Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

and downs of Albury, an antient seat of that fam near Boxhill in Surry. They are now to be found considerable plenty, not only there, but also in seve parts of the confines of Sussex'. Of the singu abundance of the helix virgata in some seasons, the marvellous stories in consequence, see our sent volume, p. 239.

-Beneath his house with slimy trail
Crawls o'er the grass?.

The garden-snail (h. hortensis) inhabits the gard and orchards in most parts of Europe, and abou with a viscid, slimy juice, which it readily gives by boiling in milk and water, so as to render t thick and glutinous; and the compound, especi with milk, is reckoned efficacious in consump cases. Snails are very destructive to wall-fruit; lime and ashes sprinkled on the ground will them away, and destroy the young brood. Frui ready bitten should not be taken off the tree, they will not touch the other till they have wh eaten this, if it be left for them.

30. Nerita, nerite; inhabitant, a limax. These shells inhabit the shores of the sea, ri and lakes; some are found adhering to sea-w pieces of wrecks, or other extraneous substan others are only met with in deep waters, and ma taken in nets. Most of the kinds are exceedi beautiful, and the animals are often eaten by natives of the sea-shores. The species are n rous, though but few are common to this cou Nothing can exceed the beauty and delicacy o miniature painting with which many of the n are adorned; and when viewed with a magni glass, the most highly finished touches, upor

Bingley's Animal Biography, vol. iii, p. 471.

2 Soo Cavo veiuth Fable of the Rutterfly and the Shail

scale, are discernible upon their enamelled

The polished nerite (n. polita) is surby none for beauty and variety. They are shells, and display a brilliant lustre, under are discoverable the most superb party-comarks, bands, and dots that can possibly be ed. They are mostly clouded with green, intermediate bands of pale pink; but those nsidered the rarest, and certainly the most ul, which are of a perfect jet black, having or four bright scarlet bands, which run in a el direction with the convolutions of the shell. are from India, but the most esteemed are ht from the South seas; the aperture or mouth a pure white, sometimes having the throat of utifully delicate pale yellow2. The n. littoralis en gathered on our coasts along with the perie, as it frequents the same situations. It is, ver, much smaller; and its flesh is not reckoned lly good.

31. Haliotis, ear-shell; inhabitant, a limax.

e species are all marine, and are generally d closely adhering to rocks or stones, within the x of the tide, and it requires some adroitness to ch them without injury to their shells: the aniis accounted delicate food. The species are not erous, and we have only one indigenous to Great ain. It inhabits the sea near Guernsey, and is wise frequently cast up on the southern shores of vonshire. The animal is attached by so adhesive roperty to the surface of the rocks, that it requires utmost force to disengage it, though by a sponeous action it is able to remove with facility from ce to place.

Burrow's Elements of Conchology, p. 103.
Wodarch's Introduction to Conchology, p. 100.

DIVISION II.-Shells without a regular Spire.

32. Patella, limpet; inhabitant, a slug.

Limpets are found in great abundance on roc coasts, adhering to rocks and stones; the fresh wa species attach themselves to aquatic plants: they affix themselves so tenaciously, that it is with di culty they are removed without injury.

The common limpet (p. vulgata) frequents same situations as the periwinkle, and is equa abundant. Although used by the antients as article of food, it is seldom brought to market in t country. Among the villages along the coast Scotland this shell-fish is frequently used, and juice, obtained by boiling, mixed with oatmeal, held in high estimation. It is considered in seas about the end of May. The chief excellence of limpet, however, is as a bait. It is very easily tained from the rocks, from which the fisherm detach it with a knife, and it is easily seized by the littoral fish which are sought after. To the ha dock it is very acceptable.

33. Dentalium, tooth-shell; inhabitant, a terebell These shells are all marine; they may be found sandy beaches at low water, generally in a perpen cular or oblique direction, beneath the sand or mu and are discoverable by a slight depression on surface.

34. Serpula, worm-shell; inhabitant, a terebella Like the last genus, these are confined to the oce and are often found in considerable numbers, atta ed to other shells, stones, and plants.

35. Teredo, ship-worm; inhabitant, a terebella

ascidia.

There are not more than four known species teredo. Of these two are found in holes. whi

erforate in wood; a third, in the seed vessels lant which grows in the East Indies, and by Linnæus, xylocarpum granatum; and the (the gigantic teredo,)in mud at the bottom of ean, on the coast of the island of Battoo, near ra. The shells of the latter are between five x feet in length.

at numbers of the ship-worm (t. navalis), which pposed to have been introduced from India Europe, are sometimes found in the sides and ns of ships; so much so, as even to endanger sinking. By means of their hard and cutting they are able to penetrate into any timber, ot such as is of an extremely hard and compact ance. They, however, bore as seldom as posacross the grain; for, after they have penetrated le way, they turn, and continue with the grain ably straight, until they meet with another shell, knot. Their course then depends on the nature che obstruction: if considerable, they prefer ing a short turn back, in form of a syphon, rather to continue for any distance across. Col. Monstates, that he had an opportunity of examining eat number of these shells in the dock-yard at mouth, where every possible means have been to prevent the ravages which are committed by m. Although they have not been known in this ntry more than fifty or sixty years, they are now ome naturalized to our climate, and have, of late, y considerably increased in numbers. Piles which not been in the water more than four or five years, ugh of solid oak, were found, on examination, to greatly perforated by them. In the year 1730, inhabitants of the United Provinces were under rious alarm concerning these worms, which had de dreadful depredations in the piles that support e banks of many parts of those coasts. One of

e persons who had the care of the coasts at that ne, observed, to his astonishment, that some of the

[graphic]

timbers were, in the course only of a few mont made so full of holes, that they could be beaten pieces with the least force. Although, when t mud was scraped off, the perforations did not appe much larger than to admit a pin's head, yet the pil on being split lengthwise, were found full of lar passages, or hollow cylindrical ducts, each of whi contained a worm inclosed in its testaceous tul which it exactly filled. The most efficacious meth which has hitherto been discovered, to prese timber from the ravages of these worms, is that whi is now adopted in the dock at Plymouth, to cover the parts which are under water with short broa headed nails. These soon cover the whole surfa with a strong coating of rust, which is found to altogether impenetrable to the animals'.

36. Sabella, concrete-shell; inhabitant various, nereis, amphitrite, &c.

It is not at present determined by the most a conchologists, whether this genus has a claim to present situation among testaceous shells; but as better or more natural situation has been assigned it, we leave it as previously arranged. The spec are found in the sea, and also in fresh water ditch sometimes affixed to rocks and shells, and at othe buried in the mud or sand.

Colours of Shells.

The colours of the shell may generally be detect on the neck of the animal, being the part from whi the matter of the shell is supposed to be secret Thus, if the ground of the shell be yellow, and it marked with dark brown or black bands, then neck of the animal will be seen of a white inclini to a yellow hue, with dark spots, answering in th

« НазадПродовжити »