408 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
In regard to the local names of mussels, an immense variety of responses was 
received. In 96 papers 12 report simply “mussels”; 10, “clams”; 1, “clam-mussels”; 
1, “oyster-clams”; and 5, “fresh-water clams.” The rest are either descriptive names, 
due to some feature of form or color, or else purely fanciful appellations. Arkansas 
reports black mussel, white mussel, long white, short white, long red, thick-shell (or 
flint), oyster-shell, wriukle-shell, and bedded mussel. Ohio sends long-pointed clam, 
round small clam, rough stone clam, bottle-shell, striped bottle- shell, blue-edged shell, 
paper-shell, razor-back, pumpkin-seed, and bastard. Pennsylvania (also Wisconsin, 
in one paper) gives two kinds, pearl mussel and common mussel. An Iowa circular 
says that the name “clam” includes some thirty varieties. Tennessee furnishes a 
host of names, black (24), white (13), yellow (44), pink (15), purple (4), blue (4), black- 
pink (1), lake (24), bullhead (18), hard-tack (6), fluted (7, including 2 called black-fluted), 
biscuit (9), she (10), rock (4), shark (3), heel-splitter (3), Nigger Dick (2), and one each 
of the following: gray, brown, red, broad-axe, Black Maria, sailaway, trigger-back, 
spike, gunboat, hatchet, thin-shell, deep-water, pocketbook, hawk-bill, fancy, speck-case, 
Jessie Cook, Dick, negro-heel. Pour of these — the purple, Black Maria, hard-tack, and 
sailaway — are also reported from Kentucky. One paper identifies the “biscuit” and 
“black” mussel; one makes the “lake” the same as the “rock,” and another the same 
as the “blue”; three identify the “lake” with the “fluted,” and two mention them as 
distinct. One report says of the “bullhead” that there are several kinds of them. 
Wisconsin gives also quite a list — crinkly (2), horse-foot or soft-shell, heart-shaped or 
hard-shell, mullet-shell, rough hard-shell, checkered or purple-shell, smooth soft-shell, 
paper-shell, long blue, slipper-shell, oblong pink-lined, broad-stripe, and Mother 
Hubbard. 
The scientific collector of ITnios can easily conjecture from some of these names 
what species may be meant, but most of them are altogether indefinite for any pur- 
pose of recognition. Many of them doubtless are applied in different localities to the 
same shell, while others may be used for different ages and varieties of identical species 
in a single stream. It is highly desirable that specimens should be obtained of 
these variously designated shells in order to their scientific determination. 
The question as to the habits of the mussels was answered more or less definitely 
in 60 papers. Most of these describe the shells as somewhat migratory in habit, 
according to various conditions, as to food, season, depth of water, etc. Only 7 (6 from 
Tennessee and 1 from Wisconsin) report them as almost entirely stationary. Six 
papers relate that at the approach of winter they withdraw from the shore into deep 
water and bury themselves several inches in the sand or mud, reappearing in the 
spring when the water is high; then, as the water falls, others relate that they follow 
it, seeking apparently a uniform depth. Similar migrations follow upon disturbance 
of the beds by caving of the banks (Texas) or other natural changes. Three papers 
refer to the young shells as more active than the old ones, and this is probably the 
meaning also of a statement (Tennessee) that the pearl-bearing shells are stationary 
and those that crawl of little value. Three papers refer to their being packed so 
closely side by side on the bottom that they can scarcely dislodge themselves to move 
about (Wisconsin and Tennessee). One report (Tennessee) says that while some are 
lying on the surface of the bottom the “yellow mussel” is in beds three layers deep, 
under gravel and sand. The Florida paper describes one species as living permanently 
in the sides of banks, sometimes above the water, and a similar statement is made in 
