48 PECTINID^. 



ants between their teeth for the sake of the formic acid, 

 nor Russian ladies swallow little fishes alive in order to 

 tickle their throats. I am told that at St. Petersburg 

 fresh oysters are not reckoned eatable, but that they 

 are kept till they become ' ' high " and have a gamy 

 flavour ! One of the many good qualities of the oyster 

 is perhaps not generally known, and it has not been 

 noticed by any popular writer. It is reticence. Colman, 

 in his c Broad Grins/ says that the tiny page of Lady 

 Erpingham 



" Slipp'd the Dame's note into the Friar's hand, 

 As he was walking in the cloister ; 

 And, then, slipp'd off — as silent as an oyster." 



Family III. PECTI'NID^E, Lamarck. 



Body oval or oblong, compressed : mantle having thick 

 edges : cini long and extensile : gills reflected : foot deve- 

 loped. 



Shell spade-shaped, usually inequivalve and inequilateral : 

 beaks small, straight, and pointed, with lateral triangular pro- 

 cesses like ears or wings : hinge toothless : cartilage internal, 

 placed in a cavity beneath the beaks and strengthened by a 

 narrow ligament on each side. 



The animal has a distinct foot, which is capable of 

 spinning a byssus, or bundle of horny threads, for attach- 

 ment to other bodies. It is also endued with a peculiar 

 power of locomotion. By a muscular action, analogous 

 to that which is known as systole and diastole, and by 

 repeatedly taking in and expelling a quantity of water, 

 it flits or jerks itself along for a considerable distance 

 although not in a straight line, flapping the valves of 

 its shell inwards like the wings of a bird in full flight. 

 The ventral margins are in front, the beaks are behind, 



