Welsh Journals

Natural History and Phenomena. 491 outre casualties, a more ludicrous spectacle cannot well be conceived than one of these hermits in the act of choos¬ ing his residence out of a set of empty shells. The neces¬ sity of borrowing anything at all arising from the possession of a highly vulnerable tail, it may well be supposed that the pre-occupation of the back premises by a hostile party would utterly defeat the scheme. [If you don't know what a " back friend " is, G. R., you may congratulate yourself thereupon.] This is why no Pag ever thinks of walking (backwards, mind you, his only way,) into his new house, till he has ascertained, by personal examina¬ tion a tatons, that nobody else is there before him. To this end he makes a long arm, to dive into the recesses of the deserted home of the late Mollusk—(Purpura, Bucci- num, Natica, Fusus, Trochus, or what not of the turbinate form) and, whilst his potent finger and thumb are busy rummaging the internals of the tortuous domicile, and judiciously nipping in the bud any elements of future dis¬ comfort, he never takes his eyes off you, the bystander ; nay, if there be a pair of you, he can bestow an eye on each without inconvenience. As soon as all is well,— ascertained by the above careful soundings—then, and not till then, turn demum, he ventures to slip into a screw- formed chamber to which his pliable body has learned to conform. But do you suppose he also ventures to take his eyes off you ? Don't reckon without your host (for by this time he is at his own door with open hand to give you some kind of a reception)—nay, having no longer any fears in the rear, he is the more at leisure to keep a good look out ahead; and he profits by that leisure with a vengeance. If Pag looked into you before, he looks through you now; and if you are mischievous enough to suddenly shut your fist in his face, he retreats with such violence as not unfre-