PHOLADID.E. PIDDOCK. 161 



France it is called le dail commun, gite, or pitau ; and in 

 Spain, folado. 



An old fisherman told me that the pudworm, as he 

 called it, was a very delicate fish ; and he had often 

 noticed on the Hampshire coast, that at low spring- 

 tides, in the winter, when sharp frosts set in, and when 

 that part of the shore, where these mollusks bury them- 

 selves, is left exposed by the tide, they are all killed. He 

 was in the habit of collecting the Pholas dactylus as bait 

 for white fish, digging them out of the clay or shale; and 

 he added that if he kept them a day or so before using 

 them, they changed colour, and shone like glowworms, 

 even shone quite brightly in the water, some distance 

 below the surface, when put on the hooks for bait. 



This reminds me of the following quaint lines in Bre- 

 ton's l Ourania/ quoted in Daniel's ' Rural Sports:' — 



" The glovvworme shining in a frosty night 

 Is an admirable thing in Shepheard's sight. 

 Twentie of these wormes put in a small glasse, 

 Stopped so close that no issue doe passe, 

 Hang'd in a Bow-net and suncke to the ground 

 Of a poole or lake, broad and profound j 

 Will take such plentie of excellent fish 

 As well may furnish an Emperor's dish." 



The luminosity of the Pholas after death is referred to 

 by Pliny, who says, " the onyches shine in the dark like 

 fire, and in the mouth even while they are eaten ;"* 

 and, " that it is the property of the dactylus (a fish so 

 called from its strong resemblance to the human nail) 

 to shine brightly in the dark, when all other lights are 

 removed, and the more moisture it has the brighter is 

 the light emitted. In the mouth, even while they are 



* Pliny, Nat. Hist. vol. ii. bk. ix. c. 51. 



M 



