46 THE SEA-SHORE 



minutes, while in other places it is never found 

 at all. The best place in which to look for it 

 is a part of the beach where sand and mud are 

 mingled together, and there you will be almost 

 sure to find it. 



The name of "sunset" shell has been given 

 to it because of the beautiful way in which the 

 inside surface is coloured. Sometimes it is rosy 

 pink all over; sometimes it is orange yellow; 

 sometimes it has crimson streaks upon a whitish 

 ground. But you can never look at it without 

 being reminded of the evening sky after a very 

 bright sunset. The outside of the shell, how- 

 ever, is always white and chalky-looking, and no 

 one who saw the two valves fastened together 

 as they are when the animal is alive would have 

 the least idea how beautiful they really are. 



This creature always lives buried in the sandy 

 mud, just as the cockle does. It has a very 

 powerful " foot," by means of which it burrows, 

 and two long and very slender siphon tubes. 



PLATE XVI 

 THE GAPER (3) 



This is another of the shell-bearing molluscs 

 which live in burrows in the sandy mud, and 

 it is called the "gaper" because the shells are 



