40 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
is eaten in the Feroe Isles^ and is there called langskoel ; 
and Solen marginaius, commonly known as vagina^ is 
greatly prized as an article of food by the Neapolitans. 
This last-named species has a wide range abroad, but is 
not so common in this country as the two above-men- 
tioned shells, though it is abundant in some localities, 
amongst others Rye, Tenby, and the Channel Islands. 
The razor-shell is the aulo of the Romans ; and Aris- 
totle, in his ^ History of Animals,^ gives a description of 
it, stating that it buries itself in the sand; can rise 
and sink in, but does not leave, its hole ; is soon alarmed 
by noise, and buries itself rapidly ; and that the valves 
of the shell are connected together at both sides, and 
their surface smooth.^^* 
In the time of Athenseus it was much eaten, and highly 
valued, if w^e may judge from the following quotations 
in his ^ Deipnosophists — 
Araros says, in his ^ Campylion ^ — 
“ ‘ These now are most undoubted delicacies. 
Cockles and solens.’ 
And Sophron says, in his Mimi 
‘ A. What are these long cockles, O my friend, 
Which you do think so much of ? 
-S. Solens, to be sure ; 
This, too, is the sweet-flesh’d cockle, dainty food. 
The dish much loved by widows.’ ’’f 
Again, Athengeus says But the solens, as they 
are called by some, though some call them avXoi and 
hovaKe^, or pipes, and some, too, call them 6vvj(^e^, or 
claws, are very juicy, but the juice is bad, and they are 
very glutinous. And the male fish are striped, and not 
* Forbes and Hanley, Brit. Moll. vol. i. p. 240. 
t Athenseus, vol. i. b. iii. p. 144-, Bohn’s Classical Library. 
