NEw YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No. 23 February 1978 Page 5 
THE PINK ANGEL 
Ethelyn Woodlock 
In all of my years of shelling, I have dug very few Angel Wings (Cyr- 
topleura costata (Linnée, 17589). The first Lees we had a ide wo 
cea the digging. I still have the two he dug, in jars of alcohol. 
Many years later I dug my first one by hand, on mud flats a few miles 
south of Fort Myers Beach, Florida. I have that specimen, too, even 
though it is nicked. 
Last winter during a visit to my brother Carl in Largo, Florida, he 
took me to a causeway where the mud had Wing holes so numerous that 
it is hard to walk between them. We dug twice, trying to get perfect 
ones, but no luck, nicked edges. The shell is fragile and chips so 
easily. Before going home I said, "Let's try once more." We got 
nine out of that one dig: 
First, we drew a fifteen inch circle around five holes that were a 
small hand-span apart. Then we dug a ditch at least fifteen inches 
deep. We took turns with one small trowel. We dud diligently, mud 
up to our elbows. We finally sat back on our heels and looked at 
each other. We must have used our ESP for, without speaking, we 
leaned forward and lifted the heavy center out of the hole. It broke 
off at the tops of the Wings. One small one was in the hunk we re- 
moved. Carefully we took it out of its mud hole. Then, just as 
carefully, we took the deeper ones. Five perfect, beautiful Wings. 
There was another on the edge next to me and three next to Carl. We 
got them, too. 
At this point I will say that no one could possibly take all of the 
Wings off that causeway. I have heard of commercial diggers ruining 
a bed, but I cannot see how it could be done. I am sure that the 
few we took did no harm to that population. 
Between "Angeling” we had been picking dead Rose Tellins (Tellina 
lineata Turton, 1819). These are all over the mud flats at every 
Tow tide. If there are thousands of Wings, there must be a million 
Tellins, Many people go for them alone. I wanted them for gifts, 
and Carl needed more for a Sailor's Valentine his wife, Annie, was 
making with my help. 
We arrived back in Largo with pails full of Wings and Tellins. Annie 
started cooking Wings. As I picked one out of the pail I saw pink 
inside and Carl said, "That's the one that bit me when I dropped the 
Tellin in by mistake." But I discovered two more pink spots on each 
side of the animal and they had been there long enough to become em- 
bedded in a depression they had made. I feel that they had been 
there a long time. Bill Old thinks so, too. 
I put the Pink Angel in alcohol so Bill could see it when I got back 
to New Jersey. No Wing ever had better care; it was hand-carried 
on the plane. Carl thinks the "pinkies" got in the Wing while in 
his pail and Bill thinks that the two at the sides were in the Wing 
when we dug him. 
later I lea that in a number of colonies of Angel Wings, espe- 
cially Bisthe west coast of Florida, there are to be found many of 
these pink-splotched or pink-spotted specimens. Why the coloration? 
It is still a mystery. 
