IV MOLLUSCA AS FOOD FOR MAN 103. 



the natives also eat the great Murex and Pyrula, and even the 

 huge Area grandis, which lives embedded in the liquid river mud. 



The common littoral bivalves seem to be eaten in nearly all 

 countries except our own, and it is therefore needless to enume- 

 rate them. The Gasteropoda, whose habits are scarcely sO' 

 cleanly, seem to require a bolder spirit and less delicate palate tO' 

 venture on their consumption. 



The Malays of the East Indian islands eat Telescopiuni 

 fuscum and Pyrazus 'palustris, which abound in the mangrove 

 swamps. They throw them on their wood fires, and when they 

 are sufficiently cooked, break off the top of the spire and suck 

 the animal out through the opening. Haliotis they take out of 

 the shell, string together, and dry in the sun. The lower classes 

 in the Philippines eat Area inaequivalvis, boiling them as. 

 we do mussels.^ In the Corean islands a species of Monodonta 

 and another of 3fytilus are quite peppery, and bite the tongue ; 

 our own Helix revelata, as I can vouch from personal experience,, 

 has a similar flavour. Fusus eolosseus, Eapana hezoar, and 

 Purpura luteostoma are eaten on the southern coasts of China ; 

 Stromhus luhuanus, Turho elirysostomus, Trochus niloticus, and 

 Patella testudinaria, by the natives of New Caledonia ; Stromhus 

 gigas and Livona piea in the West Indies ; Turbo niger and 

 Concholepas peruvianus on the Chilian coasts ; four species of 

 Stromhus and Nerita, one each of Purpura and Turho, besides 

 two Tridacna and one Hippopus, by the natives of British New 

 Guinea. West Indian negroes eat the large Chitons which are 

 abundant on their rocky coasts, cutting off and swallowing raw 

 the fleshy foot, which they call ' beef,' and rejecting the viscera. 

 Dried cephalopods are a favourite Chinese dish, and are regu- 

 larly exported to San Francisco, where the Chinamen make them 

 into soup. The ' Challenger ' obtained two species of Sepia and 

 two of Loligo from the market at Yokohama. 



The insipidity of fresh-water MoUusca renders them much 

 less desirable as a form of food. Some species of Unionidae, 

 however, are said to be eaten in France. Anodonta edulis is 

 specially cultivated for food in certain districts of China, and 

 the African Aetheriae are eaten by negroes. JVavicella and 

 Neritina are eaten in Mauritius, Ampullaria and Neritina in 

 Guadeloupe, and Paludina in Cambodia. 



^ A. Adams, Voyage of the ' Samaranr/,' ii. p. 308. 



