In all the pedunculata, I have reason to believe that these muscles are in constant slight involuntary action. This being the case, I conceive that the small, blunt, spur-like portion of the peduncle, descending beneath the basal rim of the lowest disc, would inevitably partake slightly of the movements of the whole distended animal. As soon as the Lithotrya has reached that depth, which its instinct points out as most suitable to its habits, the discs are converted into an irregularly growing cup, and the animal then only increases in diameter, enlarging its cavity by the action of the serrated scales on the peduncle, and of the serrated lower edges of the valves of the capitulum. With respect to those reversed individuals attached with their capitulums downwards, I suppose that the larvæ had crept into some deep cavity, perhaps made originally by a Lithotrya, of which the rock in the specimen in question was quite full, and had there attached themselves. Finally, it appears that in Lithotrya the burrowing is simply a mechanical action; it is effected by each layer of shell in the basal attached discs overlapping, in a straight line, the last-formed layer,--by the membrane of the peduncle and the valves of the capitulum having excellent and often renewed rasping surfaces,--and, lastly, by the end of the peduncle (that is homologically the front of the head) thus roughened, extending beyond the surface of attachment, and possessing the power of slight movement. [66] Mr. Hancock, in his admirable account of his burrowing Cirripede, _Alcippe lampas_, (‘Annals of Nat. Hist.,’ Nov. 1849, p. 313,) came to this conclusion regarding the cup of Lithotrya, and hence was led to think that this genus did not form its own burrows, but inhabited pre-existing cavities. I am much indebted to this gentleman, who has been so eminently successful in his researches on the boring powers of marine animals, for giving me his opinion on several points connected with the present discussion.