MALTA AND SICILY. 
143 
into the hand, making at the same time a 
snapping noise, which it repeats several 
times after being put into a bottle of spirits 
of wine. I have not yet ascertained how 
this feat is performed, but probably the ani¬ 
mal is furnished with an apparatus similar to 
that by which beetles of the genus elater , 
spring up when laid on then’ backs. 
In St. Julian’s Bay we have found a few 
specimens of the trochus margaritaceus, 
a pretty little shell with a pearly mouth. 
These shells are confined to a very small 
part of the pebbly beach, beyond which it is 
in vain to seek for them, neither have we 
been able to find them on any other part of 
the coast. 
We have been very successful in our 
search for chitons, and have collected several 
hundred specimens of five or six different 
species: some of them are more than an 
