w 
155 
Fam. MYAD^. 
MYA.—GAPER. 
IN'Iya truncata^ Linnaeus. Gaper or Truncated My a, 
—Shell equal- valved^ suboval, gaping much at the small 
end, truncated and swollen at the other, covered with a 
pale greenish epidermis, which also continues over its 
long broad tube and mantles ; valves wrinkled trans- 
versely; beaks depressed; umbones prominent, but un- 
equal ; a large spoon -shaped tooth in left valve, with a 
socket or hollow in the other ; ligament internal. 
Of the three species of Myada which inhabit our 
British seas, two of them are used for food, viz, Mya 
truncata (the one figured) and Mya arenaria, which 
last is much eaten at Naples. At Belfast this shell is 
called cockle brillion,’^* evidently the same name as 
that applied in Brittany to the winkle, viz. vrelin or 
brelin. They live buried in the sand or mud, in an 
upright position, at the mouths of rivers and estua- 
ries near low- water mark, and at low tide their lo- 
cality is known by the holes in the surface. It re- 
quires much labour and patient digging, sometimes to 
the depth of more than a foot, to procure a dish of 
these esculents, therefore they are not so common an 
article of food as others which are more easily gathered. 
In Orkney, Mya truncata is called kunyu, and is not 
only eaten, but is used as bait for cod-fishing. The 
Zetlanders call it smurslm, the Beroese, smirslingur. 
They eat it boiled. In German it is the klaffmuschel. 
On some parts of the Devonshire coast it is known as 
the spoon-shell, probably owing to the wide spoon-shaped 
tooth in the left valve. The length of a full-grown spe- 
* Jeffreys, Brit. Conch, vol. iii. p. 65. 
