148 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
Almejas . — ^Wash the shells and put them in hot water 
to open them. Take out the fish, and put them in a 
saucepan on the fire with a little water ; chop two onions 
small and fry them in butter; while stirring them about 
dredge in slowly a little flour; add the oysters and 
Tapes, and the water in which they were boiled. Stir 
the whole for a few minutes over the fire, then add the 
yolk of an egg well beaten up. Fry slices of bread in 
butter, and place them at the bottom of the dish, pour- 
ing the potage over them ; then serve. 
Hampshire method of Cooking Tapes . — Wash the 
shells, then boil them for a few minutes, till the water is 
just on the eve of boiling over. If boiled with cockles, 
the butterfish must be placed in the saucepan a few 
seconds before the cockles. They are also very good 
eaten raw, like oysters. 
Venus verrucosa, Linnaeus. Warty Venus . — Shell 
opaque, very solid, inequilateral, covered with concen- 
tric edges which bend backwards, and towards the sides 
or ends become coarser, forming knots or tubercles. 
These ridges are divided by fine ribs or furrows, which 
radiate from the beaks, giving them a scalloped appear- 
ance. Um bones prominent, the beaks small and sharp, 
the lunule distinct and heart-shaped. Ligament rather 
long and narrow. Three teeth in each valve; the mar- 
gins crenulated inside. Colour pale yellowish-brown. 
This coarse, rough -looking shell is found on many 
parts of the coast of the English Channel, also in the 
Channel Islands, and in Ireland. 
Mr. Hanley states that at Herm, near Guernsey, it is 
collected as an article of food from the small pools be- 
tween the rocks at low water;* and Mr. Jeffreys says 
* Torbes and Hanley, Brit. Mollusca, vol. i. p. 404. 
