a44 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THRE WORLD 
notable for the slug-like form of their body, which is usually supplemented by the out- 
growth from it of complex, variously modified gill-flaments. In some species these exter- 
nal gills take the form of symmetrical flower-like tufts at the posterior end of the back, 
while in others simple or variously branched gills may be developed on the upper-surface. 
The colours of many of these sea-slugs are more brilliant than those of any other molluscs, 
this being especially the case with the tropical coral-reef-frequenting species. Bright scarlet, 
yellows, and blues, separately or variously combined, are among the dominant tints. Many 
of these tropical species are also of considerable size. One particular kind, having a flower- 
like dorsal gill-tuft, observed by the writer on the West Australian reefs, was over 10 inches 
long and 8 inches broad. Its general ground-colour was intense vermilion, relieved, however, 
by a frilled border nearly an inch in width of the purest white, with radiating streaks of 
scarlet. It is an interesting circumstance that these naked-gilled molluscs, shell-less so far 
an ERT : E j as their adult phases are concerned, emerge 
Pe ; {| from the egg with a perfectly formed, but neces- 
sarily very minute, transparent shell, resembling 
that of a garden-snail. Jt isconsequently inferred 
that the group has been derived from some per- 
manently shell-bearing form. 
The Comb-gilled section embraces the great 
majority of the marine molluscs having a single 
more or less convoluted or spirally twisted shell. 
They take their name from the circumstance 
that the gills have a compactly disposed comb- 
like contour. This gill-tuft is situated in an 
excavated chamber inside the shell, immediately 
over the neck. The COMMON WHELK, the 
PELICAN’S-FOOT SHELL, and the WINKLE are a 
few typical British marine representatives of this 
group, which, however, attains to the zenith of 
its development in the size, variety of form, and 
ornate coloration of its shells in tropical seas. 
The inter-tropical coral-reefs in particular yield 
a most abundant harvest in this direction. The 
shells in common use obtained from such a 
bs MA i\ \ i 
~ f ta ——_ source include the ponderous HELMET-SHELLS, or 
Bhstebe We Savile Kent, keZ:Sd] RMeeea-bn Sea CONCHS, employed for the manufacture ofcameos; 
HIGHLY MAGNIFIED TONGUE the GIANT WHELKS and TRUMPET-SHELLS, often 
OF A SEA-SNAIL ee : 
eee : over 18 inches long, used as signal-horns through- 
With this structure its owner bores or files a hole through 5 : 2 : i 
the shells of other molluscs upon which it preys out Polynesia and on the tropical Australian 
coast; and the capacious MELON-SHELLS, made 
to do duty for boat-baling and as water-vessels and general domestic receptacles throughout 
the same tropical area. To this list may be added the HARP-SHELLS, VOLUTES, CONES, 
MITRES, OLIVES, THORNY WoOoODCOCKS, and a host of others prized by the conchologist. 
To this section must also be referred the innumerable species of COWRIES, of which the large, 
boldly mottled “ TIGER” and ‘“ PANTHER” species are well known, The comparatively small, 
yellowish, thickly built, porcelain-like shell of the “ MONEY-COWRIE” constitutes, as is well 
known, the current coin throughout extensive areas of Africa and India. It is recorded that as 
large a quantity as sixty tons of these small shells, originally collected from tropical seas, have 
been shipped from one British port alone to the African coast for commercial use within a 
single year. One very diminutive cowrie, pale pink in colour, with a delicately streaked surface, 
is indigenous to British waters. 
The third large group of Molluscs which demands attention is that of the Bivalves, or 
