[Illustration: FIG. 85.--_Lima squamosa_ Lam., Naples, showing tentacular lobes of mantle (_t_, _t_); _a_, anus; _ad.m_, adductor muscle; _br_, _br_, branchiae; _f_, foot; _sh_, shell.] =Taste.=--The sense of taste is no doubt present, to a greater or less extent, in all the head-bearing Mollusca. In many of these a special nerve or nerves has been discovered in the pharynx, connecting with the cerebral ganglion; this no doubt indicates the seat of the faculty of taste. The Mollusca vary greatly in their likings for different kinds of food. Some seem to prefer decaying and highly odoriferous animal matter (_Buccinum_, _Nassa_), others apparently confine themselves to fresh meat (_Purpura_, _Natica_, _Testacella_), others again, although naturally vegetarian, will not refuse flesh on occasion (_Limax_, _Helix_). Mr. W. A. Gain[284] has made some interesting experiments on the taste of British land Mollusca, as evidenced by the acceptance or rejection of various kinds of food. He kept twelve species of _Arion_ and _Limax_, and eight species of _Helix_ in captivity for many months, and tried them with no less than 197 different kinds of food, cannibalism included. Some curious points came out in his table of results. _Amalia gagates_ appears to be surprisingly omnivorous, for out of 197 kinds of food it ate all but 25; _Arion ater_ came next, eating all but 40. _Limax arborum_, on the other hand, was dainty to a fault, eating only seven kinds of food, and actually refusing Swedes, which every other species took with some avidity. Certain food was rejected by all alike, _e.g._ London Pride, Dog Rose, Beech and Chestnut leaves, Spruce Fir, Common Rush, Liverwort, and Lichens; while all, or nearly all, ate greedily of Potatoes, Turnips, Swedes, Lettuces, Leeks, Strawberries, _Boletus edulis_, and common grasses. Few of our common weeds or hedgerow flowers were altogether rejected. _Arion_ and _Limax_ were decidedly less particular in their food than _Helix_, nearly all of them eating earthworms and puff-balls, which no _Helix_ would touch. _Arion ater_ and _Limax maximus_ ate the slime off one another, and portions of skin. _Cyclostoma elegans_ and _Hyalinia nitida_ preferred moist dead leaves to anything else. II. _Sight_