12
SOLENID.E.
an accuracy at least equal to that which is shown in
the accounts given by certain naturalists of our own
time.
According to Aristotle the ScoX-fyve? were said to
withdraw into their holes on a noise being made, and
to sink deeper when they perceived the motion of the
iron implements used for their capture. Athenseus in
his learned gossip of the philosophers at supper (answering in some particulars to the ' Noctes Ambrosianse'
of our modern Athens) quotes some verses of Epicharmus, commemorative of Hebe's marriage, in which slender Solens were enumerated among the dainties at the
nuptial feast.
They are also mentioned by other Greek
writers.
Sophron says that widows were especially
fond of them ; it does not appear what sort of consolation they afforded. Diphilus pretended to distinguish
the male from the female Solen by their shells : that of
the former was striped, and the fish a good remedy for
the stone and similar complaints ; while the shell of the
female was of a uniform hue, and its fish more savoury.
They were eaten boiled or fried ; but the best way of
cooking them was to roast them on a wood fire until they
gaped.
In Pennant's time they were brought up to
table fried in batter.
The last-named author had a
strange notion that the Solens, ^' when in want of food,
elevate one end a little above the sui-face, and protrude
their bodies far out of the shell "
!
This is repeated by
Montagu and Wood.
The razorfishes (or " spoutfishes," as they were
called by Grew and other naturalists of former days)
usually burrow in sand at the verge of low-water mark,
not perpendicularly, but in a slanting direction at an angle
of about 60 degrees.
On the retreat of spring tides
they may be seen nearly half out of their holes, apparently taking in a supply of oxygen for their gills. They
SOLENID.E.
an accuracy at least equal to that which is shown in
the accounts given by certain naturalists of our own
time.
According to Aristotle the ScoX-fyve? were said to
withdraw into their holes on a noise being made, and
to sink deeper when they perceived the motion of the
iron implements used for their capture. Athenseus in
his learned gossip of the philosophers at supper (answering in some particulars to the ' Noctes Ambrosianse'
of our modern Athens) quotes some verses of Epicharmus, commemorative of Hebe's marriage, in which slender Solens were enumerated among the dainties at the
nuptial feast.
They are also mentioned by other Greek
writers.
Sophron says that widows were especially
fond of them ; it does not appear what sort of consolation they afforded. Diphilus pretended to distinguish
the male from the female Solen by their shells : that of
the former was striped, and the fish a good remedy for
the stone and similar complaints ; while the shell of the
female was of a uniform hue, and its fish more savoury.
They were eaten boiled or fried ; but the best way of
cooking them was to roast them on a wood fire until they
gaped.
In Pennant's time they were brought up to
table fried in batter.
The last-named author had a
strange notion that the Solens, ^' when in want of food,
elevate one end a little above the sui-face, and protrude
their bodies far out of the shell "
!
This is repeated by
Montagu and Wood.
The razorfishes (or " spoutfishes," as they were
called by Grew and other naturalists of former days)
usually burrow in sand at the verge of low-water mark,
not perpendicularly, but in a slanting direction at an angle
of about 60 degrees.
On the retreat of spring tides
they may be seen nearly half out of their holes, apparently taking in a supply of oxygen for their gills. They