CAEDIADtE. — COCKLE. 55 



a tablespoonful of flour mixed in half-a-pint of water, 

 or rather more, and a little pepper ; let them stew in 

 the frying-pan (shaking it frequently), until the flour 

 is set. Serve them as hot as possible, and garnish 

 with the bacon, or not, according to taste. 



The natives of the seigniory of Gower cook cockles 

 in various ways ; sometimes they fry them with ham. 

 They also make excellent pies of cockles with chopped 

 chives, a layer of bacon being placed at the bottom of 

 the dish ; or they fry the cockles with oatmeal and 

 chives, or oatmeal alone ; they also make of them an 

 excellent and nutritious soup. 



In Ireland, the common cockles are cooked in their 

 shells over the fire, and eaten with oaten cake. The 

 shells are separated by twisting them apart, and a 

 little butter is put into the shell, which is then placed 

 on the turf-fire till the fish inside is fried. 



Mr. Blackburn, in his ' Travelling in Spain in the 

 Present Day,' says, that one of the best dishes at 

 Seville is composed of rice, pimentoes, cockles (in- 

 cluding sand and shells), well boiled in oily gravy. 



Caudium Rusticum, or Tuberculatum, Linnaeus. 

 Red-nosed Cockle. — Shell nearly three inches in length, 

 and two in breadth ; very solid, subrotund, opaque, 

 with twenty-one or more broad ribs which radiate 

 from the beaks, with knots or tubercles on them, which 

 on the anterior slope are flat, and even wanting in 

 young specimens, and on the posterior side are more 

 pointed and rugged ; the interstices between the ribs 

 coarsely striated. Umbones prominent; beaks in- 

 curved. Ligament large, central tooth large, and the 

 lateral teeth remote. 



This large, handsome cockle is essentially a Mediter- 



