28 



COCKLE. 



aristocratic relative alluded to. This is the 

 Royal Staircase Wentletrap, a shell formerly of 

 such rarity that a specimen only two inches and 

 a quarter in height would fetch eighty or ninety 

 pounds. 



The next shell which I shall mention is the 

 Common Cockle {Cardium edule), represented on 

 plate B, fig. 6. 



Perhaps this is the most abundant of all the 

 littorine shells ; for if a handful of shells be 

 gathered at random from the sands, nearly one- 

 third will be cockles. When living, the animals 

 find a home under the sand, in which they lie 

 buried. The cockle is a capital delver, and, 

 armed with his natural spade, digs for himself 

 a hole in the sand nearly as fast as a man can 

 dig with a spade of metal. As for the wooden 

 spades, so much in vogue on sandy coasts, they 

 have hardly a chance against the cockle. 



Many an observer has been perplexed at the 

 little jets of mingled sand and water which are 

 so often seen issuing from the sand when the 

 waves have retired. These tiny geysirs are oc- 

 casioned by the cockles that lie buried beneath 

 the sand, and which are still in the water below 

 the sand level, although the surface is tolerably 

 dry. 



