of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



341 



authority, such as questions of rotation ; the life histories of the animals 

 constituting our bait supply ; the determination of the organisms, animal 

 and vegetable, embryonic and adult, on which the worms and shell-fish, used 

 as bait, subsist ; the determination of physico-chemical conditions favour- 

 able to a vigorous life ; and the intelligent appreciation of the problems 

 to which workers in other countries are devoting their energies. Perhaps 

 the scientific man has in the past been too apt to disregard the experience 

 of the practical fisherman, and the fishermen too ready to look askance at 

 the work of the naturalist, with the result of mutual injury. It may, 

 nevertheless, be perfectly possible for the two to work in harmony, and it 

 will not redound to the credit of Scotland if this burden which oppresses 

 the fishermen is not greatly lightened, and bait obtained at a reasonable 

 rate. 



The favourable position of the members of the Ferryden and Usan 

 Society is most marked, and the wisdom of the cultivation begun upwards 

 of thirty years ago has been fully manifested by the results of their 

 system. 



VII. ON THE HABITS OF PECTEN AND ON THE CLAM BEDS 

 OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH. By J. H. Fullarton, M.A., 

 B.Sc. (Plate VIII.). 



I. Introductory. 



The scallops, which are known locally in most places of Scotland as 

 clams, flourish in great numbers in the waters of the Forth, and furnish a 

 regular supply of bait to the line fishermen of certain districts. It is 

 perhaps unfortunate that the name ' clam ' should continue to be applied to 

 so many different kinds of bivalve molluscs. In the Forth district clam is 

 applied to the genus Pecten ; in other parts of Scotland such widely 

 separated genera as Mya, Mactra, and Lutraria are called clams. It is, 

 therefore, necessary when fishermen and others speak of clams to ascertain 

 whether Pecten, Mya, Mactra, or Lutraria is meant. In some districts 

 clam to one person means Pecten, while others, even in the same district, 

 do not regard the species of Pecten as clams, reserving the name for one of 

 the other three genera mentioned. In America the pectens are called 

 scallops, and clam seems a kind of indiscriminate term which, with an 

 adjective prefixed, can be made to represent species of at least a dozen 

 genera. 



The following list, taken from the Fishery Industries of the United 

 States* illustrates the use or rather the abuse of the name : — 



Ensatella amerieana = Razor clam. 



Mya arenaria = Soft clam or long clam. (This species is also 



called clam in parts of Scotland). 

 Spisula solidissima — Beach clam, sea clam, or surf clam. 

 Venus mercenaria = ~H.a,Y(i clam, or round clam. (En New York 



called clam, without any adjective). 

 Semele decisa = Flat clam. 

 Pachydesma crassatelloides = Hen clam. 

 Callista gigantea = Painted clam. 

 Argina pescata = Bloody clam. 

 Schizothoerus Nuttcdli = Gaper clam. 

 Glycimeris generosa = Giant clam. 

 Cyprina islandica = Sea clam. 



* U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries : G. Brown-Goodc, Fishery Industries 

 of the United States, Washington, 1884. 



