110 MYTILUS. MUSSEL. 



side, rounded or very slightly angular on the anterior mar* 

 gin, giving it a much more elongated appearance than the 

 common Mussel, often variously distorted, with the front 

 margin sometimes quite blunt or truncated : heaks pointed, 

 slightly curved outwards, very remote from each other, and 

 having the appearance of being each of them a little cloven 

 at their tips ; inside glossy blueish-white with a broad dark 

 blue margin, and without the crnate denticulations under 

 the beaks : length an inch and a half; breadth not an inch. 

 White, transparent. The very young shell. 

 Mytilus striatus. Walker, f. 75. 



The natural history of this species, besides the marks 

 already mentioned, leads us to consider it as very distinct 

 from the last. They clothe, in prodigious masses, the 

 sand-stone rocks in the south of Devon, and the schistose 

 rocks in the west of Ireland, at low water, in which last 

 place they are the food of Seals, Pelicans, and Gannets ; 

 but we have never observed them attached to limestone. In 

 the early stage of growth they are covered with a dark 

 skin, and are more or less angular on the anterior side ; 

 and it is not till they arrive at maturity that they put on the 

 coarse grey appearance and incurvature by which they are 

 so remarkably distinguished : they are also much more 

 elongated in proportion to the breadth, and we have never 

 been able to discover any traces of denticulation under the 

 hinge. From the vast numbers which are so closely 

 crowded together they seldom arrive at their full size : 

 but at the point which separates the beach at Dawlish from 

 the Warren, they may be gathered at low water in every 

 stage of growth, v. v. 



6. Mytilus pellucidus. Transparent Mussel. 



Pennant, pi. 66. f. 3 Donovan, pi. 81. 



Shell oval, thin, smooth, glossy, transparent, whitish or 

 blueish covered with a yellow skin, radiate with deep blue 

 or purple, not much incurved at the posterior side, but a 

 little projecting at the other, broad and much rounded at 

 the front margin ; inside glossy blueish-white, with dark 

 blue rays : beaks pointed, with very small denticulations 

 under them : length hardly two inches ; breadth about one. 



Western coasts, and Dublin bay. v, v. 



7. Mytilua 



