11 



MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN 



VOL. XI, 



Fu;. 5. — The Muuai, (Dona.'- 

 ciiHcata Linn). x i|. 



Mural (Donax cuneata Linn.). 



1-^x\\\\\— Mural (g/J/t^J', Palicat Lake; Vashi niatti {ovai^]LniLuj.), 



Pa m ban. 



This small, much compressed bivalve is roughly wedge-shaped 

 in outline, the posterior part of the shell being obliquely truncate. 



It is abundant between tide-marks 

 and for some short distance below 

 low-water level. It never enters 

 backwaters and is essentially a 

 marine form. In size it seldom 

 exceeds 40 mm. in length. 



On the east coast, the mural 

 usually abounds in great numbers, 

 particularly on surf beaten sand 

 flats. On the Malabar coast it is 

 also plentiful but is usually smaller. 

 In Tamil districts, especially on the Coromandel coast, the mural is 

 chiefly valued by the fisherfolk (Pattanavars, etc.) whose lads are 

 accustomed to collect it when rough weather cuts off the usual 

 supplies of sea fish. The mural serves largely to meet such an 

 emergency. It is seldom collected for sale. 



The mural lives in the surface layer of sand ; the boys who 

 collect it turn over the wet sand with their feet as the tide recedes. 

 As usual with Indian fishermen the flesh of the mural is used in 

 curries ; sometimes it is put in whole, but in the neighbourhood of 

 Madras it is more frec^uently ground into a paste after being boiled 

 and incorporated with other ingredients of the curry. 



Like so many other Indian molluscs, two maximal spawning 

 periods can be made out, April — May and September, respectively. 



The Cockle Clam (Circe gibba Lamk.). 



Tamil — Vari matti (surflLOLli^), 



This shell is particularly plentiful in Palk Bay and the Gulf of 

 Mannar where, especially in the former area, its collection is 

 important to the Kadayans, Valayans and allied coast castes. 



It is a strongly ribbed white shell with a superficial 

 resemblance to the European cockle (Cardium cdiih') — the ridges 

 running radially from the umbo to the margin — and of about the 

 same average size. Its dimensions average when fully grown 

 45 ^ 37 rnm. with a thickness of about 33 mm. It spawns about 

 the beginning of September at Tuticorin. It frequents muddy sands 



