THE MAGILUS. 509 
When hatched, the young escape into the sea through a round hole in 
the capsule. 
The sweeping curves, broad swelling lip, and regular ridges of the next 
genus of shells have earned for them the popular title by which they aie 
known. 
About nine or ten species belong to this pretty genus, some of which are 
rare and costly. The IMPZRIAL HARP-SHELL, which is represented in 
the engraving on page 508, is still a valuable shell ; but in former days, when 
the facilities of commerce were far less than at present, it could only be 
purchased at a most extravagant rate. 
The Harp-shells are only found in the hottest seas, and are taken mostly 
on the shores of the Mauritius, Ceylon, and the Philippine Islands. They 
frequent the softer and more muddy parts of the coast, and prefer deep to 
shallow water. None of the harp-shells possess the operculum. 
The colour of the Imperial-harp is pale chrstnut and white, with a dash 
of yellow, arranged in tolerably regular and slightly spiral bands. 
ONE of the strangest, though not the most beautiful, of shells is the 
MAGILUS, a native of the Red Sea and the Mauritius. 
On reference to the illustration, the reader will see two figures, one repre- 
Mid 
H(t 
‘i 
a 
MAGILUS.—(Magilus antiquus.) 
senting a group of madrepores, in which a small and delicate shell is lying, 
and the other a long, crumpled, and partly spiral tube, with a shell at one end 
and an opening at the other. Strange as the assertion may seem, these two 
figures represent the same animal in two stages of its development. 
For the purpose, apparen'ly, of carrying out some mysterious object, the 
Magilus resides wholly in the masses of madrepore, and in its early vouth is 
a thin delicate shell without anything remarkable about it. As it advances 
in age, it enlarges in size, as is the case with most creatures ; but its growth is 
cenfined to one direction, and instead of enlarging in diameter, it merely 
increases in length. The cause of the continual addition made to its length is 
probably to be found in the growth of the madrepore in which it is sheltered, 
and which would soon inclose the Magilus within it stony walls, did not the 
