 

 Mr. Hedley to touch it, but insisted on himself placing it in the 

 bottle of spirits. 



Mimicry and Protective Coloration. 



Cases of Mimicry, or protective resemblance, when a species 

 otherwise defenceless adopts the outward appearance of a better 

 protected species, are rare among the Mollusca. Karl Semper^ 

 mentions an interesting case of the mimicry of Helicarion tigri- 

 nus by Xesta Ciimingii, in the Philippines. It appears that all 



1 Zoologist, xviii. (1860) p. 7136. 



2 A. Adams, Samarang, vol. ii. Zoology, p. 357. 



3 In Thomson's British New Guinea, p. 283. 



* Animal Life, p. 395. It should be mentioned that Von Mollendorff (JBer. 

 Senck. Ges. 1890, p. 198) ridicules the whole theory. 



