204 Local Characters of Mussels ; Greening. 



to an allied genus, Modiolaria, wherein the mantle is folded 

 into a tube ; but they are not food products. Regarding (5) the 

 small-sized MARBLED MODIOLARIA (M. marmorata), this finds its 

 way into the skin of the tunicates (or sea-squirts) ; (6) The 

 Modiolaria discors is a nest weaver among the seaweeds ; (7) 

 The BLACK MODTOLARIA (If. nigra), said to reach no further 

 south than the Dogger Bank (Jeffreys), though specimens have 

 been obtained in the Crouch River.* 



Sundry Subjects. (a) Variations in colour and shape. 

 Concerning these, and speaking in a general way, mussels do not 

 bear that marked stamp of local character met with in the 

 oyster. The latter the dealers will instantly tell to a nicety 

 whence the district derived. Usually mussels assume a toler- 

 ably uniform appearance wherever bred. In lots spread over a 

 given restricted area, however, the cultivator knows fairly well 

 from what parts of the ground they may have been procured, 

 from their general appearance. In certain spots some are much 

 barnacled, others clad with weed, hydroids, worm tubes, &c., 

 and elongation or relative breadth, and otherwise style of 

 growth, well fed or stunted state, gives a clue to whereabouts 

 their localization. 



(6) Mclntosh and Herdman have called attention to the 

 absence of "greening" among mussels as compared with 

 oysters. We can corroborate this as applicable to Kent and 

 Essex ; that is, we have neither seen nor heard of the occurrence 

 among the vast numbers under constant supervision. 



(c) The manner in which mussels group themselves into 

 bunches, and how it arises that these so collect mud in such 

 abundance, deserves a few words.f Oysters in their early 

 stages get soon irrevocably fixed. Whereas mussels at a similar 

 age are to some extent wanderers, actively employing their 

 elastic foot to drag them hither and thither. Afterwards, by 

 chance or choice, they take to settled life, often in near 

 proximity to each other. Then comes their spinning and throw- 

 ing out of foot-webs (byssus) and complex entanglement of 



* " Trawling and Dredging in Crouch, 1891," Essex Nat. VI., 1892. 

 t See Ascroft's remarks, L. S-F. Labor. (1898), already referred to. 



