64 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



There are many instances in which the name of a 

 creature gives some indication of what it is : as, a bird is 

 designated " the cuckoo " from its well-known note ; and 

 an insect is called " the carpenter bee," from its movements 

 resembling those of that well-known artisan ; but the 

 oyster cannot be cited as an example of this kind. Its 

 earliest names in Greek and Latin are derived from the 

 words ostreon and osfrea, the terms applied to bones, which 

 attracted earlier attention than shells, and from their bein^ 



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alike hard substances. 



The oyster is usually described as a shell-jfa/2 ; but it 

 is so very erroneously. A fish has a bony or cartilaginous 

 skeleton ; it swims, too, by the action of its fins ; and in 

 these respects, not to mention others, it is clearly distin- 

 guished in its structure from the oyster. In no sense of 

 the word is the term jfa/^ applicable to this animal. 



The place assigned to it by naturalists among 

 the mollusca gives a clue to its just appreciation ; that 

 appellation being derived from the Latin word mollis, 

 which means soft and applied to all soft-bodied creatures, 

 whether having shells or not. The oyster is, therefore, 

 properly speaking, a mollusc, and is protected by an upper 

 and an under shell. " Such a life and such a habitation ! ' 

 says Michelet. " In no other creature is there the same 

 identity between the inhabitant and the nest. Drawn from 

 its own substance, the edifice is the continuation of its 

 fleshy mantle. It follows its forms and tints. The 

 architect has communicated its own substance to the 

 edifice." The shell of the Mollusca has been variously 

 accounted for by naturalists. " We might regard the shell 

 as the bone of the animal which occupies it," says a 

 celebrated French Naturalist ; and then he gives expression 

 to a very different view. " We may say as a general thesis 



