12 THE SCALLOP FISHERY 



called the Lamellibranchia, or, to use an older nomenclature, the Pelecy- 

 poda. The family of the Pectenidce includes a great many species, 

 totalling about forty, of which the most important commercially is the 

 shallow-water variety, Pecten irradians. Of the four species found on 

 the Atlantic coast only two are of commercial importance in New Eng- 

 land, Pecten irradians and Pecten tenuicostatus, the giant or deep-sea 

 scallop of Maine. These are rivals in the Boston market, but the smaller 

 scallop is usually preferred by reason of its more delicate flavor. Sev- 

 eral different species of the PectenidcE are used as food in -other coun- 

 tries. Fossil Pectens have been found as far back as the Carboniferous 

 age. 



Names. Pecten irradians is more commonly given as the scientific 

 name for the shallow-water scallop of the Massachusetts coast, but the 

 later and more exact title of Pecten gibbus, var. borealis Say., is now 

 used. In New England the animal is ordinarily called by the name 

 " scallop," sometimes written " escallop." This word, according to 

 Ingersoll (8), is derived from either the French " escallope " or the 

 Dutch " schelp," meaning a shell. In Italy the scallop is called " cape 

 saute," in Holland "mantels," in England "fan shells," "frills," 

 " queens," and " squims." 



Distribution. Pecten irradians has a wide geographical range, ex- 

 tending from Massachusetts Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, where it has 

 been reported in the vicinity of the Chandeleur Islands in Louisiana by 

 Professor Kellogg (7). It is occasionally found along the Atlantic 

 seacoast wherever the coast is sufficiently broken to afford sheltered 

 bays and inlets. In 1880 Ingersoll (8) reports its presence in North 

 Carolina, where it was used for local trade at Moorehead City. The 

 scallop inhabits quiet waters, where it is protected from heavy winds 

 and storms, which would wash it high on the sandy beaches. Long 

 Island Sound is very productive of scallops, and many thousands of 

 gallons are shipped from its waters in a successful season. 



In Massachusetts this species occurs commercially only in the waters 

 south of Boston (Fig. 78). It is usually found in abundance along 

 the southern shore of Cape Cod, in Buzzard's Bay and about the islands 

 of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. According to a map in the 

 Boston Museum of Natural History a small bed formerly existed in 

 the waters off Nahant. Shells are often picked up on the North Shore 

 beaches, but at present no live scallops are found in this State north of 

 Boston. It is reported that a few are to be found in some of the warm 

 bays of the Maine coast. Thus the scallop fishery in Massachusetts is 

 only a partial industry, as it concerns only the Vineyard Sound and 

 Buzzard's Bay shore. 



The bathymetrical range of the scallop is extensive, as many thousand 

 acres of eel-grass flats, extending even to a depth of 60 feet of water, 

 are covered at times with this bivalve. Usually the scallop is found in 



