86 Beautiful Shells. 
translate into a pleasant or agreeable cake, the shell, 
it will be seen, is round like a cake, and its smooth- 
ness and regularity of form render it agreeable to 
look upon. This species, too, comes from the 
Indian Seas, where it is taken on sandy bottoms. 
The American Spiny Oyster, or Spondylus Ame- 
vicanus, brings us into another family, that of the 
Water Clams, called by naturalists Spondylide ; 

with the spines stuck out every way, and no way in 
particular, it looks like a head of hair greatly in 
need of the assistance of one of its pectinated 
relatives. The specific name of this curious shell 
explains itself; the generic name comes from the 
Latin Spondylis—a kind of serpent. 
Passing over the family Malleide, or Hammer 
. Oysters, we come to the Meleagrinide, or Pearl 
Oysters, of which Fig. 1, Plate VIII. is an example. 
