5884 



Mollusks. 



*Pecten Pusio [Pec ten sinuosm). Very far from common. I have 

 taken two or three specimens moored to old shells in the laminarian 

 zone to the west of Cumbrae, and as many more at Lamlash. Bute, 

 Ayr, Smith, 



,5 striatus [Pecten Landshurgiiy spinosus and aculeatus). 

 This beautiful little scallop was first recognized as British in the 

 Clyde, and described and figured by Mr. Smith in his paper in the 

 Wernerian ' Transactions,' under the name of Pecten Landsburgii 

 (Mem. Wern. Soc. vol. viii. p. 106, pi. II. f. 2) from specimens taken 

 at Ayr. It is frequent in the district, and is generally found in about 

 twenty fathoms. The channel between Largs and Cumbrae, the west 

 of Cumbrae by Shell Bay and thence to Fintry, and a bed of rotten 

 Pecten (opercularis) shells which lies a little to the south-east coast of 

 Hamilton's Rock at the entrance to Lamlash Bay, are good localities. 

 A specimen dredged at Lamlash was, when first taken, one of the most 

 lovely shells I ever saw ; its chocolate-brown ground-colour was 

 sprinkled all over with flakes of azure blue ; I am sorry to say, how- 

 ever, that this beautiful tint gradually paled, and that now the flakes 

 are white. It is a very rare occurrence to find colour evanescent 

 in a shell ; indeed, this is the only instance that has come under my 

 observation of a sheH, in the cabinet, losing its colour. 



* „ tigrinus {Pecten ohsoletus and Icevis), This Pecten is 

 found in about equal numbers to the last, and in similar situations; 

 Dr. Landsborough, however, mentions having "got, on the shore" at 

 Catocol, at the north-west of the Isle of Arran, "some of the finest 

 specimens he had ever seen of the beautiful Pecten obsoletus." I 

 have an example from the Clyde of the " very charming and rare 

 variation " mentioned by Forbes and Hanley, which " displays linear 

 fillets of white upon a ground of reddish chocolate colour." 



„ danicus [Pecten nehulosus and Jamesoni), The first 

 British specimen of this shell ever taken was found at Cumbrae by 

 Mr. John Blythe, of Glasgow, in 1835, and was described and figured 

 by Brown, under the name of Pecten nebulosus, in the first volume of 

 the ' Edinburgh Journal of Natural History,' page 49. Another va- 

 riety, taken at Bute, was described by Mr. Smith in his paper on the 

 recent shells of the Clyde, under the specific name of Jamesoni 

 (Smith, Mem. Wern. Soc. vol. viii. p. 106, pi. II. f. 1). This Pecten 

 lives in deep water among rocks ; it is, therefore, difficult to procure 

 it with the dredge ; indeed, I have never done so, my specimens 

 having all been procured from the fishermen, who now and then 

 bring them up attached to the hooks of their long lines. Forbes and 



