PELECYPODS 457 
ejecting a jet of water into the air. The shells vary considerably in size 
and thickness of valves. Large specimens are three and a half inches long 
and two inches high. Our forefathers were not always well posted upon 
the habits of mollusks, even though they may have relished them in 
Mya arenaria, showing extended animal. 
chowders and believed their flesh to possess valuable curative proper- 
ties. John Winthrop, in 1634, gave a list of useful American animals, 
in which he remarked: ‘Clam, white; their broth is most excellent in 
all intermitting fevers, consumption, ete. These clams feed only on 
sand.” What marvelous digestive powers! 
FAMILY soLENIDE 
In this family are included the long, slender bivalves com- 
monly known as “razor-shells.” Every one who has been to the 
sea-shore has become familiar with these odd-looking mollusks, 
for their valves are always to be found upon every beach. Their 
' station is upon sandy flats or bars more or less exposed at low 
tide. They burrow into the sand perpendicularly to a depth of 
two or three feet, remaining hidden most of the time. Occasion- 
ally a colony of them will be seen, each one projecting slightly 
from his burrow. If approached most cautiously some of them 
may be captured, but if the sand is jarred they all take fright 
and disappear in an instant. It is no easy matter to capture a 
“razor” when once he has taken warning, for he will dig down 
into the sand about as fast as one can follow with a spade. A 
Ensis direcius, showing extended animal: 1, foot ; 2, siphons ; 3, papillx, enlarged. 
good way to catch one is to approach his burrow carefully, 
and then plunge a spade obliquely down below him, thereby 
