118 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS, 
Dpon gold/^* Various kinds of shells are used for or- 
namental purposes^ on account of their beautiful na- 
creous layer: e.g. a Mediterranean species of the little 
Phasianella, which is made into necklaces, earrings, etc., 
and known in England as Venetian shells and in 
Paris I noticed some pretty bracelets, brooches, earrings, 
necklaces, and studs, made of the Trigonia pectinata, 
an Australian bivalve, so arranged as to show the bright 
pinkish-purple nacre inside the valves. The Miranha 
Indians also wear on holidays a large button made of 
the pearly river-shell, in a slit, cut in the middle of each 
nostril ;t and Sir Samuel Baker states that the women 
of the Shir tribe, living on the White Nile, make girdles 
and necklaces of small pieces of river mussel-shells, 
threaded upon the hair of the giraffe’s tail, and that the 
effect is nearly the same as a string of mother-of-pearl 
buttons. J 
Through the kindness of Mr. Morton, of St. Clement’s, 
Jersey, I am enabled to give the following recipe for 
cooking the sea-ear ; — 
To Dress them to Perfection . — Take them out of the 
shells, and well scrub them ; then let them simmer for 
two or three hours, until they are quite tender, after 
which they may be scalloped as an oyster, or put into 
the pan to brown with butter.” 
They require to be well beaten with a stick or ham- 
mer, to make them tender, if they are to be fried, and 
they are likewise sometimes pickled with vinegar. 
* Theophilus, qui et Rugerus,” etc., translated by Robert Hendrie, 
chap. xcv. p. 391 . 
t ‘ Naturalist on the Amazon,’ by H. Bates, vol. ii. p. 197. 
X ‘ Albert Nyanza,’ Baber, vol. i. p. 84. 
