Carpet-Shell

Family Veneridae

• Portuguese: Amêijoa
• Spanish: Almeja fina
• French: Palourde

REMARKS Maximum length 8 cm. The shell is white, yellow or light brown in colour, often with darker brown rays, streaks or other marks. The range of this species is from Britain to the Mediterranean.

Lovell states that this carpet-shell was called butter-fish in Hampshire. The name is presumably honorific (they melt in the mouth?), since Lovell also says that the ‘butter-fish’ were thought to be ‘richer and better than cockles. They are found at low tide not far from high-water mark, and their locality is easily detected by two holes in the sand or gravel (unlike the cockle, which makes but one) about an inch or so apart . . . Butter-fish are considered very wholesome and I was assured by the cockle-gatherers that they might be eaten with impunity at all times of the year, and never disagreed with people as the mussels and cockles occasionally do.’