THE

TASMANIAN

NATURALIST.

79

Df a beautifully constructed shell 'possessed by the ancestors of these .animals. As regards internal structure the Mollusca are very highly -developed. They have excellent digestive systems, well developed nervous systems, and possess in many cases eyes, balancing organs, and means of testing the quality of the water in which they live. The eyes of the cuttlefish are as good as the same organs in many of the higher vertebrates. In the digestive system, most of the higher Mollusca agree in having in the mouth a peculiar ribbon, studded with teeth like a rasp, 'by means of which they grind up their food or even bore holes through <the shells of lower Mollusca to get at the animal inside.

note on Voluta

mamiUa.-(Gray)

By W. 1,. MAY.

WISH to place on record the capture of a magnificent specimen of this fine shell. It was taken on the 16th of January last on our 'beach, immediately South of May Point, by my son. The shell which contained the living animal, was in the edge of the water. I kept it alive for several days, but it did not expand to any extent. The shell which is -quite adult, with the thickened and expanded lip, measures eleven and a half inches in length, and weighed, with the animal, five and a half 'pounds; the shell alone weighs one pound fifteen ounces.
~

'1

This specimen is one of the largest on record. The species must be extremely rare here, as I have never before seen even a dead, or broken -one during over thirty years observation, and it is a shell that could not -easily be overlooked.
SANDFORD,

March,

I9I I.

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