272 



POPULAR CONCHOLOGY. 



orifice (anal) or none ( ? ) ; foot very large, strong, and 

 broad, furnished with a byssal groove.* — -About 6 species. 

 From the Atlantic ; three of the species are British. 



Family 12. — GALE OMMACEA. 



The animal has the mantle cloven as far as the middle, 

 with a small opening behind for the egress of the water, 

 the edge is entire, on the surface are situated several spots 

 of wart-like cirrhi ; the foot is almost cylindrical, worm- 

 shaped, it is used in creeping ; on each side are two equal 

 gills, free behind ; and on each side of the mouth two rather 

 oval tentacles. The shell is equivalve, equilateral, at the 

 ventral edge gaping widely with a long oval opening ; the 

 bosses are small, the hinge without teeth; two small 

 distant muscular, and one simple pallial impression. — 

 Marine. 



GrALEOMMA. Turton. (Parthenope Scacchi.) — The 

 shell and animal are both described above. — 

 4 or 5 species. (J// 



G. Turtoni is a very delicate shell, pure 

 white, found occasionally on our southern 

 shores, at Guernsey, and in the Mediter- 



. . Galeomma. 



ranean. Mr. Forbes gives the following 

 interesting statement from the notes of Mr. Clark, made 

 when he captured one at Exmouth. He states : — " During 

 twenty-four hours we kept it alive in a saucer, and three or 

 four different times it spun a byssus, once detaching itself 

 and leaving the threads behind, crawling to a short distance, 

 and then again attaching itself. We had the good fortune 

 to witness the operation. From the slit at the root of the 



* Forbes's British Moll. 



