570 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
economic importance of the form, its many points of interest, and the lack of a con- 
nected available account with a detailed description of the adult, the attempt has 
been made to make this account of the bay scallop reasonably complete and well 
rounded. 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 
The bay scallop is an article of commerce in Massachusetts (the leading producer), 
Rhode Island, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and, according to the Bureau of 
Fisheries latest statistics, Florida. In commercial value it ranks third among Ameri- 
can mollusks, after the oyster and the hard clam, Venus. The accompanying table 
(Table 1) is compiled from data furnished by the division of fishery industries, and 
does not include an item of something over $11,000 for a closely allied but not identical 
west coast scallop. The large and commercially important giant or sea scallop’of the 
Atlantic is also largely if not completely excluded. For comparison there are included 
IngersolPs estimates for 1880 (Ingersoll, 1887). 
Table 1. — Quantities and values of bay scallops at early and recent dates 
State 
Catch for 1880 
Catch for most recent 
years 1 
Pounds 
Value 
Pounds 
Value 
Massachusetts _ _ 
111, 600 
180, 000 
288, 467 
$44, 640 
72, 000 
115, 387 
1, 235, 304 
42, 870 
299, 892 
360, 732 
1, 394, 124 
14, 100 
$548, 348 
28,588 
92, 253 
74, 272 
125, 845 
5, 000 
Rhode Island 
New York _ __ _ _ 
North Carolina 
67, 500 
27, 000 
Florida __ _ ___ _ 
Total 
647, 567 
259, 027 
3, 347, 022 
874, 306 
1 Statistics have not been collected annually in each State for any one recent year, so the statistics for the latest year are taken 
in each instance as follows: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Florida, 1928; New York, 1926; and Virginia, 1925. 
In North Carolina, because it is limited to a small area with a meager population 
and because it offers the only opportunity for winter work for quite a proportion of 
the people of the scalloping area, the scallop fishery is of very great local importance. 
LITERATURE 
The old, colloquial name Peden (which means comb) appears in pre-Linnaean 
scientific writings and was used by Linnaeus although not formally adopted by that 
great naturalist (see Dali, 1898), who described numerous species of scallops under 
the generic name of Ostrea. Chiefly because of the adoption of its shell as a symbol 
of holy pilgrimage and its appearance in coats of arms, references to the scallop are 
frequent not only in zoological but also in popular literature, especially verse (see 
Ingersoll, 1887). 
In general the numerous writings consulted will be referred to in later sections 
according to the subjects with which they deal. However, it may be worth while to 
note a few of the earlier works and some most used in the study on which this paper 
is based. 
Poli (1795) described or figured the eyes, tentacles, gills, palps, fringed lips, foot, 
adductor muscle, kidneys, and rectum. His figure showing arrangement and appear- 
ance of soft parts of Peden jacobaeus is very good and is still used (Pelseneer, 1906). 
Another early investigator whose work is of notable interest is Garner, who 
described and figured the ocelli and nervous system (Garner, 1837, read 1834). He 
