198 SHELLS AND MOLLUSCOUS ANIMALS. 



delicacy. Both this and the saddle anomia (Ano- 

 mia epipTiippium) may be met with attached to 

 the oyster and other shells. The mollusks fasten 

 themselves thus to shells, stones, or sea-weeds in 

 the sea. The latter species sometimes sufficiently 

 resembles a saddle to deserve its familiar name. 

 The upper valve is convex, the under flat. The 

 inside of the shell is beautifully pearly, exhibiting 

 very lovely tints of green, purple, or yellow. It 

 is of a much larger size than the waved species. 



Some species of the Noah's Ark shells are found 

 on various parts of our coast, but they are not 

 very general, though we may often find, in our 

 rambles on the sandy shore, the little species 

 called the silvery ark (Area nucleus), with its 

 somewhat triangular and slightly convex shell. 

 This is covered with a smooth olive-green skin, 

 and when this is removed, the shell is seen to be 

 white with olive rays from the beak to the margin, 

 and often marked with flesh-coloured and bluish 

 tranverse bands, and a few coarse ridges. It is 

 usually rather less than half-an-inch round, and 

 its internal part is beautifully white and silvery. 

 The larger Noah's Ark (Area Note), so common 

 in collections, of a deep umber colour outside, and 

 having a pure white interior, is also found on our 

 coasts ; but the largest specimens, of two or more 

 inches broad, are brought chiefly from the shores 

 of the Atlantic. 



Every one who has noticed the rocks about our 

 sea-shores, within reach of the tide, must have 

 seen how they are often pierced with large holes, 

 which seem as if the rock had at one time been 

 soft, and that these smooth hollows had been made 

 by putting some round object, as a stick, into 



