40 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



to say, they are getting very scarce, and also from 

 Brixham, where they are highly prized by the fisher- 

 men. They do not, however, often bring them on 

 shore, though they bring them up in the dredges, 

 unless they wish to make a present of a dish to some 

 friend, or know where they can dispose of them. 

 They call them " Torbay-noses," and they are also 

 known by the names of " Oxhorn- cockles," and 

 " Heart-shells ;" in France, Coeur de boeuf; in Hol- 

 land, Zots-kappen, or fool's cap ; at Naples, Cocciola 

 zigga ; and at Venice, Bibaronde mare, and Ghama a 

 cuore. Dr. J. G. Jeffreys, quoting an interesting 

 account of Isocardia cor, by the Rev. James Bulwer 

 (who kept a specimen in a vessel of sea-water, and 

 was therefore able to study the habits of the animal), 

 given in the ' Zoological Journal/ states, " that the 

 animal appears insensible both to sound and light, as 

 the presence or absence of either did not interrupt its 

 movements ; but its sense of feeling appeared to be 

 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 

 assistance 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.* Rest- 

 ing in this position on the margin of a sand-bank of 



* ■ British Conchology/ vol. ii. pp. 300, 801. 



