12 



an accuracy at least equal to that which is shown in 

 the accounts given by certain naturalists of our own 

 time. According to Aristotle the 2wXr)v9 were said to 

 withdraw into their holes on a noise being made, and 

 to sink deeper when they perceived the motion of the 

 iron implements used for their capture. Athenaeus in 

 his learned gossip of the philosophers at supper (an- 

 swering in some particulars to the ' Noctes Ambrosiana^ 

 of our modern Athens) quotes some verses of Epichar- 

 mus, commemorative of Hebe's marriage, in which slen- 

 der Solens were enumerated among the dainties at the 

 nuptial feast. They are also mentioned by other Greek 

 writers. Sophron says that widows were especially 

 fond of them ; it does not appear what sort of consola- 

 tion they afforded. Diphilus pretended to distinguish 

 the male from the female Solen by their shells : that of 

 the former was striped, and the fish a good remedy for 

 the stone and similar complaints ; while the shell of the 

 female was of a uniform hue, and its fish more savoury. 

 They were eaten boiled or fried ; but the best way of 

 cooking them was to roast them on a wood fire until they 

 gaped. In Pennant's time they were brought up to 

 table fried in batter. The last-named author had a 

 strange notion that the Solens, " when in want of food, 

 elevate one end a little above the surface, and protrude 

 their bodies far out of the shell " ! This is repeated by 

 Montagu and Wood. 



The razorfishes (or " spoutfishes," as they were 

 called by Grew and other naturalists of former days) 

 usually burrow in sand at the verge of low- water mark, 

 not perpendicularly, but in a slanting direction at an angle 

 of about 60 degrees. On the retreat of spring tides 

 they may be seen nearly half out of their holes, appa- 

 rently taking in a supply of oxygen for their gills. They 



