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Scallops — Part 1

Scallops are very desirable tenants of the aquarium. It is astonishing how few persons familiar with the sea know of the antics of these youngsters. Show your "dancing scallops" to them. Call attention to the byssus that anchors those on the bottom. Show the brilliant eyes and the wonderful tactile organs that fringe the mantle by putting a specimen into a tumbler of water. There is plenty of food for these mollusks in fresh sea water in a balanced aquarium.

One way to catch full-grown scallops for the same purpose is to troll with a fish line without hook or bait over ground they are supposed to inhabit. The first scallop whose tentacles are tickled by your line snaps his valves tight on it, and you pull him up. Take care that in handling him you do not get a severe pinch.

The Pilgrim Scallop (P. Jacobaeus, Linn.) wears a halo of romantic and historic interest. No other mollusk enjoys such distinction. Its renown had a very commonplace beginning. Scallops are abundant on the coast of Palestine. A member of the First Crusade starting home picked up a pretty shell and stuck it in his hat, or pinned it to his cloak. He set the fashion. Whoever wore the badge was recognized throughout Christendom as a Crusader; he had been to the Holy Land. Orders of knighthood growing out of the Holy Wars incorporated the "St. James scallop" in their ensigns. Proud old families commemorated by the same symbol in their armorial bearings the deeds done by their ancestors against the Saracen hosts. Until the Age of Chivalry is forgotten the scallop will be remembered as its emblem.

Its graceful lines have always appealed strongly to the artistic sense of various peoples. It has an envied place with the acanthus leaf and certain other natural objects in the development of historic ornament.

The upper valve of P. Jacoboeus is flattened and strongly fluted, with a saucer-like excavation near the beak. The right valve is deeply convex, with squarish, radiating ribs, each bearing four incised ridges. Across the ridges run close, elevated striations, roughening the entire surface. The ears are prominent and nearly equal. The flat valve is dark red, variously mottled; the dipper is almost colourless. Diameter, 3 to 5 inches.

Habitat.--Mediterranean.

The Great Scallop (P. maximus, Linn.) sometimes called "the great clam," strongly resembles the pilgrim scallop in form and sculpture. Often the upper valve sinks into the lower, as if a size or two too small. It is dark red, brownish in the grooves, fading toward the beak. The under valve is pink. The mantle is fawn-coloured; the body bright orange. This edible species is brought from banks off the Irish coast to the London market. The shells are sold for "scalloping" oysters. Diameter, 4 to 5 inches.

Habitat.--Northern coasts of Europe.

The Quin or Queen Scallop (P. opercularis, Linn.) is a thinshelled species, with rounded ridges equal to the grooves between them. The colours range from brown to yellow, and through all shades of purple and rose, sometimes plain, oftener mottled and variegated.

This is the little scallop of the English markets, taken from dense banks, which shift, owing to the persistence of the "flying" habit. Quantities are taken up by oyster dredges, and sold at a few pence per hundred. Diameter, 2 to 3 inches.

Habitat.--European coasts.

The Hunchback Scallop (P. pusio, Linn.) is the ill-fated member of the family. It is a pretty, symmetrical infant, but soon attaches itself for life, just as an oyster does. Inevitably it chooses cramped quarters, the interior of a shell, or a narrow cranny in a mass of coralline rock, where it becomes dwarfed and distorted. The spiny scales may express its irritability of temper. Diameter, 2 to 4 inches.

Habitat.--Rocky coasts of Europe.

The Noble Pecten (P. nobilis, Rve.) has a massive, strongly ribbed shell, with equal, polished valves, almost circular in out-line, and prominent, unequal ears. The flesh-tinted ground colour is radiately banded or clouded with rose purple or saffron. Diameter, 6 inches.

Habitat.--Japan.

The Knobbed Scallop (P. nodosus, Linn.) has blunt nodules along the nine strong ribs; those near the ventral margin are squamose folds--apparently knobs in an unfinished state. The two valves are alike, flattened, and a uniform rich, dark orange or red. The large ears are unequal. Diameter, 3 to 4 inches.

Habitat--West Indies, Mexico.

The Nothern Scallop (P. Islandicus, Mull.) is a lover of deep water along the coasts of the North Atlantic. It took its name from Iceland, where it was first discovered. Its handsome, circular valves are scored with a multitude of fine, scaly, ribs which persist on the inside of the shell. The left valve arches over the right, and is banded with circles, alternately dark and light. Purple, red, orange, salmon and bright pink specimens are before me. The most beautiful one is white with concentric bands of pink. The anterior ear is much the larger.