33 



CHAPTER YI. 



SOFT BEDS AND SAFE KETREATS, — MYA, FOOD FOR FISH AND MEN. — 



FRESH WATER AND DEFORMITY. PANOP^A, AND THE PLEASURES OF 



DREDGING. 



MYAD^, OR GAPERS. 



As the TholadidcE for the most part live m holes which 

 they have excavated in stones and wood, so the Myadce, 

 or Gapers, bury themselves in gravel, sand, or mud. The 

 shells are widely open in front; hence the popular name 

 of " gapers/' 



The genera Mya and Panopcea represent this family in 

 the British seas. 



MYA. 



Mya truncata is a coarse, brown-skinned, and broad- 

 shelled mollusc, of a squarish-oblong form in the body, and 

 with a very rough and wrinkled cover to its long, rather 



D 



