MYTILID^. — MUSSEL. 
45 
tliese delicious shell-fish^ gave me the following recipe 
for cooking them : — 
To dress Torbay-noses, — Wash the shells^ then boil 
them for ten minutes or so ; take the fish out of the 
shells and put them into a frying-pan with some butter, 
a little salt and pepper, and fry till they are of a good 
brown colour; then serve.^^ 
Fam. MYTILIDiE. 
Mr77i:F>S.-~MUSSEL. 
Myttlus edulis, Linnseus. Common Mussel. — Shell 
equivalved, wedge-shaped, rather pointed at the beaks. 
In the hinge are three or four tooth-like crenulations. 
Ligament internal or nearly so, and very strong. Colour 
of the shell a greyish blue, sometimes radiated with 
darker blue. Epidermis olivaceous. 
The mussel is called in Anglo-Saxon muscl, muscely 
muscule, muscluy which names mean that which instantly 
retires on being touched ; in Dutch, mossely in Danish, 
muskel, in German, muschel, in French, moule, at Bor- 
deaux, charron (from the village of that name, where 
there is a large mussel trade) ; in Eeroese, kreaklingur , 
and in Andalusia, longherone. Mussels are used for food 
in many places, and also for bait, and on some parts of 
the Northumberland coast the fishermen have made mus- 
sel gardens for the preservation of these shell-fish ; they 
are formed by piling up stones round certain places 
on the seashore, between tide-marks, and are carefully 
watched by their proprietors.^^"^ 
M. de Quatrefages, in his interesting work, ^ Rambles 
* ‘ A Book for the Seaside,’ p. 100. 
