I need not state that with all bivalves the power is increased in proportion to the size of the shell. Even an Oyster can pinch most severely, while the Giant Clam, the shell of which weighs some four hundred pounds, could nearly take off a man’s leg if it seized him. Mr. J. Keast Lord, in his “Naturalist in British Columbia,” relates an amusing story that was told to him by an old settler respecting the power of the Clam’s grip:-- “You see, sir, as I was a-cruising down these flats about sun-up, the tide jist at the nip, as it is now, I see a whole pile of shoveller-ducks snabbling in the mud, and busy as dogfish in herring time. So I creeps down, and slap I let ’em have it. Six on ’em turned over, and off went the pack, gallows scared, and quacking like mad.” “Down I runs to pick up the dead uns, when I see an old mallard a-playing up all kinds o’ antics, jumping, backing, flapping, but fast by the head, as if he had his nose in a steel trap; and when I comes up to him, blest if a large Clam hadn’t hold of him, hard and fast, by the beak.” “The old mallard might ha’ tried his hardest, but may I never bait a martin-trap again if that Clam wouldn’t ha’ held him agin any odds till a tide run in, and then he’d ha’ been a gone shoveller sure as shooting. So I cracked up the Clam with the butt of my old gun, and bagged the mallard.” Of course the reader will remember that this was only an ordinary Clam, and not one of the giant race. * * * * * BELOW the shell are two very perfect instances of natural Pincers, each acting in a different manner, but on the same principle. The Earwig is too familiar to need much description, but I may as well state that its pincers are not primarily intended as weapons, although they can be so used on occasion. (I was about to say, at a pinch, but refrain.) They resemble our ordinary pincers in that both blades move equally, and they are so completely under the control of their owner, that the insect uses them with a delicacy of touch that a lady’s fingers could hardly surpass. They are really tools, and not weapons, and are employed for the purpose of folding the wide and delicate wings under the tiny elytra. There is another insect called the Scorpion-fly (_Panorpa_), the male of which is furnished with a pair of pincers at the end of a long and flexible tail, articulated just like the tail of a scorpion, and moved in exactly the same manner. It is but a little insect, but its gestures are so menacing as it flourishes its tail about, that non-entomologists may well be pardoned for being afraid of it. Moreover, small as are the pincers, they really can give a smart nip, and make themselves felt on the human skin. * * * * *