The pearl oyster.1861, Sir J. Emerson Tennent, "Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon with Narratives and Anecdotes Illustrative of the Habits and Instincts of the Mammalia, Birds, Reptiles, Fishes, Insects, &C. including A Monograph of the Elephant and A Description of the Modes of Capturing and Training It with Engravings From Original Drawings", K.C.S. Ll.D. &C.|They believed them to proceed not from a fish, but from a shell, which is known by the Tamil name of oorie cooleeroo cradoo, or the "crying shell," a name in which the sound seems to have been adopted as an echo to the sense.
