The Scallops. Comb Shells 



oflf their anchor rope when they wish to be free again. Adults, 

 with a few exceptions, abandon the byssus habit. The com- 

 mon Mediterranean P. varius retains it through hfe. 



To see hundreds of scallops the size of a silver dime flitting 

 through the shallows on a bright summer day will certainly con- 

 vince you that even moUusks can express the joy of living as 

 plainly as a flock of blackbirds or a troop of boys bound for "the 

 old swimmin' hole." Not every beach furnishes this spectacle, 

 nor every day. The abundance of scallop shells on the sand 

 determines the location of the banks. At low tide the youngsters 

 are to be looked for in tide pools and in the shallows near shore. 

 They snap their shell lips together with a succession of clicking 

 sounds ; at each contraction of the great muscle a jet of water 

 is thrown out under the ear, darting the body forward, some- 

 times a yard or more, always in a straight line. Changes of 

 direction are made with great dexterity at the end of a stroke, 

 a zigzag course enabling the mollusk to escape capture. 



No creature that lives in the vasty deep can be prettier 

 than these daintily sculptured, gaily painted shells, full of life 

 and grace of motion, sometimes trailing behind them plumes 

 of seaweed. Look where the opening lips show the fringed man- 

 tle margins. They are as brilliantly coloured as the shell. A 

 row of bright eyes heads the fringe. Each eye is an iridescent 

 green spot, encircled by a rim of turquoise blue. Some author- 

 ities doubt that these eye spots are more than phosphorescent, 

 illuminating organs. Yet they have the cornea, lens, choroid 

 coat and optic nerve. Dr. Cooke calls them bona fide eyes, approx- 

 imating more closly to vertebrate eyes than any other found 

 among bivalve mollusks. 



The scallop does not crawl nor burrow. The foot is dwarfed 

 till it passes easily in and out of the byssal notch. The locomo- 

 tor function belongs to the single adductor muscle. This is the 

 part we eat. It is strange that the inactive oyster has so tough 

 a muscle that we discard it, counting the remainder a delicious 

 morsel. The scallop's hard-worked muscle is a white and tender 

 bite that tastes like lobster meat. We eat it joyously, casting 

 away the soft parts with the shells. The scallop is in season the 

 year round. It is prepared in a multitude of ways. Fried like 

 oysters it is delicious. Stroll down some Saturday night on one 

 of the avenues in New York where the push cart market is in 



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