Pvn H,i I'UitlS

48 PECTINID^.
ants between their teeth for the sake of the formic acid,
nor Russian ladies swallow little fishes alive in order to
tickle their throats. I am told that at St. Petersburg
fresh oysters are not reckoned eatable, but that they
' '
are till kept they become high " and have a gamy
flavour ! One of the many good qualities of the oyster
is perhaps not generally known, and it has not been
noticed by any popular writer. It is reticence. Colman,
in his c
Erpingham
Broad Grins/ says that the tiny page of Lady
" Slipp'd the Dame's note into the Friar's hand,
As he was walking in the cloister ;
And, then, slipp'd off— as silent as an oyster."
Family III. PECTI'NID^E, Lamarck.
Body oval or oblong, compressed : mantle having thick
edges : cini long and extensile : gills reflected : foot deve-
loped.
Shell spade-shaped, usually inequivalve and inequilateral :
beaks small, straight, and pointed, with lateral triangular pro-
cesses like ears or wings : hinge toothless : cartilage internal,
placed in a cavity beneath the beaks and strengthened by a
narrow ligament on each side.
The animal has a distinct foot, which is capable of
spinning a byssus, or bundle of horny threads,
for attach-
ment to other bodies. It is also endued with a peculiar
power of locomotion. By a muscular action, analogous
to that which is known as systole and diastole, and by
repeatedly taking in and expelling a quantity of water,
it flits or jerks itself along for a considerable distance
although not in a straight line, flapping
the valves of
its shell inwards like the wings of a bird in full flight.
The ventral margins are in front, the beaks are behind,