But although this arrangement may appear at first sight perfectly easy and plain, some explanation will be necessary in order to guard the student against understanding the above expressions in their strictest sense, without qualification. Thus the univalves are said to consist of a single piece, or spiral cone; but it would be more correct to speak of this piece as forming either the whole or the principal part of the shell: for there is in many instances, a much smaller flattened piece attached to the foot of the animal, which being drawn in when it retires, closes the aperture as with a kind of door, to which in fact the word valve might be very properly applied; it is called however the OPERCULUM, and the little horny plate, frequently drawn out by means of a pin from the aperture of a periwinkle, will present a familiar example.
Accessary valves of a Pholas.
The same may be said respecting the bivalves; for besides the principal portions or valves of which the shell is composed, there are in many species, one or two smaller separate portions, named "accessary plates" by some authors. They are fixed by means of cartilages, on the back of the hinge.—The engraving, fig. 7, represents the accessary valves of a species of Pholas, which was on this account arranged by Linnæus with the Multivalves. Nearly allied to the Pholades is a set of shells to which De Blainville has given the name "Tubicolæ," or inhabitants of tubes. In this case, the bivalve shell is connected with a testaceous tube or pipe, to which it is attached either by one or by both valves, or in which it lies attached only by the cartilages of the animal. In the genus Aspergillum, the two small valves are soldered into the sides of the tube in such a manner as to constitute a part of it. One of these shells, called the Water-spout, might be taken up by a person not aware of its real nature, and regarded as a pipe or tube prettily fringed, and nothing more; but upon a closer examination, he would find the two valves, the points of which are visible from the outside of the tube.
HABITS—Land, Fresh-water, or Marine Shells.
Another distinction, leading to important results in classification, is that which is derived from the nature of the element breathed by the Mollusc. And although this consideration belongs more especially to the study of the animal itself, yet the habits of the animal materially influence the structure of the shell.
The Terrestrial or Land Molluscs live on land, breathe air, and feed on plants and trees.—Those who find pleasure in horticultural pursuits will at once call to mind a too familiar example of these Molluscs in the common garden snail. The Land-shells are all univalves, and constitute a family in the Lamarckian system under the name "Colimacea," or snails, corresponding with the Linnean genus Helix.—They are generally light in structure and simple in form.
The Aquatic, or Fresh-water Molluscs, such as the Planorbis, commonly called the Fresh-water Snail; the Unio—known by the name of Fresh-water Muscle, is found in ponds, ditches and rivers. The epidermis of these is generally of a thick, close-grained character, and they are subject to corrosion near the umbones. There are but few genera of fresh-water shells besides the Uniones, among bivalves, and the "Melaniana" among univalves. Concerning the former it may be observed, that they are all pearly within, and the colour of the thick horny coating embraces all the varieties of brownish and yellowish green.
The Marine, or sea-shells, belong to all the classes and orders, and include by far the greater number of species. They vary in the habits of the animal, and consequently in the situations in which they are found. Some are found buried in sand and marine mud, and are named "Arenicolæ" or inhabitants of sand; others in holes of rocks and other hard substances, then they are named "Petricolæ,"—some of these latter form the holes in which they live by corroding or eating away the stone. A section of these form the family of "Lithophagidæ," or stone-eaters, of Lamarck. Others, again, take up their parasitical abode in the bodies of animals, and feed upon their substance; as for instance, the Stylifer, which is found in the vital part of star-fish, and Coronula, and Tubicinella, found buried in the skin of the whale.
LOCOMOTION—Attached, Unattached.