302 ostreadtE. 



" Professor Macgillivray," writes Mr. Jeffreys, "showed 

 me, this last summer, a shell, which, he said, had been named 

 after himself (P. Macgillivrai, Edmonston, Ann. Nat. Hist, 

 vol. xv. p. 250) ; it was undoubtedly an opercularis, having 

 its outer coat eroded either by disease or some acid." 



The animal is shaped like the shell. The margins of 

 the mantle are freely open ; both the fixed and free edges 

 of the pendant borders are fringed with filaments of un- 

 equal length, and appearing as if arranged in two or three 

 irregular rows. These are usually white ; among the 

 series nearest the shell are ranged at regular distances 

 more than thirty bright pearly blue globular ocelli. The 

 mantle-margins themselves are most usually variegated 

 with brown. The body is large, the upper portion cream 

 colour, and the lower or pointed and free part of a bright 

 pink or vermilion hue. The foot is small, conical, and 

 furnished with a byssal groove, from which young spe- 

 cimens often spin a byssus and fix themselves to sea- 

 weeds and corallines. The branchiae are brownish or 

 reddish. 



This handsome shell is generally distributed around our 

 coast, living in various depths, from five to one hundred 

 fathoms, but abounding most in from fifteen to twenty- 

 five fathoms. It is often found gregariously associated in 

 banks of considerable extent, and is abundant on most 

 natural oyster-beds. It is the common scallop of the 

 people, and besides being prized in many places as a de- 

 licious article of food, whether fresh or pickled, its shells 

 are turned to account in the making of ornamental work. 

 It is generally distributed throughout the European seas, 

 and is found fossil in the later tertiaries. 



Note. — Our valued friend and correspondent, Dr. Knapp, has paid particular 

 attention to the variations of the different British species of Poeten. He finds, 



