45 
PECTEN ZELANDIA (Plate X.).—Fig. 3 is a still 
smaller shell, and the most brilliantly coloured of our Pecten 
family. The valves are similar in shape, and covered with short 
spikes. It has only the one ear, or lug, at the hinge end, but 
sometimes a portion of the ear is found on the other side. This 
shell lives amongst rocks, or in sponges, or on the roots of kelp, 
in sheltered or fairly sheltered portions of open beaches. It is 
found attached to the rocks by a byssus, or beard. 
PINNA ZELANDICA (Plate X.).—Fig. 4 is generally known 
as the Horse Mussel. It is usually found amongst the grass, about 
low water mark, on sandy beaches, especially those containing a 
proportion of mud. The natives call it Hururoa or Kupa, and 
in some places it is a staple article of diet with them. This horse 
mussel is found in certain spots in great numbers, and is then 
useless for a cabinet. The collector should look for odd scattered 
specimens. As a rule, only about half an inch of the shell will 
be found protruding above the beach, in very shallow water, but 
in deep water more of the shell will protrude. 
MYTILUS LATUS (Plate X.).—Fig. 5 is the ordinary 
mussel, with a green epidermis, and the part near the hinge is 
usually eroded, as shown in the plate. It grows to a considerable 
size in New Zealand, being sometimes 8 inches in length, and 
is found in enormous quantities in favoured localities on rocks 
or attached by its beard in clusters to old cockle and other shells 
on the banks. About twenty years ago hundreds of acres of banks 
between the town of Tauranga and the sea were in one season 
colonised by mussel spawn, and although the mussel was before 
that date a rare thing on these banks, yet after the colonisation 
the banks were simply a mass of mussels, and the water, being 
only from one to two fathoms deep at low spring tide, they were 
easily procurable. On the other hand, banks near Kati Kati 
Heads, that were covered a few years ago, are now without mussels. 
This is probably due to some disease breaking out through over- 
crowding. The Mytilus edulis (not shown on plate) is a purplish 
shell, of similar shape and habits to the above, but much smaller 
in size. The Maori name for a mussel is Kuku or Porope or Tore- 
tore or Kutai, and for the smaller mussels Kukupara or Purewa 
or Toriwai. 
