96 Beautiful Shells. 



a loud snap ; so that you see these sober-looting 

 mollusks are sometimes frolicsome fellows : this is 

 an enforcement of the lesson, judge not by appear- 

 ances. 



Some of the species, both of the Mussel and 

 Cockle families, have very beautiful shells. We 

 give a representation of one of each, on Plate VIII. 

 Fig. 2 is the Magellanic Mytilus, (M. Magellanicus,) 

 found chiefly in the Straits of Magellan ; it is gene- 

 rally four or five inches long; the shells when 

 polished are very brilliant, the deep purple colour 

 changing into rich violet, as they are* held in 

 different lights. In most cabinets the large fan- 

 like delicate shells of the genus Pinna may be 

 observed ; the largest species is that called Pinna 

 flabellum, taken in the Mediterranean; it sometimes 

 exceeds two feet in length. The first of these 

 names is a Latin word signifying, besides a shell- 

 fish, the fin of a fish, or the wing-feathers of a bird 

 — hence the term pinion ; it refers to the fin-like 

 or wing-like shape of this shell. Flabellum means 

 a fan, referring probably to the bissus of the mol- 

 lusk, which is fine and glossy, like silk, and very 

 abundant. 



Many pretty specimens for figuring might be 

 Selected from the Naidce, a family of Fresh-water 



