. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. TEE PEARL OYSTER. 237 Few of the bivalves have been " fancy '' shells or commaiided higli prices, but some of tlie Chamas and Spondyli are very beautiful, and miglit well distract a Dutch or French collector. Sowerby valued ^/)owrfyM^ reglus, in the Tankerville collection, at £25, the best C/(a)«« at £3 Ss., and Isocardia at £8 8s. (!); .Etheria elliplicu at £21 (!); and the Luciiia childreni, now in the British Museum, at £10 10s., because it had the hinge reversed. Mr. Norris gave £20 for a Miilleria, an extraordinary she
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. TEE PEARL OYSTER. 237 Few of the bivalves have been " fancy '' shells or commaiided higli prices, but some of tlie Chamas and Spondyli are very beautiful, and miglit well distract a Dutch or French collector. Sowerby valued ^/)owrfyM^ reglus, in the Tankerville collection, at £25, the best C/(a)«« at £3 Ss., and Isocardia at £8 8s. (!); .Etheria elliplicu at £21 (!); and the Luciiia childreni, now in the British Museum, at £10 10s., because it had the hinge reversed. Mr. Norris gave £20 for a Miilleria, an extraordinary shell to the conchologist (although most unattractive to the eye), of which M. D'Orbigny sent several specimens to the British Museum in exchange for a fossil Pentacrinus. 'Die genus nicatida has an iiTegular shell, with plicated valves, and is fixed to some foreign body by the beak of the right valve. The Plicatulai are tropical shells. Ten species occur in the East and West Indies, the Philipjiines, kc. FAMILY IV.— The shell ns very oblique and the valves unequal; it is attached by a byssus ; they are pearly within, the outer layer is cellular, the lobes of the mantle are fringed at the margin; it has two gills on each side. The Pearl Oysters, or " Wing-shells," as they are called, are mostly tropical. Genus Avicula. The shell is very unequal; there is a fold for the byssus in the right valve, beneath the ear of the shell; there are one or two small teeth in the hinge ; the valves are obliquely oval. Twenty-five species occur li\-ing in about twenty-five fathoms water in Britain, the Medi- terranean, India, &c. Genus Mekagrina. The valves of the Pearl Oyster are flattish and nearly equal in size, the gills are equal and crescent-shaped, the foot finger-like and groo\ ed Meleagrina Ls less oblique than tlie other Aviculuke. They an found living in Madaga&cai Ceylon, Swan River, &c The shells of the " Peail Oyster" aflbrd the su
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectanimals
