. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE MAGILUS. 509 When hatched, the young escape into the sea through a round hole in the capsule. The sweeping: curves, broad swelling lip, and regu'ar ridges of the next genus of shells have earned for them the popular title by which they aie known. About nine or ten species belong to this pretty genus, some of which are rare and costly. The Imperial Harp-shell, which is represented in the engraving on page 508, is still a valuable shell; but in former days, when the facilities of commerce were far less than at present, it could only be purchased at a
. The popular natural history . Zoology. THE MAGILUS. 509 When hatched, the young escape into the sea through a round hole in the capsule. The sweeping: curves, broad swelling lip, and regu'ar ridges of the next genus of shells have earned for them the popular title by which they aie known. About nine or ten species belong to this pretty genus, some of which are rare and costly. The Imperial Harp-shell, which is represented in the engraving on page 508, is still a valuable shell; but in former days, when the facilities of commerce were far less than at present, it could only be purchased at a most extravagant rate. The Harp-shells are only found in the hottest seas, and are taken mostly on the shores of the Mauritius, Ceylon, and the Philippine Islands. They frequent the softer and more muddy parts of the coast, and prefer deep to shallow water. None of the harp-shells possess the operculum. The colour of the Imperial-harp is pale chrstnut and white, with a dash of yellow, arranged in tolerably regular and slightly spiral bands. One of the strangest, though not the most beautiful, of shells is the Magilus, a native of the Red Sea and the Mauritius. On reference to the illustration, the reader will see two figures, one repre-. MAGILUS.—(Ma^lus ;) senting a group of madrepores, in which a small and delicate shell is lying, and the other a long, crumpled, and partly spiral tube, with a shell at one end and an opening at the other. Strange as the assertion may seem, these two figures represent the same animal in two stages of its development. For the purpose, apparently, of carrying out some mysterious object, the Magilus resides wholly in the masses of madrepore, and in its early vouth is a thin delicate shell without anything remarkable about it. As it advances in age, it enlarges in size, as is the case with most creatures ; but its growth is confined to one direction, and instead of enlarging in diameter, it merely increases in length. The cause of t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1884
