SPINNING MOLLUSCS. 319 



animal crept at the surface of the water like other gastropods, 

 and one individual spun a delicate glutinous filament from the 

 middle of the sole of the foot, and kept itself suspended for some 

 time in the water, with the point of the shell downwards. 

 0. acicula, Jeffreys adds, has the same habit. Both animals are 

 inhabitants of our own coasts.* 



Eulimid^e. 

 Eulima intermedia, another inhabitant of our coasts, creeps 

 at the surface, and, according to Jeffreys, " it remains suspended 

 in that posture by means of a byssal thread, the operculum then 

 closing the mouth of the shell";! statements, apparently applying 

 to the genus generally, which occur in Fischer and in Tryon,+ 

 have their origin presumably in this observation. 



MlTRIDiE. 



The only representative of the Mitre-shells — and of a con- 

 siderable number of surrounding families — of which we have any 

 note is the little " Mitra saltata" Pease — probably the young of 

 some larger Mitrid — a native of the shores of the islands of the 

 Central Pacific. It is described as an elegant little mollusc, 

 found living in hollows of coral-rock ; and it is certainly a 

 creature of remarkable habits. When disturbed (Mr. Pease 

 found) it would skip five or six inches in a horizontal line, from 

 one side of the cavity to the other, at the same time spinning out 

 a very fine thread ; and, when held in the hand, it would jump 

 off, suspending itself by a thread to a distance of 2-3 ft.§ 



Pleurotomatid^e . 

 Another isolated note, the last we have to give, relates to 

 Mangilia nebula,\\ a little mollusc of our own coasts. The animal 

 is exceedingly active, and the Rev. R. N. Dennis, who placed 



* Jeffreys, 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' (4), ii. (1868), 

 p. 279 ; British Association Keports, 1868, p. 233 ; op. cit. v. (1869), p. 212. 



f Jeffreys, op. cit. iv. (1867), p. 204. 



J Fischer, 'Manuel de Conchyliologie,' 1885, p. 782 ; Tryon, 'Manual 

 of Conchology,' viii. (1886), p. 259. 



§ Pease, ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,' 1865, 

 pp. 512-3 ; and see Garrett, ' Journal of Conchology,' iii. (1880), p. 71. 



II Pleurotoma nebula. 



