1 88 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



In the south of England it shares with P. opercularis 

 the name of "frill," and in the north that of "clam." 

 According to Athenaeus, this or an allied species (P. Jaco- 

 baeusj was used by the ancients for medicinal purposes, as 

 well as for food. Old fishermen have a notion that it is 

 taken in greater quantities after a fall of snow ; but, if true, 

 this is difficult of explanation, because a scallop never, 

 burrows or lives anywhere but on the surface of the sea- 

 bed. They used to be plentiful in Lulworth Bay, on the 

 Dorset coast ; but now they are rarely found alive. I was 

 told that the breed had been exterminated there by an 

 epicurean officer of the coast-guard. 



Nor were the shells less prized in 



the days when Ossian sung. The flat valves were the 

 plates, the hollow ones the drinking-cups of Fingal and 

 his heroes, and " the joy of the shell went round." The 

 animal of P. maximus has long attracted the attention of 

 naturalists. As Clark observed, " When the valves are 

 Opened, and the mottled surfaces of the double margins of 

 each valve are in conjunction, and the various circles of 

 filaments and cirri fully exserted in a shallow basin of sea- 

 water, it is scarcely possible to conceive a more beautiful and 

 interesting appearance." 



The animal is small compared with the size of the 

 shell. This is also the case with other kinds of Pecten ; 

 and it may be owing to the expansibility of the organs, 

 which require much space for their action. Donovan 

 mentions a strange idea, which was entertained by 

 " modern as well as ancient authors," that the way in 

 which scallops leap or raise themselves up is by forcing 

 the under valve against whatever they lie upon ! Shells 

 sometimes attain an enormous size. Dr. Landsborough 

 says he measured one which was 8 inches long. I have 



