HISTOEY OF THE ORMER. 233 



The enemy of the ormer in the Channel Islands is the 

 powerful Octopus, which prowls about the corners of our shores 

 seeking smaller fry for food. He hunts by sight, and this 

 helps us to understand how it is that the ormer, even before its 

 shell gets covered with seaweeds, &c, has become coloured so 

 as to very closely resemble its normal surroundings, which are 

 grey rock surface studded with reddish patches, often of hard 

 and limy seaweeds. The animal shows only its head and the 

 frill with tentacles around the shell edge, and these are charac- 

 teristically coloured a mixture of black and seaweed green, so 

 that to an imperfect sight the ormer is by no means conspicuous 

 so long as its foot-sole is against the rock. The whole surface 

 of the frill or epipodium just mentioned is studded with knobby 

 projections, and it is probable that these prevent the suckers of 

 the Octopus from getting a firm hold ; but this, and much 

 besides, remains to be elucidated. 



The ormer is, therefore, a very fruitful subject for evolu- 

 tionary study, even as regards its more obvious internal 

 characters, which can be observed without special anatomical 

 knowledge, and an even greater interest attaches to its external 

 anatomy, for it is one of the most primitive of surviving 

 Gastropods. If it is permissible I should, therefore, like to 

 commend this common form to any member of the Society who 

 may be interested in the fauna of the shore. Much remains to 

 be found out concerning the food and mode of feeding of the 

 ormer, about its relations with the Octopus, particularly 

 whether the latter can pull small ormers away from their attach- 

 ment, about the rate and extent of its movements, and many 

 other matters. Knowledge of this kind would materially assist 

 the constructive criticism of. the evolutionary theory, and its 

 pursuit affords an alternative or a variant to the work of 

 cataloguing species, which is usually undertaken by societies of 

 natural science, and which, however valuable it may be, loses 

 some of its interest as the list approaches its limit. Study of 

 habits, on the other hand, is a task of ever-growing interest, 

 and may with the greatest advantage be pursued simultaneously 

 with the work of collecting, for by so doing the list which is 

 the result of the collecting will be improved by addition of 

 notes on the relations of the different forms, while an ever- 

 growing insight into scientific method will reward the worker. 



[At a meeting of the Guernsey Society of Natural Science, held 

 on the 20th January, 1904, Mr. E. D. Marquand. A.L.S., exhibited two 

 examples of imperforate ormer shells, and read notes upon them, of 

 which the following is an abstract : — 



