The Soft Clam 281 



refer to many forms, but a single form may have several 

 names. Mya, in different localities, is known as the 

 clam, the soft clam, the long neck, long clam, squirt clam, 

 and in England as the sand gasper, and old maid. In 

 France, Norway, Korea, and Japan, it of course has 

 many other names. To use only vernacular names in 

 zoological writings evidently would lead to the utmost 

 confusion, so biologists the world over employ a com- 

 mon nomenclature, and when an English book or paper 

 refers to Mya arenaria, the Japanese student who reads 

 it has no doubt as to the species that is meant. 



Each species is given two names, the first or generic, 

 being a family name, and the second a species name. In 

 New England waters we have two scallops, closely re- 

 lated, but differing in some characters. The generic or 

 family name of these is Pecten (begun with a capital), 

 and the two species are distinguished as Pecten tenuicos- 

 tatus (the species name begun with a small letter) and 

 Pecten irradians. 



With this lengthy explanation, we may consider se- 

 curely some of the habits of Mya arenaria — or Mya for 

 short, for there are no other species on our shores with 

 which it is apt to be confused; or if, from force of habit, 

 we return to " clam," the name at present is to mean 

 Mya. 



Mya spends the greater part of its life buried in the 

 mud or sand. Large individuals sometimes burrow to a 

 depth of more than a foot. Food and oxygen must 

 continually be gotten from the water, so the creature 

 reaches up to it by means of its siphon tubes, the ends of 

 which may be seen when the bottom is nearly exposed. 

 When the water is quite gone, these siphon ends are 

 slightly retracted from the surface, and leave a depression 



