No. I (1917) 



EDIBLE MOLLUSCS 



35 



action between tide marks on the east coast, small limpets can 

 usually be found. The rocks off the beach at Covelong, Chingleput 

 district, are where I have seen them most numerous and there some 

 of the poorer among the fisher people are accustomed to collect 

 them for food. They are also to be seen on the rocks at Mandapam 

 but no use seems to be made of them. The available suitable 

 ground is too limited in this Presidency to permit this shell-fish to 

 be put to extensive use. 



Fresh-water Snails (Ampullaria and Vivipara). 



Tamil — Natluii (/5.i«OT«) for Ampullaria ; Uinachclii {smlls^^) 

 for Vivipara. 



Large brown water-snails belonging to the genus Ampullaria are 

 abundant in fresh-water marshes and ponds, as well as in paddy 



fields where they are often seen in 

 great numbers and up to I^" dia- 

 meter as a usual size. Throughout 

 the Presidency they are collected 

 after the paddy has been harvested 

 and the fields run dry, by low caste 

 women who use them to help out 

 their ordinary meals. They are also 

 used medicinally for sore eyes. 



Scale states that in Manila and 

 other Philippine towns large 

 quantities are sold at an average 

 price of l^ anna per kilogramme. 

 Vivipara, another common but 

 much smaller fresh-water snail, is also used to some extent as food in 

 the Southern Tamil districts, being gathered in ponds, marshes and 

 paddy fields in company with the larger Ampullaria. It is less 

 esteemed than iiat/iai, being both smaller and less succulent. 



In preparing all fresh-water snails for food, it is essential to 

 remember that care should be taken to cook them thoroughly, as 

 some species in other countries are known to harbour larvae of 

 certain parasitic worms which cause dangerous diseases if they 

 pass alive into a new host. In England and elsewhere the small 

 pond-snail Liniuaca is often infested with the young of the liver- 

 fluke, a parasitic flat worm which causes much disease among sheep 



Fi 



, 21. — The brown water-snail 

 {Ampidlaria). Natural size. 



