CHAPTER XXXIII: THE JINGLE SHELLS 



Family Anomiid^ 



Shell thin, hyaline, flattened, usually warped, with a large, 

 deep notch for the byssus in the under valve, near the hinge; 

 byssus large, short, calcified, permanently fastening the mollusk 

 to a rock fragment or a shell. Mantle open, except at hinge, 

 border double, fringed; eyes wanting; gills four, large curved; 

 foot dwarfed, fmger-like, grooved; sexes distinct. A highly 

 specialized family, with the organs displaced to accommodate 

 the unique location of the byssus. 



Genus ANOMIA, Linn. 



Shells roundish, translucent, pearly lustre within the unequal 

 valves ; upper valve convex, lower, concave. A small genus 

 widely distributed. The species are hard to distinguish, as 

 individual shells are modified in shape by the foreign bodies to 

 which they become attached. Changes in shell characters are 

 also due to increasing age and varying depths. 



The Smooth Jingle Shell (A. glabra, Linn.) is one of the 

 most familiar and abundant shells on the American beaches, 

 east and south. The upper valve is the one that is washed ashore 

 after the mollusk dies. Ask any shell-gatherer on the sands to 

 show his hoard to you, and a fair proportion of the shells, espe- 

 cially if you accosted children, will be the dainty "golden shells," 

 tinges from yellow to salmon pink, or the pale, lustrous "silver- 

 shells," like them except in colour. When you shake them, or 

 run your hand down into a lapful of them, they clink musically, 

 and though they look fragile, they do not break easily. New 

 Jersey beaches have a bluish-black form, an inch in diameter. 



The jingle shells when young settle upon some rough surface 

 — an oyster will do nicely, or the hollow side of an empty scallop. 

 If there is n't room for all, they cheerfully pile themselves, one 

 upon another, each firmly riveted to the one below by the limy 



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