STRUCTURE OP BIVALVES. 289 



great attraction to those who amuse themselves 

 gathering specimens of our native shells. What 

 has already been said of the mantle is equally 

 applicable to that of the scallop. Around its 

 margin, however, there are numerous pellucid, 

 thread-like tentacula, which the animal can pro- 

 trude or retract at will. But what is most 

 remarkable is, that along its margin is a row of 

 singularly beautiful eyes, so placed that each eye 

 can look out upon the watery world through one 

 of the grooves in the fluted shell Unlike many 

 bivalves, the scallop possesses the power of loco- 

 motion, a circumstance stated by Aristotle, and, 

 although - subsequently doubted, now confirmed 

 by modern naturalists. The animal, by opening 

 its shells, and suddenly shutting them, is enabled 

 to propel itself through the water, and from the 

 rapid movements of its variegated valves, it has 

 been appropriately called the sea-butterfly. The 

 beautiful figure of the Crouching Venus in the 

 celebrated Maffei Collection is placed sitting in a 

 shell of this kind, in correspondence with the 

 classic myth that the sea-born goddess arose from 

 the ocean in a scallop. The scallop-shell was, in 

 the olden time, worn by pilgrims to the Holy 

 Land, as an indication of their having performed 

 their pilgrimage. 



JJ 



