136 



Shell Life 



Banded Carpet-shell— 

 interior 



mantle is partly toothed and partly waved and scal- 

 loped. The siphons are separate for only a fourth 

 of their length, and are pale 

 yellow, tinged with brown and 

 purple, and with fringed mouths. 

 It is a generally distributed 

 species, and may be found among 

 sand and nullipores from low 

 water to over 100 fathoms. 

 The Pullet Carpet-shell {T. i^idlastra) is triangular- 

 oval, yellow, marked — especially on the hinder part 

 — with dark purple-brown. The concentric lines are 

 iiner and closer on this shell as compared with the 

 last, and in addition there are a vast number of 

 delicate lines radiating from the 

 beaks. The colouring is in some 

 specimens very suggestive of the 

 plumage of a speckled hen, and it is 

 probably from such individuals that 

 the mollusk has got tlie name of 

 Pullet, which is locally applied to it 

 on parts of the Devon coast. The animal varies in 

 colour from white to grey and yellow, and its mantle- 

 margins may be waved or jagged. It is quite a common 

 species, and may be found in the muddy sand of the 

 shore between tide marks, in crevices of the rocks or 

 in the root-like bases of the laro^er seaweeds. In these 

 situations, or in the deserted holes of rock-boring 

 mollusks, it usually spins a byssus after the manner 

 of the Mussel. The Cross-cut Carpet -shell {T. 

 decussata) is decidedly the Carpet-shell, but it is the 

 back of the tapestry that is shown by its sculpture. 

 The lines from the beaks break the surface up into 



Pullet Carpet-shel! 

 (one-fourth nat. size) 



