TELLINIDiE. 151 



Mr. Damon informed me that this pretty shell is 

 dredged during the summer months in Bantry Bay, all 

 the boats being then engaged in dredging sand and its 

 contents, for the farmers, who use it as manure ; and 

 that out of the heaps of sand, etc., formed on the quay, 

 the Psammobia and other shells are collected. It is only 

 a locally abundant species, but is generally diffused. 

 Large richly-coloured specimens are found in Birterbury 

 Bay, Connemara^. and Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, North- 

 umberland, Pembrokeshire, Firth of Forth, and the 

 Channel Isles, are a few of the localities given by Mr. 

 Jeffreys. 



Athenseus* states that Telliiiidse were very common at 

 Canopus, and abound when the Nile begins to rise, and 

 that the thinnest of these were the royal ones, which 

 were digestible and light. For fish-sauces, both the 

 Psammobia and the Donax, or Wedge-shell (which be- 

 longs to the Tellinidse also), might be substituted instead 

 of cockles; and, indeed, a species of the latter, which 

 with us is very rare, viz. Donax trunculus, is sold in the 

 markets at Naples, and is said by Poll to be one of the 

 best kinds of shellfish, both for making sauce and for 

 seasoning small rolls of bread. Mr. Jeffreys adds that, 

 according to Philippi, it is still esteemed a delicacy in 

 the south of Italy, and in Sicily is called cozzola. 



It is also much eaten in Spain, and at Malaga is very 

 common, and is cooked with rice. 



On the French coast the Donax is very abundant, 

 and is eaten by the poor people, but always cooked. In 

 German it is called stumpfmuschel. 



Spanish method of Making Fish Sauce. — Scald the 

 fish in boiling water, sufiBciently to make the shells 



* Athen. Deipn. vol. i. bk. iii. i;. 40. 



