168 New York State Museum 



our southern and western coasts. The American Oyster 

 (Ostrea virginica) ranges from the Gulf of St Lawrence 

 to Texas and thrives best in shallow bays and estuaries 

 where the water is apt to be brackish. The rough, shaggy 

 and unlovely shells are quite familiar. They are attached 

 by the lower valve to rocks or some other firm anchorage 

 by a secretion of the mantle. Oyster beds are generally 

 planted on bottoms originally muddy. There are certain 

 forms associated with the oyster beds in brackish waters. 

 Attached to the oyster shells are the Boat Shells, Jingle 

 Shells, the hard sandy tubes of the worm Sabellaria, cal- 

 careous tubes of the worm Serpula, hydroids, bryozoans, 

 the common Red Sponge etc. The Oyster Drill is found 

 here, of course. The Edible Mussel frequently occurs 

 attached to oysters and when in large numbers they are 

 very injurious. Another Mussel (Modiola hamata) is 

 sometimes found in oyster beds. One of the Hermit 

 Crabs (Eupagurus pollicaris) is abundant upon oyster 

 beds. The Quahaug or Little Neck Clam is most abun- 

 dant in shallow muddy bays and estuaries near low tide 

 level. It is able to burrow to a slight depth, but often 

 lies on the bottom. The Soft-shell Clam, too, lives on 

 muddy bottoms between tides, where it can find material 

 in which to burrow and hide. It is common in shel- 

 tered banks of bays and estuaries between tide limits. It 

 lives in the burrow with the long extensible siphon point- 

 ing upward which at low tide it retracts. A very inter- 

 esting species with a mud habitat is a boring form, Petri- 

 cola pholadiformis. Along the New Jersey coast, and 

 especially around Atlantic City small patches of clay or 

 a hard tenacious mud are found along the ocean's edge. 

 These mollusks burrow in this clay or mud and are 

 washed out of the burrows by the surf and cast upon the 



