48 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 
one. The lower valve is nearly flat, and contains a 
deep fissure or hole at one extremity through which 
the animal passes a bundle of horny threads—the 
byssus—for the purposes of attachment. Our Ano- 
mia appears to be undistinguishable from the com- 
mon European species (Anomia ephippium), and this 
may also be the case with some of the varieties of 
the oyster just described. 
He who has but once trod the Jersey sands knows 
the scallop, whose radiately-ribbed and symmetri- 
cally-formed shell is one of the commonest objects 
on the beach. Indeed, during recent years it has 
been steadily growing in favor as an article of food; 
and why it should be less palatable than its first 
cousin, the oyster, is a little difficult to say. The 
scallop, so called from the service to which the shell 
was formerly put in ‘scalloping’ oysters, inhabits 
the sub-tidal zone to a depth of some 250 feet or 
more, frequently forming by its aggregations vast 
banks. The animal rests on its right valve, which 
is in almost all cases more convex than its fellow. 
Beneath, or at the base of, the anterior ‘ ear’ of this 
valve will be found a fairly profound notch, which 
marks the passage of the byssal fibres secreted by 
the foot. Considerable interest attaches to this 
animal as being the first among the bivalve Mol- 
lusca in which, it was claimed, the presence of 
visual organs had been detected. If the margin 
of the mantle be examined it will be found to be 
double, the inner piece hanging like a finely-fringed 
curtain. Along its base are scattered a number of 
small black or blue specks, to which, for apparently 
