P.S.--I suppose that the animal in the shell must have been alive when the
Dytiscus was captured, otherwise the adductor muscle of the shell would
have relaxed and the shell dropped off.


LETTER 401. TO W.D. CRICK.
Down, February 25th, 1882.

I am much obliged for your clear and distinct answers to my questions. I
am sorry to trouble you, but there is one point which I do not fully
understand. Did the shell remain attached to the beetle's leg from the
18th to the 23rd, and was the beetle kept during this time in the air?

Do I understand rightly that after the shell had dropped off, both being in
water, that the beetle's antenna was again temporarily caught by the shell?

I presume that I may keep the specimen till I go to London, which will be
about the middle of next month.

I have placed the shell in fresh-water, to see if the valve will open, and
whether it is still alive, for this seems to me a very interesting point.
As the wretched beetle was still feebly alive, I have put it in a bottle
with chopped laurel leaves, that it may die an easy and quicker death. I
hope that I shall meet with your approval in doing so.

One of my sons tells me that on the coast of N. Wales the bare fishing
hooks often bring up young mussels which have seized hold of the points;
but I must make further enquiries on this head.