SCROBICULARIA. 441 



his yacht. One haul yielded some of the present species, 

 which is more frequently met with on the shore, thrown 

 up by the waves, than fresh from its native haunts. 

 When the dredge came up, the whole party rushed for- 

 ward to see the result ; and Baron Middendorff (the great 

 Russian conchologist) in his eagerness nearly knocked 

 down one of them. Stopping suddenly short, he took 

 off his hat and made this apology for his unintentional 

 rudeness "Mille pardons, Monsieur! mais je suis 

 enivre des coquilles." S. alba can not only burrow, but 

 walk; and Bouchard-Chantereaux mentions his having 

 watched them crawling up the sides of a phial filled 

 with sea- water, in which he kept some specimens. Dr. 

 Leach says that it is a favourite food of the cod. This 

 shell attains a large size in the Shetland seas, being 

 about an inch in breadth and of proportionate length. 

 Its colour is always pure white, and uncontaminated by 

 the mud with which it is in contact the lustre being 

 perhaps preserved by constant activity, as is the case 

 with our own moral virtues : 



" Perseverance, dear my lord, 



Keeps honour bright : to have done, is to hang 

 Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail 

 In monumental mockery." 



Its nearest ally is S. nitida ; but that species is flatter 

 and of a more delicate and fragile texture, the posterior 

 side is elongated and produced to a more acute point, 

 and the gape at that end is considerably wider. 



It is the Mactra Boysii of Montagu, Tellina pellucida 

 of Brocchi, T. opalina of Renier, Amphidesma semi- 

 dentata of Scacchi (according to Philippi), Erycina 

 Renieri of Bronn, Abra fabalis of S. Wood, and Am- 

 phidesma Boysiana of Leach. 



u5 



