ig6 



BY THE DEEP SEA. 



rule it is avoided by the fishermen, on account of the risk to 

 their nets and the small price realised for the mollusks after 

 they have caught them. It will be noted more conspicuously 

 in this species, on account of its size, that the right valve, 

 which is the lower one when the creature is lying on its bed, 

 is far more convex than the left or upper one. It is exceed- 

 ingly variable in colour. 



The Variable Pecten (P. va- 

 rius] carries out its name to the 

 letter, for out of a score one 

 could scarcely find two that 

 agreed in colour and the dispo- 

 sition of the markings. Their 

 usual tint will be found among 

 the red series of the chromatic 

 scale; sometimes almost white 

 with dark-red blotches, at other 

 times dark red -brown with faintly 

 perceived cloudings of a still 

 darker hue. The exterior is or- 

 namented by about twenty-eight 

 bold ridges radiating from the 

 sharp beak, and each of these, 

 as it approaches towards the 

 other edge of the shell, gives 

 off irregular spiny processes. 

 There is a rare variety of this 

 almost entirely white. P. varius is not content with using its 

 byssus only in the days of its youth, but continues to do so, 

 even when at full age ; it may sometimes be found thus hung 

 up to a rock, as shown in our illustration, or attached to the 

 roots of Laminar ia. 



A live Scallop of any species, in a glass vessel of sea-water, 

 is a beautiful object. It will soon open its valves and exhibit 

 the richly-frilled edges of its brightly-coloured mantle; this 



SCALLOP HUNG UP. 



