208 
THE LIMA’S NEST. 
By H. Wallis Kew, F.Z.S. 
'MONG the various uses which bivalve molluscs — 
Mollusca-Pelecypoda — make of their byssal threads, 
perhaps the most curious is that resulting in the 
construction of a nest or case, which, in the com- 
paratively few instances in which the habit obtains, serves as a 
residence for the builder. 
Of structures of this kind found in our own seas, the most 
perfect are the celebrated nests of Limae, interesting bivalves, 
which, as Fischer says, “ sont tantot fixes par leur byssus et 
confines dans une sorte de nid, tantot fibres et nageant avec 
une grande rapidite et une allure saccadee, au moyen de 
battements rapides de leurs valves qui peuvent s’ecarter beau- 
coup plus que celles des autres Pelecypodes.’"^' The present 
account, merely an attempt to bring together certain scattered 
information, does not contain anything new. 
In certain Limae nest-making is unknown ; and some, which 
occasionally make nests, are generally captured in a free state. 
Jeffreys relates that he often dredged living Lima elliptica and 
other species in every stage of growth, and always found them 
free. Lima loscombii, the same naturalist says, is generally 
free ; but he once dredged an enclosed individual on the Irish 
coast, and Sars obtained a similar specimen on the coast of 
Norway. In all probability, as Jeffreys says, the habit depends 
on the nature of the sea-bottom ; when this is of soft mud, the 
Lima can partly bury itself, and probably does not require further 
protection. The nest of Lima loscombii observed by Jeffreys 
was within a valve of the horse-mussel (Modiola modiolus), and 
was composed of fragments of shells, crabs, and barnacles. f 
The really celebrated nesting species is Lima hians : a bivalve 
of good size, and a creature of exceptional beauty; as main- 
tained by Norman, the thousand delicate and beautifully ringed 
vermilion tentacles of the mantle, the rich crimson foot, and the 
snow-white shell form an object unsurpassed for beauty among 
all our mollusca.f 
Next day, says David Landsborough, was as sweet and 
lovely as heart could wish. Major Martin had arrived from 
Ardrossan, and, as he had a dredge of his own, it was arranged 
that he should go in a boat by himself, and that we should go in 
another along with Mr. and Miss Alder. This was in 1846, in 
Lamlash Bay : 
The most interesting, though not the rarest thing we got, was Lima Iiyans of 
continental writers, Lima tenera of Turt. I had before this some specimens of 
* Fischer, Manuel de Conchyliologie, 1887, p. 940. 
t Jeffreys, “British Conchology,’’ ii. (1863), pp. 82, 86. 
j: Norman, “Zoologist,” xvi. (1858), pp. 5882-3. 
