154 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
colour; and another live specimen I received afterwards 
was not so bright. 
Mactra subtmncata, or the lady-cockle^ as it is called 
at Belfast, is said by Mr. Alder to be gathered at Lam- 
lash Bay, and used as food for pigs, and in some parts it 
is used as bait by fishermen. 
One other species of Mactra may be mentioned as 
edible, as it is eaten in the Channel Islands, and also in 
Spain, viz. Lutraria elliptical very unlike the Mactridsein 
appearance, and not tempting to look at. It is a broad 
flattish shell, about five inches long, and three in height, 
with a long tube, something resembling Mya arenaria. 
It lives in muddy estuaries, and at the mouths of 
rivers, buried to the depth of one and a half to two feet; 
and I have had some fine specimens from the mouth of 
the Towy, in Carmarthenshire. 
Mr. Dennis* says the LutraricB are called chimps at 
Herm, and I am told by Mr. Morton, that the fishermen 
in Jersey know them by the name of horse-shoes. In 
cooking them, they are first boiled, then taken out of 
their shells and fried. Lutraria ohlonga, which is a com- 
mon species in some of the little muddy estuaries near 
Croisic and Piriac, on the coast of the Loire Inferieure, 
is said by M. Cailliaud to be very generally eaten, but 
it is a rare species with us, though it has been taken on 
the Devon, Cornwall, and Dorset coasts. Mactrae are 
also found in great quantities buried in the sandbanks 
on the coast of Chili. 
To Dress Mactrida. — Boil them, and then eat them 
with pepper, salt, and vinegar.^^ 
* ‘ British Conchology,’ vol. ii. p. 430. 
