Hey : Shore-Collecting near Scarborough and Filey. 347 



Many people have an idea that stormy weather is the time 

 for shore-collecting. This is a mistake. When a strong" wind 

 blows from the sea the beach is often as bare as a ball-room 

 floor. It is after the sea and the wind have subsided that old 

 Ocean casts up his treasures, and shells and crabs and sea-weed 

 from considerable depths are laid at the feet of the delighted 

 collector. Hitherto, we have noticed only univalves. On the 

 beach we find chiefly bivalves that burrow in sand from low 

 water to a depth of many fathoms. At Filey, no species is 

 commoner than Mactra Sttdtorum, which is cast up alive in large 

 numbers. The normal form is adorned with ray-like markings. 

 A plain, almost white, variety is called cinerea. 



Equally abundant is the small thick shining Doiiax anatinus 

 (=Z>. vittatiis da Costa). The paper-like shells which strew 

 the sands in such vast numbers are two species of Tellina, 

 tennis and fahnla. The former presents all shades of yellow, 

 orange, and pink ; the latter is uniformly white. Perhaps the 

 most beautiful bivalve that occurs at Filey is Gari ( = Psaimnobia) 

 ferroensis. The valves are adorned with crimson rays, some- 

 what suggestive of the glories of an autumn sunset, when the 

 shell is wet and struck by a sunbeam. Two of the very biggest 

 bivalves the British fauna possesses may be found at Filey after 

 very rough weather, viz., Lutraria elliptica and Cyprina 

 islandica. The former possesses siphons of extraordinary 

 length, from which it can eject water with amazing force ; the 

 other shell is the kind which our grandmothers often used as a 

 scoop for sugar and other small groceries. 



Every visitor to the seashore notices the Razor shells. 

 Three species occur at Filey. The common large one is 

 Ensis ( = Solen) siliqua ; the tiny fragile one is Ciiltelliis 

 { = Sole?i) pellticidtis. Ensis ensis, a medium-sized, much-curved 

 species also occurs, but it is not so common as people think ; 

 the young of siligna is frequently mistaken for it 



I should like to record the occurrence of Thracia fragilis 

 ( ^papyracea) at Filey, both dead and alive, for it has not been 

 included in any recent lists of Yorkshire shells. Venus striatiila 

 (= V. gallina Linn.) is one of the most abundant shells on Filey 

 beach. 



A curious crab is always found on Filey beach after storms 

 — Corystes cassivelaunus — called the Mask crab, because the 

 carapace bears on it markings which have a ghastly resemblance 

 to a human face. The male has enormous claws, perhaps for 

 fighting purposes like the huge jaws of the stag beetle, or 



1903 September i. 



