THE SCALLOP. 



543 



two hundred to the inch. The absorption of water during the 

 time in which they could have been fertilized would have en- 

 larged the eggs, but to what extent is unknown. On June 10th 

 I found microscopic scallops attached to blades of grass and 

 weeds by a byssus, apparently like that of the mussel ; they 

 measured about eighteen to the centimetre, something over forty- 

 five to the inch. Lack of circulation killed them in three days, 

 and another lot was collected on June 18th, which were appar- 

 ently of the same size.* No more were found until August 18th, 

 when the growth was noticeable, the shells measuring about two 

 centimetres, or three quarters of an inch. These last were taken 

 from the bottom, and had lost the threads which had attached 

 them to the grass. 



Scallops are generally believed to live but a few years, many 

 of the fishermen limiting them to only two, but this is a difiicult 

 matter to determine. They spawn in May in the bays of Long 

 Island, perhaps in June also ; the young attach to the eel-grass, 

 and in August will measure three quarters of an inch across the 

 shell. The next year they are about the size of an American sil- 

 ver dollar, and are too small for the use of most persons and for 

 market. They are thrown on the beach at Cold Spring Harbor 

 and along the north shore of 

 Long Island by the winter 

 winds and freeze in great 

 numbers, and a frozen scal- 

 lop never recovers life, as 

 some mollusks are said to 

 do. In this harbor there is 

 often a good set of scal- 

 lops on the grass, but their 

 weight usually breaks the 

 grass, and they are drifted 

 out into Long Island Sound 

 to stock other grounds, and 

 it is only once in several 

 years that there is anything 

 like a scallop crop in the harbor, and when the season is called 

 good the local demand takes them all, and none reach the market. 

 The fact that this harbor, and Oyster Bay also, are extensively 

 planted with oysters, would prevent dredging for scallops to any 

 great extent if they were plenty, and the few that are taken are 

 caught by the oystermen in their rowboats. From our present 



* After these investigations, and since tliis article was written, Dr. James L. Kellogg has 

 published similar observations on the scallop in the Report of the U. S. Fish Commissioner 

 for 1893. 



