Animal Intelligence: The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV. — John Shaqi
Animal Intelligence: The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV.Romanes, George John
Science
Animal Intelligence: The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV.
Romanes, George John
Animal behavior; Animal intelligence
The holes in the chalk in which the limpets are often
to be found are, I believe, excavated in a great
measure by rasping from the lingual teeth, though I
doubt whether the object is to form a cavity to
shelter in, though the cavities, when formed, may be
of use for that purpose. It must be of the greatest
importance to a limpet that, in order that it may
insure a firm adherence to the rock, its shell should
fit the rock accurately; when the shell does fit the
rock accurately, a small amount of muscular
contraction of the animal would cause the shell to
adhere so firmly to a smooth surface as to be
practically immoveable without fracture. As the shells
cannot be adapted daily to different forms of surface,
the limpets generally return to the same place of
attachment. I am sure this is the case with many; for
I found shells perfectly adjusted to the uneven
surfaces of flints, the growth of the shells being in
some parts distorted and indented to suit
inequalities in the surface of the flints. . . .
I noticed signs that limpets prefer a hard, smooth
surface to a pit in the chalk. On one surface of a
large block, over all sides of which limpets were
regularly and plentifully distributed, there were two
flat fragments of a fossil shell about 3 inches by 4
inches, each embedded in the chalk. The chalk all
round these fragments was free from limpets; but on
the smooth surface of the pieces of shell they were
packed as closely as they could be. I noticed another
case, which almost amounts, to my mind, to a proof
that they prefer a smooth surface to a hole. A limpet
had formed a clearing on one of the sea-weed-covered
blocks before referred to. In the midst of this
clearing was a pedestal of flint rather more than one
inch in diameter, standing up above the surface of the
chalk; it projected so much that a tap from my hammer
broke it off. On the top of the smooth fractured
surface of this flint the occupant of the clearing had
taken up its abode. The shell was closely adapted to
the uneven surface, which it would only fit in one
position. The cleared surface was in a hollow with
several small natural cavities, where the limpet could
have found a pit ready made to shelter in; yet it
preferred, after each excursion, to climb up to the
top of the flint, the most exposed point in all its
domain.[15]
It appears certain from these observations, which to some extent were
anticipated by those of Mr. F. C. Lukis,[16] that limpets, after every
browsing excursion, return to one particular spot or home; and the
precise memory of direction and locality implied by this fact seems to
justify us in regarding these actions of the animal as of a nature
unquestionably intelligent.
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