I50 



Shell Life 



the other, with a marked preference for the open 

 sea over estuaries. 



The Small Gaper (ilf. hinghanii) has a wedge-shaped 

 shell, with unequal valves which 

 gape behind, smooth, and with 

 line lines instead of the coarse 

 ones of the other species. It is 

 white beneath the epidermis, which 

 is pale brown. The siphons are 

 short, especially the incurrent one. 

 This species does not burrow in 

 the ground as its congeners do; 

 instead, it takes possession of 

 holes that have been made by the 

 Rock-borers (Saxicava), the empty 

 tubes of Serpulse, and the crevices 

 of the so-called roots of the great 

 Tangles and Wracks, between 5 

 and 25 fathoms. It attaches itself 

 by means of a byssus. Individuals 

 that live this free, out-of-door life, 

 so to speak, are liable to be mis- 

 taken for Saxicava or Thracia. 



The Basket - shells (Corhula), 

 though a large genus, are repre- 

 sented in this country by a single species, the 

 Common Basket - shell (G. gibha), in which the 

 unequal size of the valves noticed in 3Iya is much 

 accentuated, so much indeed that the left valve 

 appears almost like an operculum to the right. The 

 shell is also drawn out behind to make a cover for 

 the siphons, which are so short as to be only 

 slightly protruded. The shell is white tinged with 



Blunt Gaper 

 (one-fifth nat. size) 



