LIMPITS. 59 



speckled Scallop, (P. varia,) which may be found on almost any 

 part of the coast where the water-line is margined with a 

 sandy ridge. The shells are generally about two inches long, of 

 various colours, clouded, speckled, and marked with about twelve 

 ribs. There is a foreign species called the Plounder Scallop, 

 P. pleuroncctes, which is remarkable for having the two valves 

 of the shell of different colours, the upper one being of a 

 rich reddish brown, and the lower one white: the specific 

 name has reference to this, being compounded of the Latin 

 'pleura — something double, and nedo — to join. The fish called 

 the Flounder, is brown above and white beneath, hence the 

 Englisli name of this shell. The preceding engraving of the 

 Common Scallop, viewed from the front, shows the flat and 

 concave form of the two valves of this shell, and also the 

 depth of the indentations or ridges. 



LIMPITS. 



Among the rocks of the British coast, there are no shells 

 more frequently met with than those of the Common Limpit, 

 Patella vulgata; they lie scattered about like so many little 

 empty cups, each having, on the death of the mollusk, fallen 

 from the rocky cavity in which it was embedded, and which 

 was just large enough to contain it. Here the animal attaches 

 itself so firmly by its fibrous foot, which is hollow in the 

 centre, and acts like a sucker, that it is almost impossible to 

 loosen its hold otherwise than by inserting something thin, 

 like the blade of a knife between it and the stone. By 

 this power of adhesion, the Limpit is protected from the vio- 

 lence of the waves, and also from its numerous enemies, 

 aquatic birds and animals, which have a relish for its flesh. 

 Still vast numbers are used as food, both by man and the 

 inferior creatures, so that the means of defence furnished to 

 the Limpits of the rock, are not always sure. "The peasantry 

 of the western isles of Scotland," we are told by Miss Pratt, 

 ''look to the Periwinkles and Limpits, which abound on the 

 rocks, for their daily meal, often for long seasons, subsisting 



