223 THE SPINOUS COCKLES. 



friends, I have yet a few more notes to add to the 

 zoological portion of this volume. The chief of these 

 collections were sent me hy Mr. William Thompson 

 from Weymouth, and by the Kev. 0. Kingsley from 

 Torquay ; and to these gentlemen, as well as to other 

 friends who have aided me, I beg thus to express my 

 grateful obligations. 



THE SPINOUS COCKLES. 



Among a number of animals of great interest 

 kindly sent to me in January from the vicinity of 

 Torquay, by the Eev. 0. Kingsley, were a posse of 

 Cockles ; not the plebeian sort that boys with stento- 

 rian lungs cry about the streets of sea-port towns at 

 "twopence a quart," but those giants, Cardium 

 acukatum and C. tuberculatum, the real aristocracy 

 of the Cockle kind. The favour of the kind donor 

 was the greater, as the sands of Livermead and Paign- 

 ton, whence these were procured, are almost the only 

 British locality for the species, especially the latter, 

 which is among the rarest as well as finest of our 

 native bivalves. 



They looked healthy when turned out of the jar, 

 though they had performed their journey up, in that 

 bitter, almost Arctic, weather that we had at the be- 

 ginning of January ; and, under the excitement of the 

 genial atmosphere of the parlour, they presently grew 

 quite frisky. Many persons are aware that the Com- 

 mon Cockle can perform gymnastic feats of no 

 mean celebrity, but the evolutions of Signor Tuber- 

 culato are worth seeing. Some of the troupe I had 

 put into a pan of sea- water, others I had turned out 



