OSTREA OYSTER, SCALLOP. 183 



shells happen to be taken, they are always 

 rejected and cast back into the sea. Great 

 Britain has for many ages been noted for its 

 oysters, which in former times were sent as a 

 peculiar delicacy to the epicures of Rome. 



OSTREA Malleus* 



HAMMER OYSTER. 



Specific Character. Shell flexuous, elongated 

 at the base, often produced into two lobes giving 

 it somewhat the form of a hammer, from whence 

 it derives its name ; outside imbricated with 

 scaly laminae ; the colour generally dark grey 

 or blackish ; inside very glossy, pearly, and 

 tinged with blue ; it is about five or six inches 

 long, and four or five across from the extremities 

 of the two lateral lobes. 



This shell is much prized on account of its 

 very singular appearance. It is found in the 

 Indian Ocean : its animal forms a byssus which 

 passes through a small opening in the shell near 

 the beaks. It now is arranged in the genus 

 Malleus. 



PECTEN Maximus. 



GREAT SCALLOP. 



Specific Character. Shell inequivalve with 



* Plate IX. figure 8. " . 



