will then be
sufficiently soft to be scraped off with a piece of hard wood or a
knife, or rubbed off with sand. It is a good plan to oil or paste
calico over portions not covered with growths, so as to reduce the risk
of the colour fading. When the animal is removed and the growth cleaned
away, wash, scrub, and dry, as with dead shells.

Shellfish are sometimes obtained by dredging with a naturalist's dredge,
or by diving for them, or lifting them out of the water with instruments
such as hay forks and hooks. Sandy beaches and banks yield many of the
most beautiful specimens, but only with experience will the collector be
able to identify the marks of the syphons of the various shellfish.
Nearly all shellfish that burrow have two syphons, or tubes, which they
push through the sand. The water is drawn down one syphon and up the
other; and as it passes through its stomach the mollusc absorbs the
animal and vegetable particles in the water. Some of these shellfish
live feet below the surface of the sand; some, such as the common
cockle, only a fraction of an inch. Apparently even cockles do not come
to the surface, except to die. Some instinct seems to urge a shellfish,
when sick unto death, to save its fellows from infection by leaving the
common shelter. Cockles found on the surface are to be avoided as
unhealthy, and, unless they die naturally, are soon killed by the
carnivorous shellfish. It does not take one of the whelk family long to
bore a hole in the centre of the cockle shell. It knows too much to risk
having its radula, or tongue, nipped off by putting it between the
partly-open valves of the dying cockle. The end of the syphon, which
projects from the sand, is like a miniature sea anemone. Each
sand-burrowing shellfish has a different shaped end to its syphon, and
the skilled collector can tell at a glance what shellfish is down below.
If he can grip the syphon with his hand he will have no difficulty in
digging up the shellfish, even such a deep-living one as the Panopaea
(Plate VIII., Fig. 3), one of which was captured by Mr. C. Spencer on
Cheltenham Beach, near Takapuna Head, in Auckland Harbour. I believe
this was the only Panopaea captured in New Zealand in situ, and was
about eighteen inches below the surface of the sand at half-tide mark.
If he miss gripping the syphon he will probably lose the shellfish; as
it can burrow nearly as fast as a man can dig with his hand. A beginner
cannot do better than ta