The same phenomena are manifested by the ceryx or trumpet-shell;
and the seasons are the same in which the phenomena are observable.
Both animals, also, the murex and the ceryx, have their opercula
similarly situated-and, in fact, all the stromboids, and this is
congenital with them all; and they feed by protruding the so-called
tongue underneath the operculum. The tongue of the murex is bigger
than one's finger, and by means of it, it feeds, and perforates
conchylia and the shells of its own kind. Both the murex and the ceryx
are long lived. The murex lives for about six years; and the yearly
increase is indicated by a distinct interval in the spiral convolution
of the shell.
The mussel also constructs a honeycomb.
With regard to the limnostreae, or lagoon oysters, wherever you
have slimy mud there you are sure to find them beginning to grow.
Cockles and clams and razor-fishes and scallops row spontaneously in
sandy places. The pinna grows straight up from its tuft of anchoring
fibres in sandy and slimy places; these creatures have inside them a
parasite nicknamed the pinna-guard, in some cases a small carid and in
other cases a little crab; if the pinna be deprived of this
pinna-guard it soon dies.
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