The Piddocks 



Piddocks are eaten, pickled in vinegar, on the Normandy coast; 

 they are also cooked with fine herbs and bread crumbs. They 

 are collected for food and for bait near Dieppe by women and 

 children who use a special iron pick. 



The Angel's Wing^ (P. costaia, Linn.) are found in colonies, 

 ten inches to a foot deep in sandy mud in Florida; also in wood 

 and rocks. They follow the coast northward to Cape Cod, 

 but are rare above Cape Hatteras. The white valves conform 

 strikingly in outline, colour and sculpture to the conventional 

 representation of angels' wings. They meet only at a point near 

 the tips. They are seven to eight inches long. The spoon-shaped 

 processes inside the umbones serve as attachments for the visceral 

 and pedal muscles. 



This mollusk is a staple article of food in the markets of 

 Havana. Its other name is the Ribbed Pholas. 



The Truncated Piddock {P. tnincata, Say) is short, pointed 

 sharply at the posterior end of the shell, squared abruptly at the 

 other. It is less than half the length of P. cosiata. The shell is 

 rasp-like only at the pointed end. It burrows in mud or peat 

 banks or in harder substances. Common on the whole east coast, 

 companion of P. cosiata to its southernmost station; it is found 

 also on the west coast of South America. 



The California Piddock (P. Calif ornica, Conr., P. Pacifica, 

 Strns.) has three types of sculpturing on the three triangular 

 areas of its surface; sufficient roughness to burrow in mud and 

 stiff clay. The valves are white, thin and delicate, but partially 

 covered with a horny epidermis. This piddock is cylindrical, 

 and swollen to considerable width, especially in front. The pos- 

 terior end is narrower and truncated abruptly. Length, 2j to 

 5 inches. 



Habitat. — California. 



Genus ZIRPH-ffiA, Leach 



\ Shell oval, without accessory valves, beaks protected by a 



membrane; epidermis thin; anterior end gapes widely. 



The Rough Piddock (Z. crispaia, Linn.) has an oval outline, 

 ending in a point at the anterior end. A furrow from the beak 

 to the margin divides each valve into a smooth posterior and a 

 ribbed and toothed anterior half. With this rasp-like surface the 



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