324 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Peculiar habits Characteristics. 



SCALLOPS. 



THE scallop has the power of progressive 

 motion upon land, and likewise of swimming on 

 the surface of the water. When this animal 

 happens to be deserted by the tide, it opens its 

 shell to the full extent, then shuts it with a 

 sudden jerk, by which it often rises five or six 

 inches from the ground : in this manner it tum- 

 bles forward till it regains the water. When the 

 sea is calm, troops or little fleets of scallops are 

 often swimming on the surface. They raise one 

 valve of their shell above the surface, which be- 

 comes a kind of sail, while the other remains on 

 the water, and answers the purpose of a keel by 

 steadying the animal, and thus preventing its 

 being overset. When an enemy approaches 

 they instantly shut their shells, plunge to the 

 bottom, and the whole fleet disappears. By 

 what means they are enabled to regain the sur- 

 face cannot be ascertained. 



MUSCLES. 



THIS tribe is distinguished by the shell being 

 bivalve, without any tooth in the hinge, but fn 

 having the hinge marked with a longitudinal 

 hollow line, and by the animal being generally 

 to some substance by a byssus, or silky 



