Shell Life - An Introduction To The British Mollusca
Cód:
491_9781443773249
PREFACE THE object of this work is much the same as that which led to the writing of its companion volume The Romance of Wild Flowers-to awaken an interest in, and lead to a closer study of, the creatures described. Shells and their makers, of course, aecessitated a different kincl of treatment from that accorded to. the wild flowers but the authors plan of making his readers first acquainted with the outstanding characteristics of the prevailing types of structure as embodied in such familiar forms as the snail, the mussel, and the cuttle, will enable them to follow lliin throughout the further chapters. It is not pretencieci that this volume will enable the reader to determine the exact species of all the native mollusks that Inay come under his notice but it is hoped he may get from it an intelligent idea of the sub- kingdom so far as it is represented in these islands, and may be assisted in discriminating between most of those conlmonly encountered in the woods and lanes, by the pond and stream, or along the seashore. Of the seven hundred and fifty species of Mollusca indigenous in the British Islands and the adjacent seas, no less than six hundred and fifty species have been briefly described in these pages. But it is not as a shell-collectors handbook that the volume is sent forth rather to suggest the consideration of these creatures as living organisms, whose diversity of form and structure has intirnate relation to their mode of life, the persecution of enemies, and other factors in the struggle for existence-though some of us are at times too apt to regard such differences as being dictated by the needs of the classifying naturalist. In accordance with this intention, so far as was compatible with the necessity for producing a volume of handy size, attention has been directed to those habits and external influences that may reasonably be considered to have brought about nodifications of form and colour, protective resemblances, and so forth. A few words m
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