22 JANUARY. 



hunting up. We may leave such puerilities, to con- 

 sider the impress of His divine hand which the All- 

 wise God has made on the shell of the mollusk that 

 inhabits it. 



These bivalves have been called the " butterflies of 

 the sea," as well on account of the vivid and varied 

 colours with which their broad wing-like valves are 

 painted, as of their agile fluttering and flying move- 

 ments. "We frequently see them, especially for some 

 time after having been taken and put into an unfamiliar 

 scene, as our aquariums, shoot hither and thither 

 through the water, with irregular zigzag flights, accom- 

 panied with fitful openings and closings of the valves. 

 These leaps and flights seem to have no determinate 

 object, except "the letting off the steam" of their exu- 

 berant animal vivacity ; but the creatures have the 

 power of directing their leap by a forcible ejection of 

 water from any given part of the compressed lips of the 

 mantle. 1 



It is a very pretty sight to see a healthy Pecten in a 

 vessel of clear sea-water. The elegant valves are 

 opened to a considerable width, perhaps to half an 

 inch or more, and the entire aperture all round is filled 

 by a curtain, which drops from one to the other, per- 



1 For a description of the mode in which this action is performed, see 

 Devonshire Coast, p. 50, et seq. 



