MYTILIDjB. — MUSSEL. 45 



these delicious shell-fish, gave me the following recipe 

 for cooking them : — 



To dress Torbay-noses.—" Wash the shells, then boil 

 them for ten minutes or so ; take the fish out of the 

 shells and put them into a frying-pan with some butter, 

 a Httle salt and pepper, and fry till they are of a good 

 brown colour; then serve." 



Fam. MYTILID^. 

 M YTIL C7/S.— MUS SEL. 



Mytilus edulis, Linnaeus. Common Mussel.— Shell 

 equivalved, wedge-shaped, rather pointed at the beaks. 

 In the hinge are three or four tooth-like crenulations. 

 Ligament internal or nearly so, and very strong. Colour 

 of the shell a greyish blue, sometimes radiated with 

 darker blue. Epidermis olivaceous. 



The mussel is called in Anglo-Saxon muscl, muscel, 

 muscule, muscla, which names mean that which instantly 

 retires on being touched ; in Dutch, mossel, in Danish, 

 muskel, in German, muschel, in French, moule, at Bor- 

 deaux, charron (from the village of that name, where 

 there is a large mussel trade) ; in Feroese, kreaUingur, 

 and in Andalusia, longherone. Mussels are used for food 

 in many places, and also for bait, " and on some parts of 

 the Northumberland coast the fishermen have made mus- 

 sel gardens for the preservation of these shell-fish ; they 

 are formed by piling up stones round certain places 

 on the seashore, between tide-marks, and are carefully 

 watched by their proprietors."* 



M. de Quatrefages, in his interesting work, ' Rambles 

 * ' A Book for the Seaside,' p. 100. 



