Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/349

Rh animal crept at the surface of the water like other gastropods, and one individual spun a delicate glutinous filament from the middle of the sole of the foot, and kept itself suspended for some time in the water, with the point of the shell downwards. 0. acicula, Jeffreys adds, has the same habit. Both animals are inhabitants of our own coasts.

Eulima intermedia, another inhabitant of our coasts, creeps at the surface, and, according to Jeffreys, "it remains suspended in that posture by means of a byssal thread, the operculum then closing the mouth of the shell"; statements, apparently applying to the genus generally, which occur in Fischer and in Tryon, have their origin presumably in this observation.

The only representative of the Mitre-shells—and of a considerable number of surrounding families—of which we have any note is the little "Mitra saltata" Pease—probably the young of some larger Mitrid—a native of the shores of the islands of the Central Pacific. It is described as an elegant little mollusc, found living in hollows of coral-rock; and it is certainly a creature of remarkable habits. When disturbed (Mr. Pease found) it would skip five or six inches in a horizontal line, from one side of the cavity to the other, at the same time spinning out a very fine thread; and, when held in the hand, it would jump off, suspending itself by a thread to a distance of 2–3 ft.

Another isolated note, the last we have to give, relates to Mangilia nebula, a little mollusc of our own coasts. The animal is exceedingly active, and the Rev. R.N. Dennis, who placed