Page:Beautiful·Shells·of·New·Zealand-Moss-1908.pdf/53

 PECTEN ZELANDIÆ (Plate X.).—Fig. 3 is a still smaller shell, and the most brilliantly coloured of our Pecten family. The valves are similar in shape, and covered with short spikes, It has only the one ear, or lug, at the hinge end, but sometimes a portion of the ear is found on the other side. This shell lives amongst rocks, or in sponges, or on the roots of kelp, in sheltered or fairly sheltered portions of open beaches. It is found attached to the rocks by a byssus, or beard.

PINNA ZELANDICA (Plate 4.).—Fig. 4 is generally known as the Horse Mussel. It is usually found amongst the grass, about low water mark, on sandy beaches, especially those containing a proportion of mud. The natives call it Hururoa or Kupa, and in some places it is a staple article of diet with them, This horse mussel is found in certain spots in great numbers, and is then useless for a cabinet. The collector should look for odd scattered specimens. As a rule, only about half an inch of the shell will be found protruding above the beach, in very shallow water, but in deep water more of the shell will protrude.

MYTILUS LATUS (Plate X.).—Fig. 5 is the ordinary mussel, with a green epidermis, and the part near the hinge is usually eroded, as shown in the plate. It grows to a considerable size in New Zealand, being sometimes 8 inches in length, and is found in enormous quantities in favoured localities on rocks or attached by its beard in clusters to old cockle and other shells on the banks. About twenty years ago hundreds of acres of banks between the town of Tauranga and the sea were in one season colonised by mussel spawn, and although the mussel was before that date a rare thing on these banks, yet after the colonisation the hanks were simply a mags of mussels, and the water, being only from one to two fathoms deep at low spring tide, they were easily procurable. On the other hand, banks near Kati Kati Heads, that were covered a few years ago, are now without mussels. This is probably due to some disease breaking out through over-crowding. The Mytilus edulis (not shown on plate) is a purplish shell, of similar shape and habits to the above, but much smaller in size. The Maori name for a mussel is Kuku or Porope or Toretore or Kutai, and for the smaller mussels Kukupara or Purewa or Toriwai.