44 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



very delicate ; minute substances being dropped into 

 the orifice of the mantle instantly excited the animal, 

 and a column of water strongly directed, expelled 

 them from the shell. With so much strength was the 

 water in some instances ejected that it rose above the 

 surface of three inches of superincumbent fluid. . . . 

 Locomotion very confined; it is capable, with the assis- 

 tance of its foot, which it uses in the same manner (but 

 in a much more limited degree) as the Cardiacea, of 

 fixing itself firmly in the sand, generally choosing to 

 have the umbones covered by it, and the orifices of the 

 tubes of the mantle nearly perpendicular."* 



" Resting in this position on the margin of a sand 

 bank of which the surrounding soil is mud, at too great 

 a depth to be disturbed by storms, the Isocardia of our 

 Irish Sea patientty collects its food from the surrounding 

 element, assisted in its choice by the current it is capa- 

 ble of creating by the alternate opening and closing of 

 its valves." 



The Mediterranean species of this bivalve are smaller 

 than those found on our coasts, and there are no less 

 than " five or six kinds known in the European and 

 Indian seas. ;? f 



Epicharmus, in his play of the ( Marriage of Hebe/ 

 mentions shell-fish of all kinds, and says: — 



"And bring too the black 

 Cockle, which keeps the cockle-hunter on the stretch.''^ 



This may possibly refer to the oxhorn-cockle. 



The wife of a coastguardsman who had lived many 

 years at Brixham, and had often luxuriated in a dish of 



* Brit. Conchol., by Jeffreys, vol. ii. pp. 300, 301. 



t ' Manuel de Conchyliologie,' par le Dr. J. C. Chenu. 



% Athenaeus, Bohn's Class. Lib. b. hi. p. 142. 



