210 
NATURE NOTES 
perienced dredger would cast it from him into the sea, little suspecting that an 
unseemly mass of broken shells, to all appearance fastened together by chance, 
was the well-constructed lurking-place of so beautiful an animal. He would not 
suppose that there could be a habitable cave within ; and would a creature, he 
might say, build a house without ish and entry? On closer examination, however, 
it is found that this pagoda-looking building is really the habitation of the beauti- 
ful Lima — that the shells, though piled up, one might think, regardless of rule, 
are so arranged as to leave a snug receptacle in the centre for the ingenious 
architect, to which, by a concealed door, he can enter, and by which, if so 
inclined, he can issue out. Very wonderful are the works of God, and kindly 
does He teach even the feeblest of His creatures to consult for their own safety 
and welfare ! * 
Landsborough adds that when taken out of the nest the 
animal swims about with vigour, after the fashion of a Pecten ; 
it opens its valves, and, suddenly shutting them, expels the 
water, so that it is impelled onwards and upwards, and when the 
impulse thus given is spent, it repeats the operation, and thus 
moves by a succession of jumps. 
The information given by Forbes and Hanley (1853) is that 
Lima hians, which is often free, can spin a compact nest of 
byssal threads entangling small stones, shells and fragments of 
nullipore ; in the midst of which the animal nests on a smooth 
inner coating of fibres. f 
In 1858, Norman pointed out that — though he had found 
Lima hians free in rock pools at Herm— in the Clyde district 
it appeared always to inhabit a nest ; the few individuals found 
free in the latter locality being probably those whose nests have 
been broken by the dredge ; or possibly, Norman thinks, those 
which have temporarily quitted their domicile. The nest, accord- 
ing to this observer, is frequently 8 to 10 inches, or perhaps a 
foot in length. It is formed of nullipore, stones, shells and sea- 
weeds, strongly fastened together by byssal threads ; the interior 
is lined with a thick network of similar threads, the interstices 
being filled up with slime so that it forms a smooth tube. In- 
dividuals of all sizes are found separately encased in nests of 
their own.J 
According to communications to Jeffreys (1863) by David 
Robertson, this Lima is by no means particular as to the kind 
of material it uses. In Arran, Robertson found the nests among 
muddy roots of Phyllophora rubens without the addition of any 
harder substance ; at Rothesay they were made of small gravel ; 
and in Cumbrae of thick matted clusters of nullipore. The 
structure, it is added, is not analogous to the nests of birds, &c., 
for it is not a receptacle for eggs or young. Jeffreys states that 
at Herm, where Norman found the creature free, R. N. Dennis 
observed more than a hundred of all ages, but mostly young, 
enclosed in nests. These nests were generally fixed under 
* Landsborough, “ Excursions to Arran, Ailsa Craig, and the two Cumbraes,” 
1852, pp. 54 - 5 - 
t Forbes and Hanley, “ British Mollusca,” ii. (1853), p. 271. 
I Norman, /. c. 
