192 Small Scallops and Habits Generally. 



credits Brightlingsea with 10 first class smacks scalloping 

 January to March inclusive. 



(2.) Under the ordinary name of " QUEENS " comes the 

 Pecten opercularis, otherwise " Frills " of S. Devon, " Squins " of 

 Dorset, alias Common Scallop and " Clam " of the Scotch 

 fisheries. This appears to range with us from the Channel 

 along E. Kent (e.g. Deal, Shellness, common near Margate) and 

 the entire seaboard of Essex (e.g., E. Swin, the Deeps, and near 

 Harwich plentiful on the Landguard Fort Beach). It is got of 

 2 1 inches in diameters, not infrequently of lesser size. It 

 comes up in the dredge along with the large scallops and deep- 

 sea oysters, and passes current with the former, both being 

 used for food, as well as a taking bait for the deep-sea fishers. 



(3 and 4.) The small-sized VARIEGATED SCALLOP (P. varius) 

 and the LITTLE SCALLOP (P. pusio) are seldom above If inches 

 in diameters. They, like the Operculate Pecten, are spread 

 round our coasts, and more generally are found nearer shore 

 than are Nos. 1 and 2. P. varius has been obtained in the 

 Blackwater, and in rare instances may turn up near the Bed 

 Sand and Girdler, though none of the scallops are strictly 

 shallow, brackish, estuarine forms. 



The habits of all the scallops in most senses approach those 

 of the native oyster. They dwell on the same grounds, are 

 hermaphrodite, and in their ciliated embryonic condition they 

 whisk about freely. They do not, however, usually in our 

 area, fix themselves to solid objects for good by their shells, as 

 does the oyster, more often in numerous groups being partially 

 inserted in the muddy sand. The}' may be likened to the 

 mussel, inasmuch as in their juvenile stage they spin, tem- 

 porarily, threads (byssus) of attachment. They even possess a 

 certain power of jerking locomotion by flapping their shells 

 together. The shells of the adults are regularly ribbed, the 

 Channel specimens often exhibiting flourishing bunches of 

 waving hydroids(the fishermen's whiteweed plants, fig. 11, p. 77). 

 Their food is like that of the oyster. Of their periods of 



