155 



Fam. myad^:. 



MYA.— GAPER. 



"M ya truncata, Linnseus. Gaper or Truncated My a. 

 — Shell equal- valved, suboval, gaping much at the small 

 end, truncated and swollen at the other, covered with a 

 pale greenish epidermis, which also continues over its 

 long broad tube and mantles ; valves wrinkled trans- 

 versely; beaks depressed; umbones prominent, but un- 

 equal ; a large spoon-shaped tooth in left valve, with a 

 socket or hollow in the other ; ligament internal. 



Of the three species of Myadce which inhabit our 

 British seas, two of them are used for food, viz. Mya 

 truncata (the one figured) and Mya arenaria, which 

 last is much eaten at Naples. At Belfast this shell is 

 called " cockle brillion,"* evidently the same name as 

 that applied in Brittany to the winkle, viz. vrelin or 

 brelin. They live buried in the sand or mud, in an 

 upright position, at the mouths of rivers and estua- 

 ries near low-water mark, and at low tide their lo- 

 cality is known by the holes in the surface. It re- 

 quires much labour and patient digging, sometimes to 

 the depth of more than a foot, to procure a dish of 

 these esculents, therefore they are not so common an 

 article of food as others which are more easily gathered. 

 In Orkney, Mya truncata is called kunyu, and is not 

 only eaten, but is used as bait for cod-fishing. The 

 Zetlanders call it smurslin, the Feroese, smirslingur . 

 They eat it boiled. In German it is the klaffmuschel. 

 On some parts of the Devonshire coast it is known as 

 the spoon-shell, probably owing to the wide spoon-shaped 

 tooth in the left valve. The length of a full-grown spe- 

 * Jeffreys, Brit. Conch, vol. iii. p. 65. 



