144 HABITS OF LINGULA. 



I had much difficulty in drying and preserving 

 those I had hitherto collected, as the slightest touch, 

 or even their own struggles, were sufficient to detach 

 their limbs soon after they were taken out of the 

 water. I succeeded now by taking with me a 

 bucket of fresh water and a number of pieces of 

 cotton cloth, in one of which I immediately wrapped 

 each specimen loosely on taking it up, and then 

 plunged it in fresh water. On getting on board, 

 after they had been soaked for two or three hours, 

 they were taken out and suffered to drain till nearly 

 dry, then re-soaked for a short time, and afterwards 

 had poured over them a saturated solution of corro- 

 sive sublimate in camphorated spirits of wine. 

 They then easily dried, and remained pretty firm 

 afterwards. A similar plan should be adopted with 

 ophiura, euryalus, delicate asterias, and almost all 

 the echinodermata. I procured also from a muddy 

 bay, to the east of Evans' Bay, a number of the 

 genus lingula, alive. The shells lay buried in a 

 close unctuous mud, two or three inches deep. They 

 were always in a vertical position, with the beak 

 downwards. The fleshy or gelatinous pedicle which 

 passed from between the beaks was five or six times 

 as long as the shell, and passed down into the mud, 

 ending in a thickened knob. These pedicles did 

 not appear to be attached to anything. On pulling 

 at the shell a slight resistance was felt, but not more 

 than would be caused by the knob being drawn 

 through the narrower hole in which the pedicle lies. 



