New Britain herald., 1921-02-25
DANCING SCALLOPS
A PRETTY picture
Multi COlOred Shells Fill Water
When Owners Seek Pleasure
(By James Shepard).

mollusk better known than that of
| the pecten or scalop. It's peculiar
hinge. its radiating ribs and its seal
Hoped edges are in marked contrast
| with the forms of other shells. Seal
| Hoped oysters take their name from
| the fact that they were first served
in scallop shells The early Pilgrims
| to the Holy Land, who worshipped
at the shrine of st. James. returned
to their homes wearing a scallop shell
! on the front of their hat, hence the
| name st James Shelf for the large
scallops of Palestine. This use of the
! shell by the Pilgrims caused numer-
Gus badges and armorial bearings to
be blazoned with scallop shells.
The common scallop of our New
| England coast, Pecten Irradians is
| truly beautiful shell. 1t varies con-
siderably in color with different de-
grees of whitish, reddish and purplish
and is often handsomely zoned. 1t
/ is largely used as food, being album
! dant from Cape Cod to New Jersey.
The fisheries which flourish in Long
! Island. Narragansett Key and else
| where, dredging for them in sum-
mer, constitute one of our important
4
scallop is the powerful central muscle
by which the animal opens and closes
it's valves or shells. This muscle is
sometimes called the heart or core.
We eat apples and discard the core
but when we come to scalops we
eat the core and discard the rest.
This edible part is rather small in
our native scallops but very much
larger in the deep sea scallops from
the coast of Maine. Their shells,
however, are plain and smooth, with
no radiating ribs and scalloped edges.
Scallops are an esteemed delicacy in
Europe as we'll as in America 1t
is stated in ''Tryons Conchology'
that the ''Pecten opercularis covers
extensive banks, especially on the
north and west coasts of Ireland.
Its body is bright orange or scarlet,
the mantle fawn color, marked with
brown; the shell is used for scallop-
ing oysters, formerly it was employed
as a drinking cup and celebrated as
such in Ossian's Hal of Shells -.
The most interesting feature of the
scallop to me, is the life movements
of the animal. There is probably no
other bivalve mollusk which moves
about to so great an extent as the
| scallop. They move along on the
bottom of the sea by means of their
Ratchet shaped foot" The lobes of
the mantle include a glandular sac
containing a gaseous fluid which
enables the light shell to float easily
and to change its position with the
tide. By the combined movement of
their shall and abductor muscle, they
can move rapidly through the water
in any direction. dance a jig and cut
up various capers to the great aston
s-Lx yh0 70 lio,.
with their antics. According to Try
on's Conchology the Rev. D. Lands
| borough observed the fry of the Eu-
ropean scallop when less than the
; size of a sixpense, swimm ming in a
/ pool left by the ebbing of the tide.
! Their motion was rapid and ZigZag.
! They seemed by the sudden opening
! and closing of the valves to have
! the power of darting IKE an arrow
| through the water. One jerk car
| ried them some yards and then by
another sudden jerk they were off
| in n moment on a different tack"
In n book entitled Ocean Won
| ders," by William E. Damon, it is
stated that "All shellfsh have over
| their lobes and beneath their shells,
! a flexible tissue known as their man
| tie. In case of the scallop a
| portion of this mantle can usually be
seen. showing a finely fringed curtain
! of scarlet or orange, the mantle it
self being of a delicate fawn color,
the whole set off with a number of
| bright, glistening eyes OF elegant
| emerald green. encircled with a band
of turquoise blue. The finest jewels of
/ our fairest bellies can be no brighter
| than the natural adornments of this
| common mollusk. In their native
: element alone the scallops show to
! perfection all the beauties nature has
! lavished upon them, especially when
| seen in motion. They move in
/ rapid zigzag fashion and with the
| speed of an arrow, the propelling
force being secured by the rapid
opening and shutting of their valves.
! One can scarcely see lovelier sight
| than that of a large number of these
| pretty creatures, with shells Of every
hue, from purest white to black. en-
| livened with shades of pink. yellow.
| fawn and other tints, darling about
| in clear water. up, down, here. there,
| everywhere. In their flight-ike move
| ments, vertical horizontal, east,
| west north and south. they are more