the Scallop; a genus of shell-fish, the characters of which are these: The animal is a tethys; the shell bivalve and unequal; the hinge toothless, having a small ovated hollow. This shell-fish is one of the spinners, having the power of spinning threads like the mucus. muscle; but they are much shorter and coarser than even those of that fish; so that they can never be wrought into any kind of work like the longer and finer threads of the pinna marina. The use of the threads which are spun by the scallop is to fix the creature to any solid body near its shell. All these proceed, as in the muscle, from one common trunk. It is an evident proof that the fish has a power of fixing itself at pleasure to any solid body by means of these threads, that after storms the scallops are often found tossed upon rocks, where there were none the day before; and yet these are fixed by their threads, as well as those which had remained ever so long in their place. They form their threads in the very same manner with the muscle; only their organ which serves for spinning is shorter, and has a wider hollow, whence the threads are necessarily thicker and shorter. The most remarkable species of this genus is,

The maximus, or great scallop, with 14 rays, very prominent and broad; striated lengthwise above and below. These grow to a large size; are found in beds by themselves; are dredged up, and barrelled for sale. The ancients say that they have a power of removing themselves from place to place by vast springs or leaps. This shell was called by the Greeks xrioe, by the Latins pecten; and was used by both as a food. When dressed with pepper and cummin, it was taken medicinally.

The scallop was commonly worn by pilgrims on their hat, or the cape of their coat, as a mark that they had crossed the sea in their way to the Holy Land, or some distant object of devotion.