122 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



■without any passage leading to them * Those consist- 

 ing of chambers and a long entrance passage, covered 

 by slabs, within a large tumulus of earth, as at "Wellow, 

 near Stoney Littleton ; at Eodmartori ; at Uley ; and at 

 Nympsfield, are called Tumps. In speaking of Crom- 

 lechs, in the Channel Islands, I do not therefore allude 

 to monuments such as we call Cromlechs ; which last, 

 though probably sepulchral, have not yet been found to 

 contain interments. 



Necklaces of limpets and other shells, strung together 

 on fibre or sinews, are found in early British graves. 



Limpet shells are also used for raortar. 



In the island of Herm, near Guernsey, poultry are 

 fed on Patella vulgata ; but it is said that they will not 

 touch Patella athletica, which is also considered too 

 tough for bait. 



Sea-birds feed on the Patella, and Mr. Gatcombe, in 

 the ' Field,' August, 1863, mentions having once taken 

 from the gullet of an oyster-catcher upwards of thirty 

 limpets. He also adds an account of a curious occur- 

 rence which took place on the Plymouth breakwater 

 some time ago : — One of the workmen employed on 

 the breakwater observed a sandpiper fluttering in a pe- 

 culiar manner, and discovered on approaching it, that it 

 had been made prisoner by a limpet. It would appear 

 that, in running about in search of food, the bird's toe 

 had accidentally got under a limpet, which, suddenly 

 closing to the rock, held it fast until the man came 

 up, who with his knife removed the limpet, and released 

 the bird. 



The French call this shell lepas, Patella, Jambe, ceil 



* See Sir Or. Wilkinson, " British Eemains of Dartmoor," vol. xviii. 

 Journal Archaeological Association, 1863. 



