110 MYTILUS. MUSSEL. 
side, rounded or very slightly angular on the anterior mar¬ 
gin, giving it a much more elongated appearance than the 
common Mussel, often variously distorted, with the front 
margin sometimes quite blunt or truncated: beaks pointed, 
slightly curved outwards, very remote from each other, and 
having the appearance of being each of them a little cloven 
at their tips ; inside glossy blueish-white with a broad dark 
blue margin, and without the crenate denticulations under 
the beaks": length an inch and a half; breadth not an inch. 
White, transparent. The very young shell. 
Mytilus striatus. IUaJker , f. 75. 
The natural history of this species, besides the marks 
already mentioned, leads us to consider it as very distinct 
from the last. They clothe, in prodigious masses, the 
sand-stone rocks in the south of Devon, and the schistose 
rocks in the west of Ireland, at low water, in which last 
place they are the food of Seals, Pelicans, andGannets; 
but we have never observed them attached to limestone. In 
the early stage of growth they are covered with a dark 
skin, and are" more or less angular on the anterior side; 
and it is not till they arrive at maturity that they put on the 
coarse grey appearance and incurvature by which they are 
so remarkably distinguished: they are also much more 
elongated in proportion to the breadth, and we have never 
been able to discover any traces of denticulation under the 
hin^e. From the vast numbers which are so closely 
crowded together they seldom arrive at their full size: 
but at the point which separates the beach at Dawlish from 
the Warren, they may he gathered at low water in every 
stage of growth, v . v. 
6 . Mytilus pellucidus. Transparent Mussel. 
Pennant, pi. (U). f. 3 — Donovan, pi. 81. 
Shell oval, thin, smooth, glossy, transparent, whitish or 
bluei 3 h covered with a yellow skin, radiate w T ith deep blue 
or purple, not much incurved at the posterior side, but a 
little projecting at the other, broad and much rounded at 
the front margin ; inside glossy blueish-white, with dark 
blue rays : beaks pointed, with very small denticulations 
under them : length hardly two inches ; breadth about one. 
Western coasts, and Dublin bay. v. v. i 
7. Mytilus 
