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top of the water and it is wonderful to watch their endurance 
and see the distance they can travel in a short time. This is the 
edible one for which certain parts of our neighborhood have be¬ 
come noted. It has long been a matter of contention among 
writers as to which was the species worn by the Pilgrims to the 
Holy Land. Sir Walter Raleigh in his poem “ The Pilgrimage” 
thus refers to it — u Give me my scallop shell of quiet.” It is now 
generally conceded to my namesake, Pecten jacobceus which is 
found at the present time in such immense quantities on the 
British coasts. 
Solcn ensis or razor case.—Animal ; body cylindroid, much 
elongated, the mantle in form of a canal open at both ends, closed 
in the rest of its extent by a thick epidermis which surrounds it, 
a cylindroid anterior foot; shell; equivalve, extremely inequilat¬ 
eral, the summits very small, and entirely at the commencement 
of the dorsal line, one or two teeth in the hinge. There are 
twenty-one known and described species, six of which are found 
in America. This shell has become famous on account of the 
many names it has received. Among numerous others it has been 
called Siliqua costata , by Adams in 1858. It was named Legumi- 
naria by Schumacher in 1817, and Machcera by Gould in 1841, 
the latter name is, moreover, pre-occupied by Cuvier, in 1832. 
Venus mercenaj'ia or quahaug belongs to the class Di-myaria, 
it having the two muscular impressions of the abductor muscle. 
To shorten my paper I will leave out the description of the animal 
inhabiting this and the two following varieties and confine my¬ 
self to the shells. Solid, thick, regular, perfectly equivalved and 
close, more or less inequilateral, summits well marked and in¬ 
clined to the front, hinge sub-similar, the middle cardinal tooth 
forked, or three cardinal teeth more or less contiguous and con¬ 
vergent towards the summits. There are known one hundred and 
twenty living species, and nine fossil, twelve being found in 
American waters. 
My a mei'ccnaria , M. arenaria or soft clam.—I have used two 
names here because the United States fish commissioner’s report 
used the name M. arenaria, and Sowerby claims that the arenaria 
is unknown in American waters and that it is Mya mercenaria. 
The shell is surrounded with a thick epidermis, which is pro- 
