Pvn H,i I'UitlS

Pvn H,i I'UitlS ,1 1 

Published hy J VauVc 3 

65. 

Vol.2.

BRITISH CONCHOLOGY, 

OR AN ACCOUNT OF 

THE MOLLUSCA 

WHICH NOW INHABIT THE BRITISH ISLES AND THE 

SURROUNDING SEAS. 

VOLUME II. 

MARINE SHELLS, 

COMPRISING THE BRACHIOPODA, 

AND CONCHIFERA EROM THE FAMILY OF ANOMIIDJE 

TO THAT OF MACTKIDÊ. 

By JOHN GWYN JEFFREYS, F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 

LONDON: 

JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW r . 

MDCCCLXIII. 

[The right of Translation if reserved.} 

»

PRINTED IJY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, 

RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

INTRODUCTION, 

, 

1 *< ^ 

Since the publication of the first volume of this work 

I have made two more dredging-excursions to the 

Shetland Isles, a district which is by 

far the most 

interesting that I know of for the further investigation 

of the British Mollusca. In the interval I revisited the 

South of France, and also went to the Hanse towns, 

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, for the express purpose 

of examining public and private collections of Euro- 

pean shells, and especially the types of species described 

by O. F. Muller and subsequent writers on Scandinavian 

conchology. Every naturalist will appreciate the advantage 

of such an undertaking, being aware that our 

own fauna or flora cannot be properly studied apart 

from that of the rest of Europe. These preliminary 

remarks are offered to explain the cause of delay in 

the appearance of the present volume, and likewise to 

express my grateful acknowledgments 

for the kind 

welcome and aid which I received from all the leading 

zoologists in the countries above mentioned. Nor ought 

I to omit a renewal of my thanks to many of my own 

countrymen, who have again most liberally placed their 

collections at my disposal and favoured me with valu- 

able communications. I will now endeavour to profit 

by the opportunities I have thus enjoyed, in extending 

the list of our native Testacea, as well as in revising the 

75033

IV INTRODUCTION. 

synonymy and defining the range of previously known 

species. 

And here let me say a few words about the adoption 

of names,, whether of genera or species. I would premise 

by stating that I am averse to unnecessary inno- 

vation. All names which have been generally used, 

and which may 

therefore be said to be established or 

familiar, ought never to be changed, except for the 

strongest reasons. To substitute new names for these 

would be manifestly inexpedient and lead to much con- 

fusion. Even the ground of priority is in most cases no 

excuse for altering and unsettling the accepted nomen- 

clature; and the attempt to revive old, obscure, and 

long-forgotten names cannot be too strongly deprecated. 

It is forbidden to disturb the ashes of the dead. But 

no task is more difficult to the naturalist, or more open 

to criticism, than the selection of names, where more 

than one are still used by different authors for the same 

genus or species. He has to perform the functions of 

both judge and jury, and not only to weigh carefully 

the evidence for and against the retention of any name 

thus put upon its trial, but also to administer strict and 

impartial justice, according 

to the laws of scientific ter- 

that the 

minology. Besides, it must not be forgotten 

nomenclature used by scientific men in other countries, 

where many branches of natural history 

are cultivated 

not less assiduously or successfully than in Great Britain, 

does not altogether agree with ours. The utmost pains 

ought 

to be taken to reconcile or lessen the difference 

between us and them in this respect, so as to ensure as 

much uniformity as possible. Naturalists of all coun- 

tries are members of the great commonwealth of science, 

and their technical language is the same. Our patriotic 

feelings, although commendable in other matters, ought

INTRODUCTION. V 

to give place to the higher object of serving the general 

cause, while investigating the works of the Creator. 

The favourable reception given to the preceding 

volume has encouraged me to persevere in the attempt 

to make this work readable by all, and at the same time 

useful to my brother conchologists. 

The advice of our 

old friend, Horace, should not be neglected by any 

writer : 

Onine tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci 

Lectoreni delectando pariterque monendo. 

All that relates to Nature is in itself so delightful, 

and the pursuit of it elicits so many of our best and 

truest feelings, that every undertaking of this kind 

ought to be imbued with the sentiment inculcated by 

the above maxim, instead of repelling students by too 

much technicality. The author and his readers have a 

joint property in the subject-matter, and they are held 

together by the same tie of sympathy. 

" Pleasure is spread through the earth 

In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find." 

Our communion with GrOD, through His works, affords 

one of the purest and most unalloyed of pleasures that 

is permitted to us in this transitory state. Even the 

mere contemplation of them, in any 

of their various 

aspects, if it is made in a fitting mood, assures us, much 

more forcibly than human teaching can, that our minds 

—our spirits — our souls partake of His eternity and are 

imperishable. This idea has pervaded all men and in 

every age. 

It is innate and ineradicable. 

At the same time it cannot be denied that novels, 

magazines, and newspapers constitute now-a-days the 

literature which chiefly occupies the small reading-time 

of the public, and that scientific books generally are

VI INTRODUCTION. 

overlooked, unless they advance some startling proposition 

as to the origin or remote antiquity of our own 

race. There can be no use, however, in blaming the 

popular taste ; 

nor would it be reasonable to expect that 

every one should follow a scientific path, if his inclinations 

do not lead him that way. The love of Nature 

is not confined to any one period, and its votaries must 

not feel disappointed, should their peculiar studies not 

be shared by all their contemporaries. 

Before entering into the details of our marine Mol- 

lusca, 

I would make a few more remarks as to their 

distribution and structure. This I was prevented from 

doing in the introductory part of the former volume by 

an anxiety not to impose too long an exordium on the 

patience of my readers. 

The sea-bed may be said, in the technical language of 

lawyers, to be u land covered with water." Its outline, 

if it could be viewed through an aquatic telescope, would 

be seen to be irregular, and nearly as much diversified 

as the surface of the earth. Mountains, hills, rocks, 

gorges, valleys, and plains would be successively exhibited 

in the submarine panorama, having often the same 

bold and abrupt contour that gives so picturesque an 

aspect to land scenery. Oceanic and tidal currents 

represent rivers, corresponding with them in volume and 

rapidity, and equally scooping 

degrees of width and depth. 

out channels of various 

But we have good reason 

to believe that lifeless deserts, like the great Sahara, are 

wanting below the broad watery girdle which encircles 

the globe and covers at least three-fourths of its extent. 

It is true that, in certain inlets or arms of the sea, rivers 

flowing into them may have sufficient strength and 

velocity to sweep the middle of the channel, and thus 

prevent the deposit 

of mud or other sediment which

INTRODUCTION. Vll 

would afford the necessary shelter or food to certain 

animals. Indeed the continual motion of the stream 

and the destructive property of fresh water might pre- 

clude the possibility of any marine animals existing 

and in that case the central 

within the prohibited area ; 

bed of the channel would be partially covered with clear 

sand, devoid of organic remains. An instance of this 

kind has been given by Dr. Wallich in his account of 

Hamilton's Inlet, Labrador "*. Such cases, however, are 

exceptional ; 

and the limits of these areas are very cir- 

cumscribed. Manv kinds of Invertebrata are known to 

flourish in the most rapid tideways, and even in whirl- 

pools; and the water of the ocean everywhere teems 

with life. The dredge has never failed to bring up 

some organisms from every part of the sea-bed which 

has been hitherto explored. However unpromising it 

may at first sight appear, the cleanest-looking sand 

taken from any depth of water, and carefully examined 

by the aid of a lens or microscope, will be found to contain 

structural forms. Having these facts and a certain 

degree of experience to guide us in the inquiry, 

be a hasty assumption that any geological strata of 

it would 

comparatively recent formation, which do not contain 

fossils, are of marine origin. Whether the absence of 

fossils from particular strata may be attributable to 

chemical absorption or decomposition is a question 

which must be decided on other grounds. Let Mr. 

Sorby be the exponent. Until more is known of this 

difficult and interesting subject, we may suspend our 

judgment as to any formation being either azoic or pro- 

tozoic. The presence of scarcely more distinct traces of 

life than a few worm-casts in our lowest Silurian rocks 

does not prove the improbability, much less the impos- 

* ' 

The North-Atlantic Sea-bed,' p. 49.

Vlll 

INTRODUCTION. 

sibility, of many other and more perfect structures 

having been formed elsewhere at the same early period 

of the world's history. The maxim " de non apparen- 

-" 

tibus et non existentibns eadem est ratio is scarcely 

applicable to geological cases of this nature. 

The conditions which exist in one part of the sea-bed 

are often quite different in another part. The late Professor 

Forbes, in his valuable Report to the British 

Association in 1843 on the Invertebrata of the iEgean, 

stated his belief that the zero of animal life was probably 

about 300 fathoms, because his dredgings in that 

sea at a depth of 230 fathoms yielded but very few 

species. But in other tracts of the ocean living animals 

of various kinds have been repeatedly obtained from far 

greater depths. Our knowledge of abyssal life is only 

checked by the difficulty of such explorations and by 

the imperfect nature of our means of discovery. 

It is 

a high and worthy object of the naturalist's ambition, 

and by no means devoid of general interest. 

Speculations 

ancients. In the f 

" There is a magnet-like attraction in 

These waters to the imaginative power 

That links the viewless with the visible, 

And pictures tilings unseen." 

of this kind were not unknown to the 

Halieutica \ of Oppian, written nearly 

seventeen centuries ago, it is stated that no one had 

found the bottom of the sea and that the ; 

greatest depth 

ascertained by man was 300 fathoms, where Amphitrite 

had been seen. But this grand discovery does 

not seem to have satisfied the poetical philosopher, and 

he enters into a long disquisition as to the many other 

wonderful things that may be concealed in the recesses 

of the boundless ocean— 

adding, however, 

" 

. . i . . oXtyos $e voos fiepoireGOL tcai i. " 

okici}.

INTRODUCTION. IX 

Torell and W allien, fortunately for science, were regardless 

of the consequences which, according to M. 

Michelet (in his charming rhapsody of "La Mer"), 

would ensue on their " curiositd sacrilege;" and, with 

anxious gaze " eyeing the sea's blue depths," they have 

dared to cross its mysterious threshold. To one of 

these enterprising philosophers is perhaps reserved the 

privilege of announcing, in the words of the poet, 

. . . . 

" Lo ! the polar seas 

Unbosom their last mysteries." 

The glimpses which they succeeded in obtaining were 

few and transient ; but we now know that the great 

ocean-depths are inhabited by a variety as well as an 

abundance of living animals, some of which are of no 

mean rank in the scale of classification. Wordsworth 

Was not wrong in his divination when he also said, 

" Her procreant vigils Nature keeps 

Amid the unfathomable deeps." 

I have lately had, through 

the kindness of Dr. Wal- 

lich, an opportunity of examining some of the material 

brought up in his North-Atlantic soundings. One of 

these yielded several dead shells of Mollusca, as well as 

Globigerin(B and other Foraminifera, from the extra- 

ordinary depth of 1622 fathoms, or nearly two miles ! 

This sounding was taken in lat. 55° 36' N., long. 54° 

33' W., and about 100 miles N.W. of Hamilton's Inlet. 

Crenella faba, one of the species of Mollusca thus ob- 

tained, was dredged by Dr. Wallich on the adjacent 

and it 

coast, at a depth of from 18 to 40 fathoms only; 

is not uncommon on the shores of the Polar and Arctic 

seas. The other species of Mollusca inhabit deep water ; 

and one is undescribed. It may be conjectured that 

these shells were dropped from the bottom of a melting 

but as icebergs take 

iceberg on its passage to the south ;

X INTRODUCTION. 

up only stones and earth from the land, like the moraine 

of a glacier, such a conjecture does not seem to be en- 

titled to much weight. An iceberg might certainly be 

stranded, and thus pick up shells ; but it would in all 

probability be dissolved on the spot in the course of time. 

Its bulk and weight are too great to admit of its floating 

off again under such circumstances as I have supposed. 

It is, indeed, within the bounds of possibility that the 

shells might have been collected on the shore by coast- 

ice, and carried off to sea ; 

but Dr. Wallich informs me 

that this kind of ice has never been known to travel so far 

southward as the locality above mentioned. There is 

much greater probability that the mollusca in question 

lived and died on the sea-bottom where their remains 

were found. Every one who considers the importance of 

these researches ought to read and study Wallich's trea- 

tise on the North-Atlantic Sea-bed, and especially the 

limits of animal life in the 

chapter on the bathymetrical 

ocean. He will find the subject treated in a philosophical 

and the account of living starfishes 

and masterly style ; 

having been discovered at a depth of 1260 fathoms in 

the open sea, and also the geological application of that 

discovery, especially 

years the use of the dredge, 

deserve attention. Until of late 

as an instrument of zoolo- 

gical research, was nearly unknown. All that natu- 

ralists did in former times was to examine the refuse of 

trawl nets, which seldom reached a depth of 20 fa- 

thoms ; or now and then fishing-lines of more than twice 

that length brought to the surface a few shells and 

corals which were accidentally detached from the bottom 

of the sea. These specimens (as Professor Forbes said) 

" only served to whet our curiosity, without affording 

the information we thirsted for." Now-a-days, how- 

ever, the dredge is a scientific necessity ; and scarcely

INTRODUCTION. XI 

any part of the ocean, from one pole to another, has 

been exempt from its operations. 

The level of the earth everywhere is continually 

changing. That of the sea is, on the contrary, fixed; 

and although we are accustomed to speak of its ad- 

motion it has of this 

vancing and retiring, the only 

kind is occasioned by the tides, and is never permanent. 

Sea and earth may be compared to two sisters, the elder 

one staid and sedate, the younger giddy and fickle. 

The solidity of the earth and capriciousness of the sea 

are poetical terms, but incorrect in a geological point of 

view. Poetry and Geology 

have seldom much in com- 

mon. It is a striking fact, that every part of the earth's 

surface which is now habitable or dry, has at more 

periods 

than one formed the bed of the sea : 

" Each changing place with that which goes before, 

In sequent toil all forwards do contend." 

There is not an individual particle of this crust but what 

has been often shifted and transformed ; 

and the phases 

of a kaleidoscope are not more varied than the configurations 

which have resulted from such changes since 

time commenced its task of revolution. The inevitable 

recurrence of similar fluctuations will assuredly make 

our rich and favoured isle again the seat of watery 

wealth— although it may not be laid waste by a deluge 

such as Horace describes, 

" Omne quum Proteus pecus egit altos 

Visere montes, 

Piscium et summa genus luesit ulmo, 

Nota quae sedes fuerat columbis, 

Et superjecto pavidre natarunt 

iEquore damae." 

Not long afterwards Manilius (who was a better geo- 

showed the reverse of the medal :— 

logist than Horace)

Xll INTRODUCTION. 

" Emersere fretis montes, orbisque per uudas 

Exiliit, vasto clausus tamen undique ponto." 

Such theories appear to have been first propounded by 

Straton, the successor of Theophrastus in his school ; 

and they were improved by Herodotus, and still more by 

Strabo, who gave numerous instances of the changes of 

sea and land. But it is not a mere theory, that what 

has been will be ; 

and our own Shakespeare has pro- 

phetically illustrated this idea in one of his exquisite 

sonnets :— " When I have seen the hungry ocean gain 

Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, 

And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main, 

Increasing store with loss, and loss with store ; 

When I have seen such interchange of state. 

Or state itself confounded to decay ; 

Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate— 

That time will come "— 

Sea and land are in some respects convertible terms ; 

and the epithet of " earth-embracing," given to the 

former, conveys only an indistinct notion of their close 

and inseparable union. One cannot exist without the 

other. They contain many of the same iugredients. But 

the sea is the main depository of all soluble matter; 

and the greater number and bulk* of marine testacea, 

compared with those which inhabit the land, may be 

thus accounted for. The quantity of calcareous matter 

from which the continual and immense construction of 

shells is derived, appears to be infinitesimally small. 

Liebig has calculated that sea-water contains - 

only x 2^ 

of its weight of carbonate of lime, this being the princi- 

pal ingredient 

appreciate 

of molluscous shells. How little do we 

the action and effect of elements which are 

* I have seen a specimen of Tridacna gigas, from Amboyna, said to 

weigh 3 cwt. 3 qrs.

INTRODUCTION. Xlli 

insignificant in themselves but inconceivably important 

in their consequences !— a consideration which is not less 

applicable to moral than to physical nature. Paley in 

his ( 

' 

Natural Theology 

quaintly remarks, with regard 

to the proportion of space occupied by the sea and land, 

" I know not why the sea may not have as good a right 

to its place as the land." No more do I. Each un- 

consciously fulfils the peculiar function assigned to it 

from the commencement by an allwise Providence. No 

one can reflect on the innumerable and various trans- 

formations which both have since undergone, without 

being convinced that their creation and inherent forces 

must be due to an extraneous cause. Palev's watch 

is out of fashion ; but those of my readers who admire 

—and who does not?— the still more antiquated but 

equally devout writings of the " Father of English 

Poets" will, I feel sure, not object to be reminded of 

his sentiments on the same topic. They are in the Pro- 

' 

logue to his Testament of Love/ and as follows :— 

"Nowe principally the mene to brynge in know- 

leging and lovynge his creatour, is the consideracyon of 

thynges made by the creatour, wher through by thylke 

thinges that ben made, understandynge here to our 

wyttes, arne the unsene pryvities of God made to us 

syghtfull and knowinge, in our contemplacion and 

understondinge. These thinges than forsoth moche 

bringen us to the ful knowleginge sothe, and to the 

parfyte love of the maker of hevenly thynges 

it is a grete likynge in love of knowinge ther cretoure : 

and also in knowinge of causes in kindelye thynges, 

considrid forsothe the formes of kindelye thinges and 

the shap, a gret kyndely love we shulde have to the 

werkman that 'hem made. The crafte of a werkman is 

shewed in the werk." 

b

XIV INTRODUCTION. 

Who that breathes, and is endued with the powers 

that so widely separate man from the brute, can for one 

instant withhold his acknowledgment of an omnipresent 

Being, which is sensibly spread 

" o'er all that glides 

Beneath the wave, yea, in the wave itself, 

And mighty depth of waters " ? 

I will now resume the special purpose of this work, 

commencing with the Brachiopoda, as having 

the lowest 

organization, and advancing upwards to the higher or 

more perfect Mollusca. The descriptions of the ani- 

mals or soft parts will, I regret to say, be sometimes 

scanty and occasionally wanting. They are principally 

taken from the observations of the late Mr. Clark and 

Professor Forbes, Mr. Alder, and myself. My deficien- 

cies in this respect will, I trust, stimulate other natu- 

ralists to supply the desired information ; and I would 

especially 

invite the assistance of those who have an 

aquarium, and opportunities of keeping it supplied from 

the various parts of our extensive seaboard. Every fact, 

however trivial, is worth recording, because (even 

if it 

is not new) it may be useful for the sake of confirming 

the accounts given by other naturalists. Most of the 

illustrations of molluscous animals in this volume have 

been copied from the plates in Forbes and Hanley's 

work, or engraved from original drawings by Mr. Alder. 

For the figures of Crania, Crenella, and Cyamium I 

am indebted to Dr. Saxby, and for that of Pinna to 

Mr. Spence Bate. 

The 1st Class, or Conchifera, has been described in 

the first volume, so far as it relates to the freshwater 

Mollusca ; 

and the only other division of the Acephala 

is the Brachiopoda, which will now be noticed.

Class BRACHIOPODA*. 

Body compressed, of an oval or occasionally a circular form, 

contained within the two valves of a shell, which are in most 

cases connected behind by a hinge, but never by a ligament or 

cartilage. The shell is inequivalve, and furnished inside with 

a complicated skeleton for supporting the arms, which will 

be presently noticed. The mantle is divided into two lobes, 

and its outer edge is fringed with a row of extensile tentacles, 

every one of which has at its root or base a coloured spot, 

which may be a rudimentary eye. 

Each lobe contains a folded 

or spirally coiled arm, which is furnished with one or more 

rows of flexible cirri or filaments. The animal is destitute of 

a head or foot ; but it has a slit-shaped mouth behind the 

arms, an excretory tube, a stomach, several vesicles which 

serve the purpose of a heart, nerves, muscles, liver, and reproductive 

organs. The circulatory system is supplied by the 

mantle and arms, there being no gills. It is supposed by some 

writers that both sexes are united in the same individual ; 

but 

this is doubtful. In the majority of cases (e. g. Terebratididce) 

the animal is attached to extraneous bodies by a fibrous stalk 

or peduncle, which is placed at the back, and penetrates the 

upper or convex valve ; while in others (e. g. Craniidce) it is 

usually affixed by the outer surface of the lower valve, which 

is flat. 

This remarkable and peculiar Class is nearly equal in 

value to the Conchifera (see vol. i.) as regards the im- 

portance of its structural characters ; and, although it 

does not contain so many species, they are quite as 

abounding in individuals. In point of antiquity 

superior, 

" 

of ancestrv 

Mysteriously remote and high;" 

it is far 

and not even a Welshman, who would place Adam in 

the middle of his genealogical tree, can boast such a 

* From an erroneous notion that their feet take the shape of arms.

2 BRACHIOPODA. * 

lineage. 

The Lingula-hed of the upper Cambrian system 

is well known ; and other palaeozoic strata contain 

equally rich mines of similar wealth. But although 

the number and variety of recent Brachiopoda are not 

equal to those of former days, 

the difference does not 

appear to be so great as has been usually represented. 

Mr. Davidson, who is perhaps the greatest authority on 

the subject, says that there are 20 Silurian, 25 Devo- 

nian, 19 Carboniferous, 12 Permian, 12 Triassic, 14 Ju- 

rassic, 12 Cretaceous, 10 Tertiary, and 14 recent genera 

and subgenera; so that we seem to have improved 

in this respect on the middle ages, and future generations 

may exhibit a further advance, and even rival the 

primeval era. The comparative rarity of Brachiopoda 

in modern times may be easily accounted for. They 

mostly inhabit rocky and stony parts of the sea-bed, 

which cannot be reached by the dredge without great 

risk of its being lost or injured, although they are gre- 

garious and occur in vast numbers under favourable 

circumstances. My late friend, Dr. Lukis, found more 

than 200 specimens of Argiope cistellula on a single 

stone brought up from a depth of 20 fathoms off Guern- 

sey; and I have myself repeatedly 

taken Terebratula 

caput -serpentis and Crania anomala in such profusion 

on the western coasts of Scotland, as to be compelled 

by a sheer embarras des richesses to throw many 

hundreds overboard in the course of a day's dredging. 

Even the comparatively rare T. cranium is no exception. 

I have counted seventy specimens, although broken and 

imperfect, which came up in a single 

haul off the Shet- 

lands. Terebratella Spitzbergensis, which was at first 

accounted extremely scarce, now appears, from Dr. Otto 

Toreirs researches, to be by 

no means uncommon in its 

native haunts ; and I lately picked up two or three fossil

specimens of it at Uddevalla, 

BRACHIOPODA. 6 

in the course of a short 

exploration of the raised sea-bed in that remarkably in- 

teresting place. T. septata (or septigera), as regards the 

frequency of its occurrence, may be placed 

in the same 

category. The examination of fossiliferous strata is 

attended with no risk, and the specimens are procured 

without much difficulty; but I much doubt if we should 

not find in a modern sea-bed, of the same extent and 

having similar conditions, a collection of Brachiopoda 

fully equal in number and variety to those contained in 

any one Palseozoic, Mesozoic, or Cainozoic formation. 

So many recent species have been made out of solitary 

or a very few specimens, that it is evident much remains 

to be known of this curious group as it at present exists. 

Being individually numerous, and comparatively low in 

the scale of organization, the tendency to variation is 

of course great. An examination of nearly all the types 

of recent species induces me to suggest the necessity of 

a complete revision of these so-called species. 

This group has been for more than half a century a 

favourite study of naturalists. Pallas, Cuvier, De Blainville, 

Owen, Quenstedt, Deshayes, Yogt, Forbes, Hux- 

ley, M. J. Muller, Schmidt, Deslongchamps, Carpenter, 

Barrett, Woodward, Gratiolet, Hancock, F. Muller, 

Macdonald, Lacaze-Duthiers,and Shaler have at different 

periods 

contributed a vast store of information as to the 

structure of recent Brachiopoda; while De Koninck, 

D'Orbigny, M'Coy, King, Davidson, Suess, and other 

able palaeontologists have made us acquainted with the 

fossil forms. Mr. Reeve has also rendered some good 

service in respect of the synonymy and geographical dis- 

tribution of existing species. Mr. Hancock's valuable 

paper " on the Organization of the Brachiopoda " will 

be found in the c 

Philosophical 

Transactions' for 1858. 

b 2

4 BRACHIOPODA. 

It deservedly gained him the Royal medal, and is the 

more praiseworthy because he never, I believe, had the 

good fortune to see a living specimen. This opportunity, 

however, has frequently occurred to me ; and I 

will endeavour, 

treatises, to present 

with the aid of Mr. Hancock's and other 

habits of this extraordinarv class. 

a few remarks on the structure and 

It has been usual to consider the valves of the shell 

in Terebratula as covering the front and back of the 

animal, the perforate valve being ventral, and the imperforate 

valve dorsal. When the Terebratula is attached 

by its peduncle the perforate valve is uppermost. But 

the analogy between the Brachiopoda and the Vertebrata 

is very slight. The back of a Terebratula is 

really 

that part which lies behind the arms and mouth, and is 

close to the apex or point of attachment. Instead, 

therefore, of calling the valves " ventral" and " dorsal," 

it would seem more correct to describe them as "upper" 

and " lower "—the larger and deeper valve being perfo- 

rate and uppermost, and the smaller and shallower valve 

being imperforate and lowermost. In the Brachiopoda 

the valves are articulated across the back ; in the Con- 

chifera the valves are united by a ligament or cartilage 

along the back. The arms occupy two-thirds of the 

shell. They resemble the mainspring of a watch, and 

are not capable of being protruded or unrolled. I have 

never observed the cirri, with which they are clothed, 

to project much beyond the edges of the shell in the 

living animal. The great extent of these brachial organs 

is very remarkable. In Rhynchonella psittacea the arms, 

when forcibly stretched out, are said to be more than 

four times the length of the shell, and to support about 

3000 cirri. In Terebratula caput-serpentis the cirri 

open and fold together somewhat like a butterfly-net.

BRACHIOPODA. O 

Mr. Hancock is of opinion that "the brachial organs 

subserve the function of gills, as well as that of respira- 

tion." As far as I could judge from the examination of 

living specimens of T. caput-serpentis, the inner folds of 

the mantle appeared to have the same action as that of 

the gills in many Lamellibranch Mollusca. The name 

of Palliobranchiata was given to the class now under con- 

sideration in consequence of a belief that their 

respiratory 

system was dependent on the mantle. Mr. Macdonald 

l 

has shown, in the Linnean Transactions ' 

(xxiii. p. 375), 

that the pallial sinuses serve as organs of circulation. 

Some of this class have calcareous spicula or plates in 

the mantle, 

as well as in the arms and cirri. In Tere~ 

bratula caput-serpentis these spicula are very numerous, 

large, and often branched like the antlers of a deer ; and 

they form an extensive though incomplete network. 

Their use is doubtless the same as that of the spicula in 

sponges, viz. to strengthen and support 

the tissues of 

the animal, and especially to protect the delicate canals 

of the mantle from the pressure of the external fluid. 

Under a microscope with polarized light these spicula 

are remarkably beautiful objects. The pallial tentacles 

resemble those of Anomia. When the animal is dead and 

dried up, they are stiff from contraction, and of a horny 

have been called sette or 

texture, for which reason they 

bristles. The muscular system is well developed, and 

admirably adapted to the complicated machinery by which 

the animal opens, closes, and moves the valves of its shell. 

Dr. Carpenter was the first to point out and explain a 

very singular apparatus of canals or cylindrical holes 

observable in the shells of Terebratula and other allied 

genera, which are occupied by tubular appendages of 

the mantle and closed on the outside. These processes 

penetrate every part of the shell, but their function has

6 BRACHIOPODA. 

not been satisfactorily made out. Mr. Hancock supposes 

that they maintain the vitality of the 'shell, and 

that perhaps by their means any injury to it may be re- 

paired. Some provision of this sort appears 

to be neces- 

sary, because the Brachiopods do not, to any great ex- 

tent, thicken their shells by successive internal layers, 

like bivalve Mollusca. The shells of the Brachiopocla 

are never provided with an epidermis ; and this may also 

account for their perforated structure. Many bivalve 

shells, such as those of Astarte, from which the epidermis 

has been accidentally removed, peel off, or become 

eroded near the beaks to such an extent that, if new 

layers were not continually being secreted from within, 

the animals would be laid bare and exposed to untold 

dangers. Sponges, Balani, Serpulce, and other extraneous 

organisms are often seen covering or attached to 

the shells of Terebratulce. The hinge in the articulated 

kinds is so firmly interlocked, that it is impossible to 

separate the valves without using a slight degree of force. 

They appear to be in some measure sensible of light. 

Lacaze-Duthiers gives an instance of Thecidia collapsing 

suddenly when his shadow passed between them and the 

sun. He succeeded in keeping these curious Brachio- 

pods, in a lively and active state, for six weeks by merely 

changing the water every day. The sexual nature of the 

Brachiopoda is not quite determined. Dr. Gratiolet sug- 

gests that the same individuals may become successively 

male or female at different periods. Mr. Hancock con- 

siders Lingula, at least, to be androgynous or monoecious ; 

and he infers from analogy that both sexes are combined 

also in the articulated Brachiopods. But Lacaze-Duthiers 

has investigated this part of the subject more recently 

and under circumstances more favourable than seem to 

have fallen to the lot of any other writer. His elabo-


rate essay on the Thecidium Mediterraneum will be 

found in the ' 

Annales des Sciences Naturelles' for 1861, 

and is the first of a series of monographs on the organi- 

zation of the living Brachiopoda. He asserts most confidently 

that the Thecidia are of different sexes, and 

that the male and female can be distinguished even bv 

their shells. According to his observations the embryo 

of Tliecidium is divided into four distinct lobes, and it 

has sometimes two, and at other times four eye-spots. 

"When separated from the peduncle by which it is 

means of 

attached, it swims or whirls head foremost by 

vibratory cilia which cover the body. Fritz Miiller had 

previously described in Wiegmann's Archiv (xxvii. p. 53) 

the fry of a Brazilian Brachiopod. He says it was enclosed 

in a bivalve shell like the adult, and that its structure 

was the same, except in having two eyes and in wanting 

the reproductive and circulatory organs. The arms were 

covered with a complete coat of cilia, by 

the action of 

which the little creature swam. It could also creep ; 

and this was effected by a semirotatory movement 

alternately to the right and left, and by pushing itself 

along: bv means of the bristles or setae which fringe the 

edges of the mantle, and upon the strongest of which it 

would occasionally support itself while resting. The 

Brachiopoda are extremely prolific, 

and their countless 

eggs are of a spherical shape. After quitting the em- 

bryonic state, they become invariably and permanently 

fixed to other substances, being incapable of any other 

motion than making a half-turn round the peduncle or 

pivot. 

Their food consists of Infusoria or other minute 

organisms. Milton has, with his usual felicity, de- 

scribed the present animals as those which, 

" 

in their pearl}- shells at ease, attend 

Moist nutriment."

8 BRACHIOPODA. * 

Some Terebralula: which I watched for a long time 

seemed, however, to be more active than passive in 

feeding. They were incessantly opening and folding 

their cirrons arms, and drawing or sncking in, by means 

animalcule within its 

of the whirlpool thus caused, every 

influence. The action reminded me of that of a Bar- 

nacle, the only difference being in the position of the 

arms, which in Balanus are placed in front, and in 

Terebratula on the sides of the animal. Possiblv Cuvier's 

notion that the Brachiopods do not differ much from 

the Cirripeds was correct, although the relationship be- 

tween them may be one of analogy rather than of 

affinity. Very lately Dr. Gratiolet has expressed an 

opinion that the Brachiopods are allied to the Crustacea 

in respect of their vascular system, and not to the 

or least of all to the Tunicata. Milne-Ed- 

Mollusca, 

wards has included them with the Tunicata and Poly- 

zoa, in his Class " Molluscoida." Lacaze-Duthiers sepa- 

rates them from the Acephala mainly on embryogenic 

grounds, remarking that the difference in this respect 

between the Brachiopoda and Acephala is as great as 

between the latter and the Gasteropoda. In this contro- 

verted and unsatisfactory state of our knowledge, it 

would seem best to retain them for the present in the 

great kingdom of the Mollusca, as a class of coordinate 

value with the Conchifera,— the Pteropoda and Gasteropoda 

forming another and equally poised group. The 

Brachiopoda have certainly some features in common 

but 

with the Tunicata, as well as with the Conchifera ; 

they differ essentially from both in having cirrous arms, 

in which latter respect they resemble the Cirripedia. 

The perforated structure of their shells agrees with that 

of the Balanidce, and also of the Polyzoa. They are con- 

fessedly anomalous, and to a certain extent sui generis.


The Brachiopods inhabit all the zones of vertical 

The Rev. M. J. Berkeley found a living speci- 

depth. 

men of Terebratula caput-serpentis attached to a rock 

at low-water mark, on a part of the Scotch coast where 

the tide falls only a few feet ; I have taken the same 

species by dredging at various depths from 3 to 90 

fathoms; M fAndrew and Barrett obtained T. cranium 

alive at 160 fathoms; and Dr. Wallich has shown me 

a shell of the last-named species which was brought 

off the east coast of Greenland in 228 

up by sounding 

fathoms. The nature of the sea-bottom, more than the 

depth of water, determines the limit of their habitability. 

This class has two great and distinct types of form, 

viz. the jointed and hingeless, although a fossil genus 

(Davidsonia) is considered by M. Bouchard- Chantereaux 

to form a connecting link between them. The above 

distinction was first noticed and proposed by M. Des- 

hayes, and it is founded on malacological 

as well as 

conchological characters. By far the greater part of 

the Brachiopoda (including the Terebratulidce) belong 

to the former section, while the other comprises only 

Crania, Lingula, and a few more genera. Both of 

these types or sections are represented in the British 

fauna. 

5" 

B O 

i

10 TEREBRATULIDjE. 

* Jointed. 

Family I. TEREBRATU'LID.E, Gray. 

Body oval : arms folded back, and supported either by shelly 

processes issuing from the hinge of the lower valve, or by lon- 

in that valve : attachment formed 

gitudinal septa or partywalls 

by a peduncle, which passes through a hole in the upper valve. 

Shell longitudinally or transversely oval, more or less con- 

vex : skeleton or apophysary system consisting of riband-shaped 

plates, which are frequently looped or united : hinge 

formed of 

two side-teeth in the upper valve, which lock into sockets in 

the lower valve : muscular scars slight and seldom visible. 

This family is very numerous and diversified in cha- 

racter, and it is also widely dispersed both in space and 

time. Some of its members occur in every sea, from 

the arctic to the antarctic pole ; and its geological 

range appears to include all the known strata, from the 

Silurian to those which are now in course of formation. 

Colonna in 1616 was the first to use the name 

Anomia, and applied it to species of Terebratula j and 

Linne and other naturalists of the old school also placed 

them in the former genus, because they are attached to 

extraneous substances by a fibrous tendon passing 

through one of the valves of the shell. But although 

the analogy holds good to a certain extent, it is not 

complete. 

In this section of the Brachiopoda the upper 

valve, and in Anomia the lower valve is thus perforated, 

to say nothing of the very different organization of the 

animal and internal structure of the shell. Systematists 

are not yet agreed as to the number of genera into 

which this large family ought to be divided, nor whether 

any or how many subgenera are allowable. Either mode 

of distinction, however, is clearly artificial, and used 

for the sake of convenient classification. As 

merely

TEREBRATULA. 11 

our indigenous species are very few and reducible to 

two types, I do not wish to burden the nomenclature 

more than can be helped, and I therefore propose to 

adopt the genera Terebratula and Argiope only. These 

appear to have sufficiently definite characters by which 

one may be distinguished from the other. 

Genus I. TEREBRA'TULA*, Lhwyd. PI. I. f. 1. 

Body convex : 

mantle free at its outer edges. 

Shell acutely triangular: beak prominent: foramen, or 

byssal perforation, small : hinge-line 

curved : skeleton consist- 

ing of horizontally projecting blades, which are often looped. 

There are only two British species, and for these as 

many genera have been proposed by 

will arrange them in sections. 

some authors. I 

A. Shell smooth : skeleton consisting of two long blades, which 

are not looped or connected. (Waldheimia 

drevia, King.) 

1. Terebratula cra'nium^ Miiller. 

and Macaa- 

T. cranium, Mull. Zool. Dan. Prodr. p. 249, no. 3006 ; Forbes & Hanley. 

vol. ii. p. 357, pi. 

lvii. f. 11. 

Body creamcolour, with a brownish tinge : mantle thin ; 

tentacles rather short, with small brown tubercles at their 

base : arms dark brown ; cirri rather short : peduncle short 

and compact. 

Shell oval, with sometimes a squarish outline, convex, 

smooth to the naked 

rather thin, slightly lustrous : sculpture, 

eye, but very closely tubercled when examined with a mag- 

often trun- 

nifying-power : colour white: margins compressed, 

cate and sometimes flexuous in 'front : beak rather prominent, 

but short, worn by rubbing against the stone or other hard 

substance to which the shell is attached : foramen 

* From the hole in the shell. 

oval, in- 

t From a fancied resemblance of the shell to a human skull.

12 TEREBRATULID.E. 

complete at the lower end : deltidium (or triangular space below 

the beak) slight, and divided by the point of the lower 

valve: lunge-plate of both valves exceedingly thick, forming 

strong supports for the teeth and lamellar processes ; from 

these processes extend into the interior two diverging ridges 

or septa in the upper valve, and three or more in the lower 

valve : teeth of upper valve very strong and projecting towards 

each other : sockets in lower valve deep : skeleton consisting 

of two thin and elastic blades, which reach within about one- 

fourth of the front margin ; they are furnished with upright 

spurs at a short distance from the hinge-plate, and have sharp 

points. L. 1. B. 0-8. 

Yar. oblonga. 

Shell much narrower and deeper than usual, 

and having the front margin nearly straight. 

Habitat : 

Rocky and stony ground, from 50 to 90 

fathoms, on the north and east coasts of Shetland, but 

exceedingly rare in a living state. More than fifty years 

ago, when the late Professor Fleming was Minister of 

Bressav Island, a stone was brousrht to him by one of 

his parishioners, a long-line fisherman, to which three 

specimens 

of this curious shell were attached. One of 

them was sent to Col. Montagu, who described it in the 

eleventh volume of the f 

Linnean Transactions/ My 

late friend Mr. Barlee, as well as myself with Mr. Wal- 

ler and Mr. Norman, have lately dredged specimens of 

various sizes and ages in the same part of our seas, at 

distances from land ranging from one to thirty-five miles. 

The locality ("Dublin Bay"), recorded by Dr. Turton 

in his ( 

Conchological Dictionary/ appears to be more 

than questionable, especially as he omitted it in his sub- 

sequent work on the British bivalves. This species 

does not appear to have been found in any of our upper 

tertiaries ; but, in all probability, the T. euthyra of Phi- 

lippi, a fossil from a corresponding formation in Sicily, 

is the same species. T. cranium is rather common on 

the Scandinavian coasts; and Dr. Wallich obtained dead

TEREBRATULA. 

off the east coast of Greenland at the several 

specimens 

depths of 108 and 228 fathoms. 

According to Mr. Barrett, this is more lively than 

T. caput-serpentis, moving often on its pedicle, but it is 

more easily alarmed. The excellent Montagu 

indulged in an unusual nap when he imagined 

13 

must have 

that the 

animal protruded its tube through the aperture of the 

beak, so as to serve the triple purpose of mouth, foot, 

and sucker, and that it was capable of a certain degree 

of locomotion ! 

But 

his notion that, bv means of the 

hinge, the valves are similarlv and as firmlv articulated 

as the claw of a crab, is much more correct, and shows 

his admirable power of observation. The internal skele- 

ton is very different from that of T. {Waldheimia) au- 

stralis. Having carefully cleaned the inside of a specimen 

of T. cranium, containing the dried remains of the 

animal, with a weak solution of potash, and examined 

several other perfect shells of different ages, I could not 

perceive the least appearance of a loop, which is so 

evident in T. australis. The lamellar processes in the 

lower valve of T. cranium are equal in length, and end 

in sharp points. They may be compared to the chariot- 

blades used by the ancient Scythians, and they some- 

what resemble the falciform apophyses of Teredo and 

Pholas. In the young of T. cranium these processes are 

extremely short. Their arrangement and shape are so 

dissimilar in species closely 

allied in other respects, that 

I should be inclined to consider their importance, as 

characters of generic distinction, somewhat doubtful. 

T. cranium was at first mistaken by Professors Fleming 

and Sars for T. vitrea, which is a native of the Mediter- 

ranean, and has a different foramen and skeleton. Dr. 

Leach gave the present species the name of T. glabra, 

and its habitat " the coasts of Devon." The young have


slight ears, or triangular expansions, at the upper angles 

of the lower valve, as in T. caput -serpentis ; and they 

are furnished with a very distinct and prominent crest 

or ridge, placed inside and nearly in the middle of this 

valve, resembling, except in position, the marginal plate 

of Argiope cistellula. This last-mentioned character 

likewise occurs in T. septata, Philippi, a Sicilian fossil 

(T. septigera, Loven) , and is remarkably developed in that 

species ; but the foramen is incomplete in T. cranium, 

and entire in T. septata. Some specimens of T. cranium 

have the front margin more or less truncate, and others 

have slight and blunt ridges or angularities extending 

lengthwise to the front margin. 

B. Shell longitudinally striate : skeleton composed of two short 

ribs, which are looped and form a kind of ring. (Terebratidina, 

D'Orbigny.) 

2. T. caput-serpen'tis *, Linne. 

Anomia caput-serpentis, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12, p. 1153. T. caput-ser- 

pentis, F. & H. ii. p. 353, pi. 

lvi. f. 1-4. 

Body light orange-yellow : mantle thickened by calcareous 

spicula ; tentacles extensile and pencilled, with a crimson 

tubercle at the base of each : arms bright orange, inclining to 

a crimson hue ; muscular stem thick ; cirri long, ciliated all 

over, and arranged in a single row : peduncle rather short, 

of numerous loose tubular fibres. 

composed 

Shell lyre-shaped, very variable in respect of length and 

breadth, sometimes nearly round and at other times oblong, 

convex in the middle but compressed towards the front and 

sides, rather solid, of a dull aspect : sculpture, scored by numerous 

longitudinal striae or fine ribs, which radiate from the 

beak to the outer margins, becoming occasionally tuberculate 

where they are crossed by the hues of growth ; 

some of these 

striae are forked, or divaricate, being simple and stronger near 

the beak ; the surface is closely studded with microscopical 

points, each resembling the bottom of a homoeopathic bottle, 

* From its resemblance to a snake's head.

TEREBRATULA. 15 

being the termination of the tubular perforations characteristic 

of this family: colour yellowish -white: margins usually truncate 

or square in front, and sometimes indistinctly notched or indented 

in the middle the sides are rounded : heal' ; prominent 

but blunt, worn down obliquely by continual : rubbing foramen 

nearly round and incomplete below : deltidium very slight, 

or umbo of the lower valve : 

being interrupted by the point 

lunge-plate solid: teeth of upper valve as in T. cranium, but 

thicker and provided with a sort of bolt at the upper end : 

sockets in lower valve broad : skeleton consisting of two small 

but stout ribs, which are thicker at the shaft near the outer 

angle of the socket-joint, but afterwards become thinner and 

broader or flattened out, forming a double loop or bow, the 

upper one being nearly round, and the lower one of a trans- 

versely quadrangular shape with a curve above and below ; 

this complicated process extends about three-eighths of the 

distance from the beak to the front margin ; 

within the lower 

valve, beneath the umbo, is also a small tooth or tubercle ; 

the inner margins are crenulated or slightly notched, with the 

and furrowed in the middle : inside 

points projecting outwardly, 

pearly and glistening. L. 0*85. B. 0-65. 

Tar. septentrional is. Shell thinner, with finer ribs, and of 

a white colour. T. septentrioncdis, (Couthouy) Stimpson, Test. 

Moll. Xew Engl. p. 75. 

Habitat : 0-90 fathoms, on every part of the Scotch 

and Shetland coasts, and on the north-east, west, and 

south of Ireland, attached to stones, old shells, and occa- 

sionallv to small sea-weeds and other substances. The 

variety occurs in Loch Duich, Inverness-shire, and off 

the east coast of Shetland. This now common shell 

was discovered in our seas by Professor Fleming, be- 

tween fortv and fiftv years ago, in Loch Broom, on a 

stone which was brought up by the anchor of a vessel 

belonging to the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, 

while on their annual visit of inspection. As a 

tertiary fossil it occurs in the glacial deposits of Ayrshire 

(Geikie), and in the Coralline Crag (Searles Wood). 

M. Drouet has noticed it as fossil in the Azores. Its


hydrographical range extends from Spitzbergen to Sicily; 

and the variety is not uncommon on the coasts of Nor- 

way and North America. Mr. Arthur Adams has lately 

dredged the typical form in the seas of Japan, at the 

depths of 26, 55, and 63 fathoms. He considers T. Ja- 

ponica to be a distinct species. I have a monstrosity 

which is deeply cleft in the middle, so as to form two 

lobes of unequal size and height ; and other specimens 

also are slightly distorted in the same way. 

The brachial cirri are set on the muscular stem like 

the teeth of a comb, and when in action they bend for- 

ward in a most graceful manner. The pallial tentacles 

are also continually moving, and sometimes curl at the 

point like a crosier. When the shell is closed during 

the lifetime of the animal, these tentacles are still visible 

outside the edge of the shell, presenting the same 

appearance as in Anomia. Sometimes the upper valve 

is laden with a mass of barnacles and Serpulce. The 

shells of young specimens are, of course, more strongly 

and the lower 

ribbed or striate than those of the adult ; 

valve is eared. The fry, however, are perfectly smooth, 

and much longer in proportion than the adult ; and 

they have a spoon-shaped, entire, and prominent beak. 

Owing to the shell being so thin and nearly transparent, 

the tiny arms are distinctly perceptible on the outside. 

In the early stages of growth the skeleton is not com- 

plete or annular, and it then somewhat resembles the 

scythe-shaped processes of T. cranium. 

The Anomia retusa of Linne and A. aurita of Gual- 

tieri, as well as the T. nucleus and T. pubescens 

of O. F. 

Muller, are synonyms of this species. The last-men- 

tioned name originated in a coat of downy sponge, which 

not unfrequently covers the shell, and was suspected 

by the Danish zoologist to be merely a parasitic growth.

ARGIOPE. 17 

Risso called the present species T. emarginata ; Mr. 

Lowe described the young as T. costata ; Schlotheim 

appears to have given the name of T. chrysalis 

to the 

young of the variety septentrio?ialis ; and Dr. Leach, 

with his unfortunate propensity to substitute new for 

old and well-known names, rechristened the species 

T. striata, adding that it inhabits the " western coasts 

of Devonshire " ! 

Genus II. ARGI'OPE * Deslongchamps. 

PL I. f. 2. 

Body compressed : mantle closely adherent to the shell 

throughout : arms short ; tentacles so minute as to be almost 

imperceptible. 

Shell obtusely triangular : beak more or less produced : 

foramen large : hinge-line wide and often straight 

: skeleton 

composed of transverse ribs, which are united to longitudinal 

ridges or septa. 

The members of this genus are much inferior in size 

to those of Terebratula. Some are ribbed, and others 

smooth. Deslongchamps founded the genus in 1842; 

but D'Orbigny, apparently being unaware of that circumstance, 

proposed, five years afterwards, another name 

(Megathyris), deriving the characters from the same 

type. The chief difference between this genus and Terebratula 

consists in the latter having the mantle free 

at the outer edges, while in the former it adheres 

throughout to the shell, as well as in the large 

and wide 

rostral opening in Argiope, and its marginal and inter- 

rupted skeleton. 

* From the appearance of white holes in the outer surface of the shell.


A. Shell ribbed. 

1. Argiope decolla'ta*, Chemnitz. 

Anomia decollate,, Chemn. Conch. Cab. viii. p.96, pi. 78. i.lOba-d. Argiope 

decollate,, Jeffr. in Ann. Nat. Hist. 3rd ser. ii. p. 124, pi. 

v. f. 3 a-e. 

Body reddish-brown : mantle forming a thin film : arms 

nearly circular, divided into lobes, which correspond in number 

with the septa in the shell ; cirri few and thick : 'peduncle very 

short. 

Shell of an irregular shape, varying from round to trans- 

versely oval, sometimes resembling that of a horse's hoof, 

compressed, much higher near the beak, and sloping abruptly 

in a wedge-like fashion towards the front and sides, solid, of 

a dull : aspect sculpture, 15-20 slight ribs which radiate from 

the beak but scarcely reach the margins ; lines of growth 

rather strong or conspicuous ; tubercles large and numerous, 

the interstices having a frosted appearance arising from a 

minute granular structure : colour light-brown : margins 

rounded at the front and sides, so as to form a semicircle, and 

obtusely angled behind : bealc rather prominent and worn by 

continual friction ; 

the under side shows distinctly the layers 

of increase : foramen 

exceedingly large, transversely 

and irre- 

gularly oval, in consequence of its having been made partly 

out of the umbo of the lower valve : deltidium scarcely traceable 

: hinge-plate remarkably thick and broad : teeth short and 

triangular: sockets broad and deep: skeleton composed 

of a series 

of narrow riband-like plates, which are curved and fit into the 

hollows between the septa, lying at no great distance from the 

front margin, and almost touching the shell ; within the upper 

valve also are five septa, placed at equal distances, the middle 

and longest of which springs from under the beak ; none of 

them reach the margin, which is wedge-shaped ; in the lower 

valve are three strong equidistant ridges, which are placed in 

the central space ; these are notched in front, crested at the 

top, and obliquely striate at the sides, where may be occasionally 

observed a few small bead-like tubercles. L. 0*3. 

B. 0-285. 

Habitat : 

18 fathoms, in gravelly shell-sand, two miles 

east of Guernsey ; rare. This is the most northern limit 

* Truncate.

ARGIOPE. 19 

that has hitherto been discovered for the present spe- 

cies j 

nor has it been noticed as inhabiting the northern 

or western coasts of France. Its southern range extends 

from the Mediterranean to the iEgean, as well as to 

from 20 to 

Madeira and the Canaries, at depths varying 

60 fathoms. 

The upper valve of this curious shell is like a horse's 

hoof. The plates or ribs of the skeleton are not con- 

tinuous, but separately attached to the sides of the 

septa. 

Gmelin changed the original name to detruncata, 

without assigning any reason, and he even recognized 

the priority of Chemnitz by 

work. According to Philippi, 

a correct reference to his 

it is the Terebratula 

aperta of Blainville, and perhaps the T. urna antiqua and 

T. cardita of RAsso. I should be inclined to consider 

also the T. Soldaniana of the last-named author as the 

young of the present species. 

B. Shell smooth. 

2. A. cistel'lttla*, SearlesWood. 

Terebratula cistrfhda, S. Wood in Ann. N. H. vi. p. 253. Megathyris 

(afterwards changed to Argiope) cistellula, F. &H. ii. p. 361, pi. Mi. f.9. 

Body yellowish-brown : mantle so extremely thin as to be 

scarcely visible : arms heart-shaped ; cirri few and thick : 

peduncle rather long. 

Shell oval, heart-shaped, or oblong, and often wedge-hke, 

compressed but rising gradually towards the beak, rather solid, 

occasionally somewhat glossy, but more frequently of a dull 

aspect, sometimes bilobed or cleft in the middle : sculpture, 

lines of growth numerous and exceedingly minute ; tubercles 

close -set, and not very small : colour brown, with usually a 

yellowish tint : margins rounded at the sides and also slightly 

in front, forming behind angles of different degrees : beak 

* A little chest.


mostly blunt and often worn by attrition, never much produced 

: foramen triangular, occupying nearly the whole of the 

dorsal area : deltidium : 

exceedingly slight hinge-plate thick 

and broad: teeth strong and : triangular sockets broad but not 

deep : skeleton consisting of two very slight and narrow ribandlike 

plates or ribs, placed as in A. decollata, but having only 

their front edges free, the remaining portion being united with 

the shell; within the upper valve is a septum, extending from 

the centre of the hinge to nearly the front margin, besides a 

few parallel but indistinct striae ; 

the lower valve has a strong 

blunt central ridge, which is higher in front and occupies about 

half of the interior ; the front margin is minutely crenulated 

inside. L. 0-06. B. 0-075. 

Habitat : 

East Shetland, Skye, and co. Antrim ; 

Moray Firth (Dawson) ; Dublin Bay (Waller) ; Exniouth 

(Barlee and Clark) ; Guernsey (Lnkis & J. G. J.). Fos- 

sil in the Coralline Crag. Sars has found it at Chris- 

tiansund, Bergen, and Manger in Norway ; 

it on the Normandy coast ; and among 

I have taken 

some small shells 

which I received through M. Verany from Sardinia was 

a single valve of this species. 

The animal closely resembles that of A. decollata. 

The anterior occlusor or retractor muscles are of enormous 

size, and their impressions on old shells are very 

conspicuous and deep, somewhat resembling those of 

Crania. Very young shells have scarcely any of the 

tubular perforations ; and their beaks remind one of 

the bill of a Platypus. These delicate processes become 

afterwards hardened and blunted by contact with the 

external world, like the exquisitely sensitive feelings of a 

child. The fry may be occasionally seen attached to the 

outer folds of the mantle. They appear to be kidneyshaped, 

and are of different sizes, or degrees of deve- 

lopment. 

This species was named, but not described, by Mr. 

S. Wood in 1840 as a tertiary fossil ; 

and I was fortu-

ARGIOPE. 21 

nately enabled to discover it seven years 

living state. It may be easily distinguished 

afterwards in a 

from A. 

decollata by its minute size and smooth surface, as well 

as by its internal structure. It differs from A. Neapolitana 

in being only half the size and more convex, in 

the foramen being much larger, and in the inside margin 

of the upper valve being slightly and closely crenulated, 

instead of having rather strong and distant tooth-like 

notches, which is the case in A. Neapolitana. 

3. A. cap'sula"* JefFrevs. 

Terebratula capsida, Jeffr. in Ann. N. H. ser. 3, ii. p. 125, pi. v. f. 4, and 

iii. pi. ii. f. 7, 8. 

Body yellowish : peduncle rather long 

and slender. 

Shell nearly equivalve, oval or pouch-shaped, compressed 

sculpture, lines of 

but rather higher towards the beak, glossy : 

growth slight and remote tubercles as in the last : 

; species 

colour yellowish- brown : margins rounded at the sides and in 

front, almost straight behind, giving that part the appearance 

of being auricled : beak slightly prominent, its point separated 

by the hinge-area : foramen triangular, but not disproportion- 

ately large, occupying about two-thirds of the dorsal space : 

deltidium imperceptible : hinge-plate, teeth, and sockets as in the 

last species: skeleton undeveloped, and septa wantiug. L. 0*03. 

B. 0-02. 

Habitat: 18-25 fathoms, Plymouth (Norman, from 

Webster) ; Guernsey (Lukis) j Dublin Bay, and off Portrush 

(Waller); and Lame, co. Antrim (Hyndman & 

J. G. J). It occurs with A. cistelhda, nestling in the 

hollows of old shells of Pectunculus glycymeris and 

other bivalves, frequently among clusters of Lepralice, 

I have found it also at Etretat in Normandv on stones 

which had been taken up in trawl-nets at a distance of 

about four leagues from land. 

* A little box.

22 TEREBRATULID^. 

The beak resembles that of Lingida. Very young 

shells are not tuberculated. This species cannot be mis- 

taken in any stage of growth for the fry of Terebratula 

caput-serpentis, which are of quite a different shape, 

and more inequivalve than the adult. I have specimens 

of the fry of that species only half the size of A. capsula. 

The fry of T. cranium, which I have taken of 

even a smaller size, have a longer and more slender 

From the 

shell, and the valves are decidedly unequal. 

young of A. cistellula the present species may be distin- 

guished by being of a regularly oval shape and more 

convex in every part, but especially by the contracted 

hinge-line and comparatively small aperture. 

Professor King proposed to make this species the type 

of a new genus, which he named Givynia, out of com- 

pliment to me ; but although I duly appreciate the 

intended honour, I cannot conscientiously accept it. 

Although the species is unquestionably 

distinct from 

any of the foregoing, it may be the young of A. Neapolitana 

(probably T. cordata of Bisso) and ; I feel 

pretty 

confident that the last-named species will be found on 

our own as well as the Mediterranean coasts. 

Terebratella (or Megerlea) truncata has but a very 

slender claim to be admitted into our fauna. Dr. 

Turton's cabinet contained a specimen bearing, in his 

handwriting, the name of " Terebratula caput serpentis," 

and the locality " Torquay ." It is not uncommon in 

the seas of southern Europe ; 

and according to Collard 

des Cherres it has been found on Caryophyllice at Quim- 

per. In a footnote to the ' 

British Mollusca' ii. 

(vol. 

p. 362) this species has been accidentally 

mistaken for 

Argiope decollata, with reference to Turton's shell. 

I am by no means satisfied that Khynchonella psit- 

tacea still inhabits the British seas, although there is

ARGIOPE. 23 

abundant evidence of its having been formerly a native. 

Dr.Turton described it in his ' 

Conchological Dictionary ' 

as having been thrown up, after a severe gale, on the 

shore near Teignmouth — a most unlikely place. Pro- 

fessor King is said to have obtained two dead specimens 

and a single valve off the Northumberland coast, at- 

tached to the byssus of a Mytilus modiolus. Mr. Mac- 

laren recorded the species as having been procured also 

from a fisherman on the Berwickshire coast; and Capt. 

in the 

Laskey is reported to have taken it by dredging 

Firth of Forth. Capt. Thomas appears to have likewise 

dredged valves off Berwick, and Mr. Dawson off Aberdeen. 

In deep-sea dredging off the Shetland Isles, I 

have more than once found single valves, and this year 

a nearly perfect pair. Dr. Turton's specimen has a 

very ancient aspect ; 

Professor King's and some of my 

own are remarkably fresh -looking, and they may pos- 

but I am rather disposed to think they 

sibly be recent ; 

are some of the relics of the glacial epoch. The shell 

being of a horny texture, would not be liable to undergo 

much, if any, change 

live specimen has never been taken, 

while it remained under water. A 

so far as I am 

aware, anywhere south of Drontheim, where it seems to 

dwindle in size. It is a gregarious species, and there- 

fore common wherever it occurs. The arctic seas of 

both hemispheres constitute its proper habitat. As a 

tertiary 

fossil it is found in the Norwich or Mamma- 

liferous Crag and later deposits.

24 CRANIID.E. 

** Hingeless. 

Family II. CRANI'EME, (Cramadce) King. 

Body circular : arms spiralty coiled, and not supported by 

any shelly process or septum : attachment formed by the ad- 

hesion of the lower valve, or part of it, to other substances. 

Shell circular or subquadrangular : upper 

valve conical or 

cap-shaped: lower valve flat: muscular scars remarkably 

strong and conspicuous. 

Our seas contain at present one only of this hingeless 

from all 

group of Brachiopoda, which is distinguishable 

the preceding kinds by the upper valve being conical 

and the lower valve flat and attached, as well as in 

neither valve being perforated. The shell is opened by 

the action of the adjustor or protractor muscles; and 

r this takes place only to a very limited extent. Throu 

^ 

the Discinida? there appears to be a passage to Anomia, 

both of which have a byssal peduncle issuing out of a 

hole or slit in the lower valve for attachment to other 

substances. 

Genus I. CRANIA* Retz. PL I. f. 3. 

As the family contains but this single genus, it is un- 

necessary to recapitulate 

the characters. 

1. Crania ano'malaI-, Miiller. 

Patella anomala 

F.&H mala, Mull. Zool. Dan. Prodr. p. 237, no. 2870. C. anomala, 

ii. p. 366, pi. lvi. f. 7, 8 ; (animal) pi. U. f. 2, as C. Norvegica. 

Body of a milk-white colour, tinged with yellow or brown : 

mantle very thin : arms thick and cirri 

fleshy 

rather nume- 

; 

rous, stiff, and rather long. 

* From a fancied resemblance of the inside of the lower valve to the 

front of a human skull, 

f Irregular.

CRANIA. 25 

Shell nearly round, -with a square outline : upper 

valve 

umbrella-shaped above, more or less compressed, rather solid, 

of a dull : aspect sculpture, wrinkled by the circular marks of 

striate lon- 

growth, sometimes microscopically but irregularly 

gitudinally: colour reddish-brown or yellowish, with blotches 

or faint streaks of the first-mentioned hue : margins thin and 

nearer the dorsal 

sharp : beak very small, nipple-shaped, placed 

end : tower valve of various degrees of solidity, according to the 

age and quickness of growth, but the inside margin 

is always 

broad, thickened, and raised, so as to form a ridge or rampart 

round the enclosed space ; it is reticulated or closely pitmarked 

within: muscular scars in both valves deeply marked. 

L. 0-55. B. 0*5. 

Habitat : 

18-90 

Scotch and Irish coasts, 

fathoms, on almost every part of the 

as well as in the seas of Shet- 

land and the Orkneys \ Isle of Man (Forbes) . Abroad 

it is distributed from Greenland to Vis:o 

: and I have 

jqgbx unable to detect any difference between this species 

and the C. ring ens of Honinghaus, which is not uncommon 

in the Mediterranean and iEgean Seas. Spe- 

cimens from ail the above localities vary much in shape, 

and in the dei h of the circular wrinkles or furrows, and 

not less in the position and size of the muscular scars. 

Even the sagacious M tiller was deceived by the strange 

aspect of this shell. He placed it in the genus Patella, 

having observed the upper valve only 

mitted that the animal (which he " 

styled vermis sin- 

; although he ad- 

gularissimus ") differed toto ccelo from a limpet, and 

that the shell, on closer inspection, was not quite the 

same. It is most singular that he overlooked the lower 

valve. His comparison of the branching arrangement 

of the arms to the dusky horns of a wild goat is not in- 

appropriate. Sometimes the shell is ribbed across or 

obliquely, having taken the impression 

of an Astarte or 

Pecten, on which it has been moulded. Being often 

affixed to rugged stones or small pebbles, its shape is 

c

26 craniidjE. 

adapted to the angles 

and extent of the basal surface. 

When it has bare standing-room only, it increases in 

height and becomes regularly 

conical. The under valve 

of specimens attached to the smooth shell of a Pinna is 

usually a mere film. The brachial fringe can be protruded 

slightly beyond the margin of the shell at each 

side, but never in front or at the back. It may be 

likened to the spokes of two wheels, each placed on its 

nave within a circle ; and as the spokes are nearly equal 

in length, it is evident that at the point where the wheels 

approach each other, the inside spokes project into the 

space between the wheels, and not outwardly. There 

are no cirri at the back. The lower or flat valve con- 

tains only the base of the adductor muscle, upon which 

as a pivot; the upper valve turns by a semirotatory 

but very confined motion. The arms and rest of the 

or convex valve. The 

body are enclosed in the upper 

animal is by no means timid. When a camePs-hair 

brush is thrust between the gaping valves, they imme- 

diately close, but in a few seconds after open again; 

and this teasing experiment can be repeated many times, 

without alarming the Crania, or making it sulky. The 

cirri are not retractile, and do not withdraw or shrink 

when touched. Each arm has about sixty of them. 

The fry are quite white and semitransparent, and they 

have only a few tubular perforations. They adhere in 

Their appearance is not 

the same way as their parents. 

unlike that of the very young of Anomia ephippium. The 

largest specimen in my cabinet measures over four-fifths 

of an inch in diameter. 

Montagu called this species Patella distorta ; and it 

has borne many other names, both generic and specific, 

the latest being that of Criopus Orcadensis, given 

by 

Dr. Leach. 

to it

CONCHIFERA. 27 

Class CONCHIFERA. 

Order LAMELLIBRANCHIATA. 

The principal characters of this Order have been already 

given in the former volume. A few of the mem- 

bers (e. g. certain species of Lucina, Tellina, and Thra- 

cia) are said to have only one branchial leaflet or gill on 

each side of the body ; but in all probability this leaflet 

is double, although united and apparently single. The 

Order is divisible into two unequal groups, which may 

be distinguished from each other by the number of ad- 

ductor muscles. The first and smaller group (Moxo- 

myaria) has but one muscle, which is placed nearly in 

the middle, 

or rather towards the back. The other and 

far larger group (Dimyaria) has two separate muscles, 

which are placed on the right and left sides of the 

bodv. The scars or impressions made bv these muscles 

on the inside of the shell serve to instruct the geologist 

to which group every bivalve belongs. The British 

Monomyaria comprise the families Anomiida , 

Ostreidce, 

and Pectinida. All the remaining families are Di- 

mvarian. The late Mr. Clark savs that the onlv true 

Monomvarian Mollusca are Pholas and Teredo ; but his 

observations in this respect do not agree with those of 

other concholo gists. 

I do not attach much importance 

to the form, or even the presence of the paliial scar, 

being the mark left on the inner margin of the shell by 

that part of the mantle which adheres to it and keeps 

the rest of the body in its proper place ; although this 

character may serve to recognize certain genera. In 

some families the mantle is open on all sides but the 

c 2

28 CONCHIFERA. 

back, for the admission of food and water, 

as well as for 

the ejection of faecal matter ; while in others it is more 

or less closed in front, or open only in that part for the 

passage 

of the foot. In the latter case the mantle on 

one or either side is folded, so as to form a single or 

double tube. This usually takes place on the posterior 

but in a few instances 

side, where the shell is broadest ; 

(as in the Kelliidce) the incurrent or alimentary tube is 

placed on the anterior side, and the excurrent or anal 

tube on the posterior side. The tubes are of various 

lengths, and when they do not project beyond the edges 

of the shell they are termed " sessile." The excretory 

opening is always situate on the upper part of the pos- 

terior side. That by which the animal takes in its 

nourishment, and which supplies the gills with aerated 

water, is usually on the same side, 

but below the other 

opening. The excretory opening or tube is the smaller 

of the two. With respect to the reproductive system of 

the Lamellibranchiata, it is by 

no means settled whether 

any, or which of them, have separate sexes. Loven is 

positive that such is the case in Modiolaria, 

bryogeny of which he has investigated 

the em- 

with his usual 

care; and Sars assures us that Aximis is unquestionably 

also dioecious. I have not myself examined the question ; 

but I would refer my readers to what I have already said 

in page xxv of the Introduction to the first volume.

ANOMIA. 29 

* Mantle open and without tubes. 

Family I. ANOMI'IDiE, (Anomiadce) Gray. 

Body roundish : mantle having very thin edges, which are 

furnished with fine and extensile tentacular filaments : 

circular and double : foot 

gills 

small : muscle divided into two or 

three parts, the largest of which passes through a hole in the 

hinder part of the lower valve, serving for attachment to extraneous 

bodies, and forming on them a fibrous or horny plug. 

Shell generally circular and flat, more or less inequivalve : 

a narrow slit : 

orifice pear-shaped, being interrupted behind by 

cartilage internal, short, placed somewhat obliquely below the 

beak. 

This family is connected with the Ostreida by the 

genus Pododesmus of Philippi. 

Dr. Leach proposed to 

raise it to the rank of an Order, which he called 

Trimya. 

Genus ANO'MIA* Linne. PI. I. f. 4. 

Body compressed. 

Shell inequilateral, of an irregular shape, dependent on 

that of the substances to which it is attached : upper valve 

rather convex and thick: lower valve flat and thin: hinge 

toothless. 

As I have before observed, Fabius Colonna, the origi- 

nator of this name, applied it to species of Terebratula. 

About a centurv and a half afterwards Linne used it in 

the same sense, for he described the animal as having 

two arms, and the shell as furnished with two bonv 

processes or radii, the deeper valve being often perforated 

at the base. But he included in the genus 

many species which we now recognize as belonging to 

Anomia thus restricted, and long custom has sanc- 

* Irregularity.

30 ANOMIID.E. 

tioned the modern use of the word. Poli proposed the 

name of Echion for the animal of the present genus. 

According to Dr. Carpenter the outer layer of the shell 

has a prismatic cellular structure ; and in this respect 

it appears to resemble the shell of Argiope. There is 

no visible trace of an epidermis. The plug of attachment 

is secreted by that part of the adductor muscle 

which passes through the lower valve. It is not shelly. 

The fry are fixed in the same way as the adult, soon 

after their exclusion from the ovary ; although 

it would 

appear that they enjoy in the mean time a short period 

of liberty, like their relative the oyster. The Anomiat 

are popularly designated in this country " silver- shells." 

In the State of New York they are called " Jingle- 

shells." Dr. Otto Torell informs me that no species 

has been found north of Iceland; but fossil shells are 

not uncommon at Uddevalla in the same bed which 

contains Terebratella Spitzbergensis, Piliscus commodiis, 

and other forms of an extremely arctic kind. 

1. Anomia ephip'pium % Linne. 

A. Ephippium, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1150 ; F. & H. ii. p. 325, pi. It. f. 2, 3, 

5, 7, and (animal) pi. T. f. 2. 

Body somewhat depressed, red, yellow, brown, or of all intermediate 

shades of those colours : mantle circular : cirri or 

tentacular filaments arranged in two or three rows, ciliated or 

feathered, yellowish -white : mouth large, with a pair of longdelicate 

lips on each side : foot short, cylindrical, and white, 

sometimes curved and protruded from a slit in the shell above 

the orifice, for the purpose of spinning a byssus and affording 

an additional means of attachment. 

Shell round, oval, oblong, cylindrical, angular, or even 

amorphous, compressed, and sometimes flattened, of different 

degrees of thickness according to age, outside of a dull appearance, 

although the inner layers are remarkably glossy and 

* A horse-cloth.

ANOMIA. 31 

iridescent: sculpture, scaly and sometimes prickly, minutely 

striate in a longitudinal direction, and marked by irregular 

lines of growth : colour white, with often a yellowish, pink, 

rose-red, or brown tint : margins thin, rounded or wavy unless 

contracted by position, nearly forming an obtuse angle behind : 

beak straight and very small, not projecting beyond the dorsal 

margin : 

cartilage short but strong, broad, semilunar, and 

fixed in a cavity underneath the beak : hinge-line slightly 

curved : 

hinge-plate thick and broad : 

orifice oval ; outer edge 

reflected ; inside silvery and iridescent, sometimes having a 

green tint, furnished in the lower valve at the hinge-end with 

a thickened ledge to receive and support the : cartilage muscular 

scar large, showing in the upper valve the impressions of three 

inner portions of the muscle, which are nearly circular and 

disposed in a descending but irregular line from the hinge, and 

in the lower valve only one similar impression, which is placed 

on the right hand of the observer : plug cylindrical, thick, and 

longitudinally 

striate. L. 2-3. B. 2-5. 

Habitat: From low- water mark to 80 fathoms on every 

part of our coasts, attached to shells, stones, sea-weeds, 

and other substances. In a fossil state it occurs in our 

newer tertiaries, as well as in the Coralline Crag, and 

in the Italian pliocene deposits. It is likewise found 

in the post-glacial beds of Bohuslan, Sweden, associated 

with arctic shells. It is widely distributed in the Euro- 

pean seas, from Iceland to the iEgean Archipelago ; 

and 

its range also comprises Algeria, Madeira, North Ame- 

and the Black Sea. Danielssen 

rica, Russia, Lapland, 

has recorded it as having been dredged in the Scandi- 

navian seas at a depth of 180 fathoms. 

In consequence of the lower valve being moulded on 

the extraneous bodies to which it is attached bv the 

plug, the upper valve partakes of a corresponding im- 

pression, and the result is that the shell puts 

Protean variety of shape. 

on a 

Bouchard-Chantereaux says 

that out of two hundred specimens it is almost impos- 

sible to find two exactly alike. When a specimen is 

affixed to a Pecteii, Astarte, or other ribbed shell, it is

32 ANOMIIDvE. 

similarly sculptured. No less than thirty-four species 

have been made out of the one now described ; and 

naturalists of every country have had a hand in this 

wholesale manufacture. Eighteen of these species have 

been enumerated as synonyms by Forbes and Hanley. 

The variability of the shell, however, is now such an 

established fact, that a conchologist who would attempt 

to restore any of these so-called species must have 

greater ingenuity than even the learned knight, of 

whom it was said 

" He could distinguish and divide 

A hair, 'twixt south and south-west side." 

The variety " squamula " is flatter and smoother than 

usual ; 

" " 

aculeata has the imbricated scales pinched 

and the narrow form 

up into vaulted or hollow spines ; 

of " cylindrica " arises from the young Anomia selecting 

for its resting-place a small stem of sea-weed, which 

obliges it to assume a saddle- shape, not having any 

room for lateral development. Occasionally specimens 

are found exhibiting the characters of more than one 

variety, being half "squamula" and half " aculeata." 

The animal is said to be poisonous and ; Mr. M cAndrew informs me that the captain and some of the crew of his 

yacht were suddenly taken ill at Vigo, after having eaten 

some fine Ano?nide, which looked to them so temptingly 

like oysters. The muscle of attachment appears to 

have an excavating or eroding power, like the foot of a 

limpet or other boring 

mollusk. When an Anomia is 

fixed to the shell of an oyster, the lower part of the plug 

is sunk below the level of the surface, and is separated 

from it by a kind of sloping ditch. This gives a stronger 

hold ; and the base of the plug is often spread out, so as 

to increase the fulcrum. The structure of the plug is 

very remarkable. It is composed of perpendicular

ANOMIA. 

plates, which are alternately high and low; and the stri- 

ated appearance of the top or outer covering is pro- 

duced by the edges of the higher plates. This appendage 

is capable of receiving a high degree of polish, and m 

that state it resembles ivory and is equally close-grained. 

In the fry the orifice is larger in proportion to that of 

the adult, and is placed on one side. The beak of 

young specimens is sometimes much produced, and at 

other times slightly incurved. When the shell is thin, 

the long muscular scar seen through the upper valve 

resembles a white line. The varied and nacreous hues 

of the shell rival in lustre those of an opal. A group 

of these specimens from Lulworth Cove, on a valve of 

Pecten opercularis, now before me, 

33 

are of different 

colours, white, yellow, and pink, and reflect their pearly 

gleams in every direction. In substance the shell bears 

some affinity to talc. Specimens from Bantry Bay, 

Lough Strangford, and Exmouth roads are larger than 

usual. One from the first-named localitv measures four 

inches in diameter. Now and then, but rarely, the 

upper valve is flat, and the lower or perforated valve is 

convex ; and in one case the front half of the shell is 

divided into two distinct lobes, owing to the continual 

obstruction and irritation caused by a small branch of 

Sertularia abietina, which had insinuated itself and 

grown up 

in front of the Anomia. But a more curious 

instance of an adaptation to circumstances is presented 

by specimens which I found many years ago on a mussel-bed 

in Swansea Bay, laid bare by an unusually low 

tide. The orifice in every specimen was completely 

closed by a series of thin vaulted plates of the same 

material as the shell. All the specimens were living, 

and attached to the mussels by the byssal threads of the 

latter. It appeared to me that, having 

been acciden- 

c o

34 ANOMIID^. ' 

tally detached from oysters in an adjoining bed, 

to which 

they were originally affixed, and being thus deprived of 

their plugs, as w T 

ell as of the power to make new ones, 

they filled up the openings writh 

a shelly substitute, for 

the sake of protection against starfishes and other ene- 

mies. Having lost their own plugs, they were well 

satisfied by being securely moored to the bed by the 

strong cables of their friendly neighbours, 

the mussels. 

I dredged a specimen of the variety " squamula" off 

Croulin Island, Skye, which was free, but had the orifice 

completely closed in the same way 

as the Welsh exam- 

ples. The A. tubularis of Turton is a young specimen 

of the same variety, in which the orifice had only been 

partially closed. Old Martin Lister wr as well acquainted 

with the typical form, and gave an excellent figure of 

it in his ' 

Historia Conchvliorum.' 

2. A. patellifor mis *, Linne. 

A. patelliformis, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1151 ; F. &IL ii. p. 334, pi. lvi. f. 5,6. 

Body resembling that of A. ephippium, but the colour is 

deeper : mantle thinner : cirri of unequal length and size, and 

capable of considerable extension, some of them being a quarter 

of an inch long ; they are minutely and closely ringed, and a 

dusky line runs down the middle of each. No other part of 

the animal is visible outside. 

Shell round or sometimes longitudinally oval, usually flat- 

tened, thin, rather glossy towards the beak, but elsewhere of 

a dull : appearance sculpture, fine and close-set imbricated 

scales, and 20-30 blunt ribs which radiate from the beak in 

lines 

every direction towards the margins in a wavy manner ; 

of : growth irregular colour yellowish-white, with frequently 

reddish-brown but not continuous streaks or : spots margins 

behind : 

thin, scalloped or notched by the ribs, nearly straight 

bealc 

hind 

small, rather prominent, very seldom reaching to 

margin, and never overlapping it : 

cartilage short 

the 

and 

* Shaped like a Patella, or limpet.

ANOMIA. 35 

narrow, fixed in a cavity beneath the hinge : lunge-line 

slightly curved : 

hinge-plate thick but narrow : orifice rather 

large, much broader below than above ; outer edge not reflected 

: inside bluish-green, highly iridescent, furnished in the 

lower valve with a ledge to receive the cartilage: muscular 

scar large, showing in the upper valve the impression of two 

inner portions of the muscle of a roundish-oval shape and 

often confluent, the larger one of which is placed 

in the middle, 

and the smaller one a little below it on the left-hand side ; 

the lower valve there is only one impression, placed as in the 

last species: plug pear-shaped, thin, and coarsely striate 

lengthwise. L. 1*3. B. 1*45. 

Var. striata. Shell sometimes nearly convex, covered with 

numerous and fine longitudinal striae, which often rise into 

minute scales, becoming prickly and occasionally decussated by 

the transverse lines of growth; coloured rays more distinct 

and somewhat wavv. A. striata, Loven, Ind. Moll. Scand. 

p. 29. F. & H. ii. p. 336, pi. lv. f. 1, 6, and pi. liii. f. 6. 

Habitat : 

10-86 

fathoms, on hard ground and shell- 

banks everywhere, usually concealed in the hollows of 

old bivalves. It is, however, not so common as the last 

species, although equally diffused; and they are found 

together. The variety occurs in Shetland and on the 

west coast of Scotland. A. patelliformis is a tertiary 

fossil of the Clyde beds, and of the Red and Coralline 

Crag, as well as of the newer deposits of Italy and Sicily, 

and also of theUddevalia shell-bed. Abroad this species 

ranges from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. Ac- 

cording to Chierighini it inhabits the Adriatic ; \Veinkanff 

has included it in his list of Algerian shells under 

the name of A.pectinifoiT/iis, Philippi; the variety, as 

well as the ordinary form, have been taken by M. Martin 

in the Gulf of Lyons; Middendorff has recorded it 

from Sitka Sound, and Dr. Philip Carpenter from the 

Xorth-west coast of America. 

It differs from A. ephippium in its more regular out- 

line, thinner texture, coloured streaks, peculiar sculp- 

in

36 AXOMIIDJE. 

ture, the number and position of its muscular scars, and 

fiat (instead of raised) plug. It is also not so susceptible 

of outward impressions as that species. An A. patelliformis 

attached to a scallop, although it sometimes partakes 

of its companion's ribs, has also its own natural 

ribs, which run their independent course from the beak 

to the margins. The orifice in young specimens is 

nearly round. The prominent 

beak somewhat resem- 

bles the apex of a limpet. The plug lies in a hollow, 

which is apparently made in the same way as I have 

suggested with regard to the other species. Owing probably 

to the green colour of the liver, the rostral area 

or nucleus of the shell always appears to have a similar 

tinge. 

It is not without considerable hesitation that I have 

ventured to unite with this species the A. striata of 

Loven ; but, after examining his types at Stockholm, 

and a long and careful comparison of a great many 

specimens of this beautiful variety, 

I cannot make out 

any definite specific character. The only difference 

consists in the more delicate sculpture of LoveVs shell; 

and specimens may be observed in which the ribs and 

striae blend so insensibly into each other, that it is im- 

possible to say whether they belong to the typical spe- 

cies or the variety. Judging from Linnets description 

of A. patelliformis, this variety appears to correspond 

with it better than the typical form. I consider it ana- 

logous to the variety " aculeata " of the last species. 

A. patelliformis has not received so many names as 

A. ephippium, and I can only find fourteen of them. 

The Ostreum striatum of Da Costa (but not that of 

Lister) appears to be this species. It has been placed 

by some conchologists in the genus Placunanomia of 

Broderip ; but the distinctive character of that genus

lies in having two cardinal teeth, 

OSTREA. 37 

as in Placuna and Pla- 

centa, and is not applicable to the present species. 

Family II. OSTRE'ID.E, Broderip. 

Body round : mantle having rather thick edges 

in front : 

cirri short : 

gills simple. There is no foot, or muscle for external 

attachment. The animal is fixed in the earlier stage of 

its growth, and sometimes in its adult more convex valve of its shell. 

state, by 

Shell circular, longitudinally oval or oblong, 

the lower or 

or of an irre- 

gular shape, and inclined to be wedge-like, inequivalve : hinge 

toothless, but having its margins sometimes notched: cartilage 

internal, short and curved, placed horizontally on the hinge- 

line. 

Some genera are exotic, and others are extinct or 

known only as fossil. We have but the typical genus. 

The Oyster family differs from that of Anomia in the 

gills being simple, in having no foot or plug 

of attach- 

ment, and in the shells being either free or adhering to 

other substances by the lower valve, which is invariably 

larger and deeper 

than the other. 

Genus OS'TREA *, Linne. PI. I. f. 5. 

Body compressed. 

Shell composed of numerous imbricated or tile-like plates, 

which overlap one another in succession : beaks disunited : 

cartilage strengthened by a ligament 

on each side of it. 

The so-called species of Ostrea are exceedingly nume- 

rous, and many of them are only distinguishable by very 

slight characters. Almost every sea appears to have 

several species or varieties. Their general form is very 

inconstant and often irregular. It is more than probable 

that when a sufficiently extensive series from each 

* Oyster.

38 ostreidê. 

place, and especially in the earlier states of growth, have 

been carefully examined and compared, many recent 

species may become " extinct " in consequence of a reduction 

in number, and with great advantage to science. 

Poli gave the animal the name of Peloris. But that was 

not an oyster. 

Murice Baiano melior Lucrina peloris, 

Ostrea Circeiis, Miseno oriuntur echini, 

Pectinibus patulis jactat se niolle Tarentum. 

Ostrea edu'lis *, Linne. 

0. edulis, Linn. Svst. Nat. p. 1148 ; F. & H. ii. p. 307, pi. liv., and (ani- 

mal) pi. 

T. f. 1. 

Body much compressed, although rather thick, of a pale 

drab colour more or less tinged with brown : mantle nearly 

circular : cirri arranged in two rows, the outer one of which is 

double but irregular, and the inner one single : mouth furnished 

with a pair of large and nearly triangular lips on each side. 

Shell round in its young state, and afterwards spreading 

out in front or at the sides, with frequently a more or less 

curved outline, usually compressed, rather thick, of a dull 

appearance outside : sculpture, foliated or scaly ; lower valve 

sometimes strongly ribbed lengthwise ; the entire surface of 

the shell when young is microscopically shagreened ; lines of 

growth well marked: colour yellowish -brown : margins thin 

and closely appressed or squeezed together, usually semicir- 

cular in front and more or less rounded at the sides : beaks 

small, divided by the cartilage, which is thick and very strong, 

light-brown or horncolour, and supported on each side by a 

short ligament of a dark olive-green : hinge-line narrow and 

nearly straight : hinge-plate thick : inside white and pearly ; 

lateral edges (especially of the flat valve) 

notched on the : 

upper part 

finely crenulated or 

muscular scar obliquely transverse, 

pear-shaped or slightly incurved above. L. 3. B. 3*5. 

Yar. 1. parasitica. Shell much smaller, flatter, and more 

colour purplish or greenish-brown, with streaks of a 

glossy ; 

darker hue radiating from the beaks. 0. parasitica, Turt. 

Conch. Diet. p. 134, f. 8. 

* Eatable.

OSTREA. 39 

Yar. 2. luppopus. 

Shell large and extremely thick. 0. 

Mppopus, Lam. An. sans Yert. vii. p. 219. 

Yar. 3. deformis. 

Shell small, distorted, and often nearly 

cylindrical. 0. deformis, Lam. 1. c. p. 229. 

Yar. 4. Rutwpina. Shell small, transversely 

regular shape. 

oval and of a 

Yar. 5. tincta. Shell flattened and attached in every stage 

of growth ; inside of a rich purplish-brown or olive-green ; 

hinge-margins strongly crenulated. 

Habitat : 

0-45 fathoms, on every part of our coast 

from Shetland to the Channel Isles, usually gregarious 

beds of various extent. Var. 1 . shells, 

and forming On 

crabs, and other substances, having 

rather a more south- 

ern distribution. When this variety is affixed to a ribbed 

scallop, it adopts the markings of that shell, but it re- 

tains its own colour. It appears to be the 0. depressa 

of Philippi. Var. 2. In deep water and solitary. Var. 3. 

the crevices of rocks in the littoral and 

Occupying 

laminarian zones, and called the " rock-ovster." Some 

specimens resemble a Gryphcea in shape. Var. 4. Coasts 

of Essex and north Kent, in a semicultivated state, and 

well known in this country as "natives." Var. 5. West 

of Scotland and Burra Isles, Shetland. Mr. Grainger 

has noticed this ubiquitous species as "imbedded in 

considerable myriads M in a raised pliocene deposit at 

Belfast; and, according 

to Mr. James Smith and Mr. 

Geikie, it occurs in the Clyde beds and other glacial 

deposits in Scotland. Red and Coralline Crag (S .Wood) . 

The shells may also be seen mixed with those of peculiarly 

arctic species in the raised sea-beds near Udde- 

valla. It is very difficult to ascertain its foreign distri- 

bution, with any tolerable degree of correctness, 

sequence of its specific identity being enveloped 

in con- 

in such 

a cloud of different names. Depending, however, on

40 OSTREID.E. 

those authorities which appear to be most accurate, I 

consider that its range extends from Iceland (Mohr) to 

Naples (Scacchi) and the Adriatic (Chierighini). I can 

answer for the common form, as well as the variety 

parasitica, being found at Cannes. Muller, Loven, 

Lilljeborg, Asbjornsen, 

and Malm have recorded it as 

inhabiting different parts of the Scandinavian sea, from 

Christiansund southwards ; and Mr. M c 

Andrew has 

found it in Vigo Bay and off Gibraltar. Philippi says 

that in Sicily it occurs in a fossil state only. According 

to Gould, it is undistinguishable from the oyster 

of New 

York. It has not been observed by Dr. Otto Torell or 

any arctic explorer on the coasts of Greenland ; 

but it is 

common in some of the postglacial beds near Udde- 

valla and in the diocese of Christiania, associated with 

high-northern shells. 

Although we are now favoured with only one species 

of what Gmelin termed the " vermis sapidissimus," and 

the supply is never equal to the demand, the case was 

very different in days long since past. E. Forbes says, 

" 

During ancient epochs, as we learn from the fossils of 

both tertiary and secondary strata, many more kinds of 

oyster lived within our area, and multiplied so as to 

rival the contents of any modern oyster-beds. The discoveries 

of geologists open scenes of regret to the en- 

thusiastic oyster-eater, who can hardly gaze upon the 

abundantly entombed remains of the apparently well-fed 

and elegantly-shaped oysters of our Eocene formation, 

without chasing ' 

a pearly tear away/ whilst he calls to 

mind how all these delicate beings came into the world, 

and vanished, to so little purpose." However, there is 

some consolation in the idea that the breed of ovsters 

may have since improved by " natural selection," and 

that, if any of our prehistoric 

ancestors existed in those

OSTREA. 41 

bygone epochs, they were not so well off as we are for 

the quality of this gastronomic luxury. Oysters seem 

to have been as much sought for and enjoyed in the 

" stone " age as they are at present, judging from the 

vast heaps of large empty shells which are found in the 

Danish kjokkenmoddings, as well as in the northern 

parts 

of the British isles. 

Lister was the first to describe the anatomy of the 

oyster, from particulars which were communicated to 

him by Dr. Willis. This description is tolerably accu- 

rate; and if the authority could be wholly relied on, 

these mollusks ought not to suffer the discredit of being 

so stupid as is proverbially alleged in Norway and 

Brittanv. Willis states that when the tide comes iu 

they lie with their hollow shells downwards, and when 

it goes out they turn on the other side; and he adds 

that they do not remove from their places, unless in 

cold weather to cover themselves with the ooze ! Lister 

appears to have trusted too much to his friend, and not 

to have learnt for himself the fact that ovsters have 

at 

not the slightest power of locomotion, except 

in their 

embryonic state. Bishop Sprat's account of our oysterfisheries, 

which has been so often quoted in works on 

natural history, was chiefly compiled from this com- 

munication of Dr. Willis. The " spat/' 

said to be like 

a drop of candle- grease, is a pure fiction. From April 

to July the ova are continuallv excluded from the ovary 

and discharged into the gills, where they are hatched. 

Every batch of fry 

in succession is then committed to 

the sea ; and the young commence life as free animals, 

like other bivalves, swimming or rather flitting about 

with considerable rapidity by means of numerous cilia 

which fringe their circumference. Each is enclosed in 

an extremely thin and prismatic semiglobular bivalve

42 ostreidjE. 

case. In the Report of the British Association for 

1856 Mr. Eyton has given some farther information as 

to the appearance and habits of the oyster-fry. He 

says, " The animal was semitransparent, with two 

reddish elongated dots placed on each side behind the 

cilia, which were in constant and rapid motion. They 

were exceedingly tenacious of life, the cilia moving until 

the water was dried up upon the glass. Some that I 

placed 

in a little salt and water were alive the next 

day." After a short enjoyment of freedom they attach 

themselves to a stone or some other object ; 

the mantle 

soon afterwards begins its work of secretion, and converts 

the case into a shell ; 

the latter becomes agglutinated 

to some extraneous body ; the cilia and eye-like spots 

disappear, and the permanent organs are developed. 

This metamorphosis has its parallel in the Cirripedia 

and other classes of invertebrate animals. The parent 

oyster is slow in recovering from its long-continued parturition 

; and it is not fit to eat until about the middle 

of August. Indeed, it is not considered to be in full 

flavour until September. The period of its longevity is 

not known. It is said to be in prime condition from 

the fourth to the seventh year, and rarely to live beyond 

If the numerous laminse or plates of 

its fifteenth year. 

which the shell is composed denote the marks of annual 

growth, some individuals must attain a very venerable 

age; but these plates are formed inwardly, 

outwardly 

instead of 

as is the case with the trunks of coniferous 

trees, and the analogy therefore fails. A severe winter 

causes great mortality among those which are laid in 

park sor shore-beds, in consequence of the valves being 

closed by ice during the recess of the tide. In all probability 

the stock of sea- water, which had been taken 

in before the oyster was laid bare, requires occasional

OSTREA. 43 

aeration from the atmosphere. The green colour, so 

much prized by the Parisians, is owing to the oyster 

feeding on the Navicula, a kind of Diatom or vegetable 

organism which abounds in comparatively 

brackish waters. According to physiologists the intestine 

passes the heart without coming into contact 

rule with 

with it, being an exception to the general 

respect to the relative position of these organs 

still and 

in the 

Acephala. The oyster, therefore, cannot in fairness be 

twitted with the proverb that the way to the heart is 

through the stomach. Nor is the idea of its being 

( f crossed in love }> less fallacious, seeing that each in- 

dividual is of both sexes and can only be enamoured of 

itself. Clark, as well as Gr. B. Sower by, 

asserts that the 

animal has two adductor muscles, and that the corre- 

sponding impressions may be seen in each valve, the 

posterior one being very small and placed close to the 

hinge. I have not been able, however, to detect more 

than one impression, which lies nearly in the middle. 

I would therefore invite the attention of naturalists to 

On it depends the 

the elucidation of this simple point. 

Lamarckian division of the Lamellibranchiata into 

Monomyaria and Dimyaria, the oyster being the type of 

the former group. Dr. Fischer says that the adductor 

muscle in Pecten (which is allied to the oyster and 

belongs to the same group) is divided, so as to form an- 

terior and posterior bundles placed at different angles' 

He is of opinion that the group of Monomyaria exists 

only in appearance and not in reality. The cartilage 

and ligament advance with the growth of the animal, in 

consequence of which the old layers become useless and 

are external. The oldest or first-formed portions of the 

shell cease in time to be occupied by the animal, so that 

the beaks become disunited and in adult specimens are

44 0STREID.E. , 

separated by a wide chasm. The shell is remarkably 

calcareous, and consists for the most part of layers 

termed by Dr. Carpenter " sub-nacreous " and having 

comparatively little adhesion one to another. These layers 

are internal. The outer layers are composed of pris- 

matic cellular structure, and have no natural cohesion. 

The weight of the animal in a full-grown example is 

to that of the shell. The late Mr. 

very disproportionate 

Thompson of Belfast ascertained that a large oyster 

from that bay weighed altogether two pounds, but that 

the weight of the animal taken out of the shell was only 

an ounce and a half. Large-sized specimens from the 

British seas seldom exceed six inches in length ; 

but on 

the North-American coast this species (if it be the same 

as ours) is said to attain occasionally twice that size. 

Young shells are sometimes marked with radiating 

and now and then one is found attached 

purple streaks ; 

to the operculum of a living Buccinum undatum, 

the sur- 

face of which it completely covers and takes its form. 

Before adverting to the economical point of view, I 

may mention some of the minor uses to which oysters 

are put. These are few : they serve to keep an aqua- 

rium free from the spores of sea-weeds ; 

their shells are 

burnt as a substitute for lime ; and formerly certain 

medicines were prepared from their calcined material. 

Also pearls of inferior lustre, often small and of an 

irregular shape, are obtained from them. Antiquaries 

tell us that the shells have been discovered in Saxon 

tombs, and that in still older places of sepulture in the 

Orkneys they 

are found drilled in such a manner as to 

show that they probably formed articles of personal 

ornament. They must have made a clumsy necklace. 

But their chief value results from the fisheries, which 

for more than eighteen centuries have rendered Great

OSTREA. 45 

Britain famous as an oyster-store, and continue to give 

to thousands and a delicate and wholesome 

employment 

food to millions. Although 

Catullus calls the Helles- 

pont "caeteris ostreosior oris/' his countrymen always 

gave the preference to our natives. Some interesting 

statistics of the trade will be found in the ' 

British 

Mollusca.' In a later account of this important branch 

of our commerce it is stated that in London alone about 

700 millions of oysters are annually consumed, and that 

in the provinces there is equal voracity and constant 

crying out for more. The consumption in Paris in 1861 

reached 132 millions, according to a statistical report 

of the archostreologer, M. Coste. The preservation of 

oyster-fisheries has been frequently the subject of legis- 

lative enactments in this and other countries. A dispute, 

which threatened at one time to be serious, arose not 

many years ago between the French and ourselves as to 

the limits of such fisheries in the English Channel. It 

shows the weight that these humble mollusks, insulted 

in proverbs, but sought after with such eagerness, have 

in the scale of nations. The same jealousy prevailed 

lately on the other side of the Atlantic. The Governor 

of Virginia in 1857 was said to have been in a per- 

petual stew on this account, and to have sent an urgent 

" " 

message or appeal to the Legislature for protection, 

believing that the idea of an oysterless State was much too 

gloomy for contemplation 

boast that their oysters are far superior in flavour to 

! Our Transatlantic cousins 

any in the Old World. In the ' Natural History of 

New York/ published in 1843, 

it is stated that there 

were two principal varieties in the then United States— 

viz. northern and southern—and that connoisseurs pre- 

tended to distinguish these varieties by the smell alone. 

The oyster may have played, although unconsciously, a

46 OSTREIDÊ. 

part in the sad tragedy which has been performed in 

that unfortunate country, by indicating (like the herald 

in a Greek play) the approaching separation of the 

States, with reference to the distinction in its own case 

into "northern" and "southern." The art of "huitre- 

culture," which has been practised in France with so 

much success, is simple as well as useful. It consists 

of fixing, in sheltered and suitable spots, wooden stakes 

interlaced with branches of trees, arranged like fascines, 

on which a few breeding- oysters are laid. At the end 

of three or four years the stakes are pulled up ; the 

mature oysters are selected for market, 

the small ones 

being left to grow and breed; and the stakes and 

branches are replaced. A similar harvest is gathered in 

each succeeding year. The preserve or " park V is paved, 

to prevent an excessive accumulation of mud, which 

would destroy the fry. 

Its enclosed and raised position 

prevents the access of fish and other injurious animals. 

The German Ocean has been so long the fishing-pond 

of Europe, that its supplies are beginning to fail us; 

and we cannot feel too grateful to M. Coste for his 

ingenious method of replenishing the nearly exhausted 

stock of oysters. Besides man, the oyster has many 

enemies ; 

and were it not for its wonderful fecundity, it 

must long ere this have been extirpated. Starfishes, 

whelks, and annelids attack and devour the adult ; 

and 

countless shoals of small fish, bivalve mollusks, and 

other animals swallow the fry while they are disporting 

themselves in the brief period of their free and active 

state. 

The oyster is a classical character; and its praises 

have been said or sung by innumerable writers, from 

Aristotle to " Professor " Blezard. It furnished Shake- 

and the philoso- 

speare with many a playful allusion ;

OSTREA. 47 

phical question which he makes the fool ask of Lear, as 

to the mode of constructing its shell, would be difficult 

for the best conchologist to answer satisfactorily. It 

has even been celebrated in pastoral verse. Sannaza- 

rius, an eccentric Italian writer of the last century, 

changed the scene in this kind of poetry from woods 

and lawns to the barren beach and boundless ocean, 

introducing sea-calves in the room of kids and lambs, 

seamews for the lark and the linnet, and presenting his 

mistress with oysters instead of fruits and flowers. There 

is no lack of gossip on the subject. The recent publication 

of three books attests its popularity. One con- 

tains the " Life of an Oyster"; another gives directions 

" where, how, and when to find, breed, cook, and eat 

it"; and the third explains its medicinal and nutritious 

qualities. All these brochures are very amusing. The 

second teaches no less than fifteen different ways of 

dressing this delicacy ; and it would especially interest 

those who are not true lovers of it in its natural state, 

and therefore approve of Gay's sentiment— 

" The man had sure a palate covered o'er 

With brass or steel, that on the rocky shore 

First broke the oozy oyster's pearly coat, 

And risq'd the living morsel down his throat." 

But there is death even in the pot; and the 'Comptes 

Rendus' for March last mentions some fatal cases of 

poisoning by green oysters imported into Rochefort from 

Falmouth. The Editor of the ( 

Journal de Conchyliologie/ 

in commenting on this accident, remarks that 

English copper, in a metallic state, is a product " tresestimable," 

but less valuable as an article of food. Old 

Fuller, 

in his ' 

Worthies/ says that oysters are the only 

meat which men eat alive and yet account it no cruelty. 

Probably, 

in his time German ladies did not crunch

48 PECTINID^. 

ants between their teeth for the sake of the formic acid, 

nor Russian ladies swallow little fishes alive in order to 

tickle their throats. I am told that at St. Petersburg 

fresh oysters are not reckoned eatable, but that they 

' ' 

are till kept they become high " and have a gamy 

flavour ! One of the many good qualities of the oyster 

is perhaps not generally known, and it has not been 

noticed by any popular writer. It is reticence. Colman, 

in his c 

Erpingham 

Broad Grins/ says that the tiny page of Lady 

" Slipp'd the Dame's note into the Friar's hand, 

As he was walking in the cloister ; 

And, then, slipp'd off— as silent as an oyster." 

Family III. PECTI'NIDÊ, Lamarck. 

Body oval or oblong, compressed : mantle having thick 

edges : cini long and extensile : gills reflected : foot deve- 

loped. 

Shell spade-shaped, usually inequivalve and inequilateral : 

beaks small, straight, and pointed, with lateral triangular pro- 

cesses like ears or wings : hinge toothless : cartilage internal, 

placed in a cavity beneath the beaks and strengthened by a 

narrow ligament on each side. 

The animal has a distinct foot, which is capable of 

spinning a byssus, or bundle of horny threads, 

for attach- 

ment to other bodies. It is also endued with a peculiar 

power of locomotion. By a muscular action, analogous 

to that which is known as systole and diastole, and by 

repeatedly taking in and expelling a quantity of water, 

it flits or jerks itself along for a considerable distance 

although not in a straight line, flapping 

the valves of 

its shell inwards like the wings of a bird in full flight. 

The ventral margins are in front, the beaks are behind,

PECTEN. 49 

and the less convex valve uppermost. But as the " beak" 

of a shell is posterior, and that of a bird is anterior, 

their relative position is reversed, although 

the motion 

of each is nearly the same. Even Pecten pusio in its 

younger state, and before it is permanently fixed, is free 

and can swim about like its congeners. In other respects 

also this family differs from the Ostreidce. The shell 

is of a more regular and symmetrical shape, and its 

hind margin is expanded on each side into the ears or 

winglike processes 

above noticed. Its structure is 

less compact — its composition, according to Mr. Sorby, 

being " arragonite/' while that of the oyster is " calcite." 

The impression of the great adductor muscle is placed 

more on one side than in the ovster, where it is 

almost central. The muscle by which the front edge 

of the mantle is attached to the shell leaves a conspi- 

cuous scar on the inside of each valve. The cartilage 

and ligament advance with the growth of the animal, in 

the same way as in the oyster, but more slowly. All 

the British Pectinidce are ribbed or striate lengthwise. 

Pecten similis, which is commonly smooth, is hardly an 

exception, for it sometimes has distinct ridges diverging 

from the beak to the margin of the shell. 

•b J 

Genus I. PECTEN *, Plinv. PI. II. f. 1. 

Body oval : 

mantle fringed with ocelli or eye-like tubercles. 

Shell more or less in eqiri valve: ligament internal : muscu- 

lar scar nearly central. 

The name of this genus is nearly as ancient as that 

of Ostrea. It is very expressive, the shell usually 

having ribs which are arranged like the teeth of a 

lady's comb. Sometimes it resembles the expanded 

* A comb. 

D

50 PECTINIDÊ. 

frame of a fan. Scallops are especial favourites of shell- 

collectors and amateurs, on account of their elegant 

shape and their brilliant and varied hues. The curious 

' ' 

organs called ocelli v or eyelets are supposed by some 

physiologists to be rather highly organized, and even 

superior to the so-called eyes of most Gasteropodous 

Mollusca. More than one hundred of them have been 

counted in a single individual of some species oiPecten. 

For this reason Poli called the animal Argus. These 

little eyes have a prismatic lustre, and gleam like precious 

stones which are set round the inside of a casket 

lined with mother-of-pearl. Their structure has been 

lately and independently investigated by Grube, Krohn, 

and Will. Very young shells of all the species are 

destitute of ribs ; and they are nearly rhomboiclal, owing 

to their breadth and the size of their ears being proportionally 

greater at that stage of growth than afterwards 

is the case. In consequence of the Scallops being generally 

attached or sedentary, the upper valve is more 

deeply and brightly 

coloured than the lower one. 

Although all the essential characters of the present 

genus are uniform and do not vary much in the several 

authors into no less 

species, it has been divided by 

than twenty-eight, most of which will be found enu- 

merated in the useful Index of Herrmannsen. In nearly 

all the British species the upper or left valve is the 

larger, and is also distinguished from the other by its 

brighter or deeper hue. In Pecten maximus, however, 

and occasionally in P. septemradiatus, the lower or right 

valve is the larger, and almost or quite colourless. The 

intensity of colour is supposed to depend 

of solar light, although it is not wanting 

on the action 

in animals 

living in the abysses of the ocean, which the most attenuated 

sunbeam has never directly penetrated.

PECTEN. 51 

A. Upper valve more or less convex : hinge-line 

1. Pecten pu'sio"*, Linne. 

ribbed across. 

Ostrea pusio, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1146. T.ûsio, F. & H. ii. p. 278, pi. L. 

f. 4, 5, and li. f. 7. 

Body vermilion or yellowish -white with a brown tint, or 

particoloured : cirri numerous, short, and blunt, arranged in 

from 5 to 7 rows : ocelli large and few in number. 

Shell varying in shape according to age, being when young 

considerably longer than broad, and regular, but in its adult 

state broader in proportion, and distorted or twisted in consequence 

of its fitting the cavities and sinuosities of the bodies 

it is almost 

to which it is fixed ; in the earlier stage of growth 

equivalve, but afterwards the upper valve becomes usually the 

larger and more convex of the two ; sides nearly equal ; 

rather solid, and not : glossy sculpture, 

it is 

about 70 narrow and 

sharp ribs which are alternately large and small, crossed by 

numerous transverse plates, which by their intersection form 

scales or prickles on the crests of the ribs ; the whole surface 

is exquisitely marked by microscopical longitudinal striae which 

diverge from each successive layer of growth ; 

in the fry these 

stria3 only are visible, the ribs not then existing : colour red- 

dish, yellowish, brown, or white, or of intermediate shades, 

variegated by straight or diverging streaks or blotches of some 

of those tints : margins rounded in front and at both sides, and 

notched or indented by the impression of the ribs ; in the 

young the upper edge of the angle on the right-hand side, 

which lies under the large ear, has a row of curved spines, 

like the teeth of a saw beaks : 

prominent 

which are arranged : 

ears of unequal size, especially in the young, that on the lefthand 

side of .the upper valve and -on the right of the lower 

valve being the largest ; all of them are sculptured like the 

rest of the shell, the ribs diverging from each side of the beak 

outwards ; the right-hand ear of the lower valve is notched at 

the base, and it is smaller than the opposite one on the left 

hand of the upper valve, in order to make an opening and 

short but 

passage for the : byssus hinge-line straight : cartilage 

strong : ligament long and slender : hinge-plate strengthened 

by a thick and knob-like rib on each side of the beak, to form 

the sides of the cartilage-pit: inside pearly, microscopically 

* A youngster. 

D 2

52 PECTINID/E. 

pitted, and sometimes very finely and closely striate lengthwise 

: muscular scars slight. L. 1*65. B. 1-45. 

Habitat : 

Every rocky 

coast from Shetland to Corn- 

wall, often on oyster-beds, and attached, in the adult 

state by the whole or last-formed part of its lower valve 

to the inside of old bivalve shells, or to rocks, Eschara 

foliacea, and other substances. The depth 

of water in 

which it lives varies from 5 to 85 fathoms, and the 

young are occasionally found at low-water mark on 

some shores where the tide retires for two or three 

fathoms. In a fossil state P. pusio occurs in the Clyde 

beds, as well as in the Red and Coralline Crag. Its 

extra-British range is considerable, extending from Nor- 

way to the Azores on the one side and to the iEgean on 

the other. 

In more northern seas this species soon fixes itself 

permanently to various bodies by means of an agglutinating 

secretion ; but in the Mediterranean and more 

southern latitudes it usually remains free, or attached 

by a byssus only, from which it has the power of 

withdrawing or disengaging itself at pleasure. In the 

former or fixed state it belongs to the genus Hinnites 

of Defrance. It has been clearly shown, however, by 

the late Mr. G. B. Sowerby thirty-five years ago, on con- 

chological grounds, and by Dr. Fischer in 1862, physiologically, 

that this species is a true Pecten, and that the 

genus Hinnites is not maintainable. The peculiar mode 

of attachment by the shell in this case is the reverse of 

that adopted by the oyster, the former having the 

smaller valve and the latter the larger valve uppermost. 

The prickly scales are sometimes produced also on the 

lower valve, and become leaf-like or foliated as in the 

oyster. In fixed specimens the byssal sinus is more 

or less closed; but I have some of a large size and

PECTEN. 53 

much distorted, which were attached by a strong byssus 

as well as adhering by the shell. According to Fischer 

the foot does not become atrophied or proportionally 

smaller in the fixed adult, although it is then quite use- 

less for the purpose of locomotion. This fact is opposed 

to the general idea that the size of organs is modified 

or affected by a change in the habits of an animal. The 

present species was first described by 

wonted accuracy. Wallace, 

in his ' 

Lister with his 

History 

Orkneys/ has an ingenious way of accounting 

of the 

for the 

shells being so distorted. He calls them the ' ' twisted 

Pectines of Stroma," and says, " I cannot think the odd 

strange tumbling 

anything to that frame ; yet 

in any other place." 

the tides make there can contribute 

after all I never see them 

It is the Ostrea sinuosa of Gmelin and the P. distortus 

of Da Costa. In its younger state it is the P. multi- 

striatus of Poli, and the P. Isabella of Macgillivray but 

not of Lamarck. 

2. P. va'rius*, Linne. 

Ostrea varia, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1146. P. varius, F. & H. ii p 27.3 

pi. L. f. 1. 

Body pale red, pink, brown, or yellow, sometimes mottled 

with white or streaked with purplish-brown : mantle broad- 

edged : cirri numerous, of unequal length but mostly long 

and slender, arranged in four rows : ocelli about 30, black, and 

smaller than in the last species : foot rather large, thick, and 

white. 

Shell transversely oval, much broader in front than be- 

hind, nearly equilateral, rather solid and slightly glossy : sculp- 

ture, 25-30 smooth and rounded ribs, which are • 

equal-sized 

the whole surface is also covered transversely with fine plates 

which often form vaulted spines on the crests of the ribs the 

j 

interstices of the ribs are marked with minute bifurcatino- 

* Variegated.

51 PECTINID.E. 

striae : colour red, pink, yellow, purple, brown, and rarely 

milk-white, with streaks or blotches variously disposed : 

margins rounded in front and at the sides, and notched or 

indented by the ribs, sloping abruptly to the beak on each side 

from a little above the middle ; upper side of the slope on the 

right 

hand of the lower valve toothed or serrate as in the 

last species : beaks prominent : ears unequal and formed as in 

P. pusio ; the right-hand one of the lower valve projects 

beyond and slightly overlaps the opposite ear of the upper 

valve ; their markings and the byssal notch are the same as in 

the last species, as well as the cartilage, ligament, and internal 

structure ; but the muscular scars are more distinct. L. 1*85. 

B. 1-65. 

Yar. 1. purpurea. Shell larger, broader, and natter : colour 

purplish-brown marbled with yellow. 

Yar. 2. nivea. Shell of the same shape as the last variety, 

and having about 45 ribs : colour snow-white, sometimes tinged 

with purple, or more rarely orange, yellowish, purple, or brown 

of different shades. P. niveus, Macgillivray, Edinb. Xat. & Phil. 

Journ. xiii. p. 166, pi. 3. f. 1 ; F. & H. ii. p. 276, pi. L. f. 2, 

and (animal) pi. S. f. 3. 

Habitat : 

Equally common with the last species,, and 

in similar situations; but it does not appear to have been 

found on these coasts north of the Orkneys, whence 

a white variety has been procured by the Rev. Dr. Smith 

of Old Aberdeen. The range of depth varies from low- 

water-mark at spring-tides to 40 fathoms. Yar. 1. Falmouth 

harbour and off Portsmouth (J. G. J.) ; Cork 

harbour (Humphreys); Bantry Bay (Barlee). Yar. 2. 

Western coasts of Scotland, in 3-25 fathoms, on Lami- 

naria saccharina and occasionally attached to stones ; 

Glengariff, Bantry Bay (Barlee). 

As a fossil or subfossil 

this species is found, in the upper tertiaries of the Bel- 

fast, Clyde, and Sussex beds. Abroad it is distributed 

in every sea from Bergen (Sars) to theiEgean (Forbes); 

and according to Weinkauff it is not uncommon on the 

Algerian coast.

PECTEN. 00 

In the north of France it is called " Petite-Vanne"; 

and Collard des Cherres says that it is eaten in Brittany, 

as well as other kinds of scallops. The pallial ten- 

tacles or cirri of the variety nivea are extremely inter- 

esting and beautiful objects. They 

are of different 

and brown 

colours in the same individual— 

white, yellow, 

—and are sometimes edged with black or purple. Some 

of them are much longer than others, and each has a 

white line or streak down the middle. The longest have 

a few milk-white specks, and their tips are curled like a 

crosier. A few of these tentacles are three-quarters of 

an inch long. 

All are contractile and extremely sensi- 

tive. The outermost row folds back over the margins 

of the shell. The edges of the mantle are studded with 

papillae. The ocelli do not correspond in number or 

position with the ribs of the shell, there being two eye- 

lets for every three ribs. All the specimens (about 

twenty in number) examined by me on the 1st of September 

1862, at Oban, shed from time to time a milky 

fluid which I found was entirely composed of sper- 

matozoa. These moved actively about in every direc- 

tion and spread in the water like a thick mist. The 

quantity emitted by each individual was very great, and 

after every discharge the water became more turbid. 

All these specimens had ovaries of a pale-yellow or 

cream colour. This seemed to me a sufficient proof 

of the monoecious character of the Scallop; and it 

showed that the mode of its fecundation is the same 

as takes place in many plants — only substituting spermatozoa 

for pollen-dust, and the waves for the wind 

or winged insects. A quarter of a century ago, when 

this pretty variety was not easily procurable and 

therefore exceedingly rare, a specimen fetched £2. 

Fifty or more may now be had for the same price. 

I

56 PECTINID^. 

have the fry attached to a rib of Rissoa parva, showing 

that they remove from place to place, at least in the 

earlier stages of growth. The hooded crow is very fond 

of these scallops. 

It takes one from the tangle at low 

water and carries it to the shore or a bank, on which it 

drops its prey, watching with cunning patience 

scallop opens its shell. It then quickly 

until the 

thrusts its 

pointed and strong beak into the gaping valves, forces 

them asunder, and devours the dainty morsel. Dead 

and bleached shells are thus often found in places at 

some distance from the sea, where crows had been feast- 

ing. Without this explanation they might have been 

mistaken for fossils. Specimens of the variety pur- 

purea attain a considerable size. One of mine is 3^% 

inches long and 3 inches broad. This species differs 

from the younger state of P.pusio in being larger, and 

in the ribs being much less numerous, and equal in size 

instead of alternately large and small. Being 

free and 

Of a regular shape at all ages, it is readily distinguishable 

from the adherent and distorted adult of the other 

species. 

I fear that some of my conchological 

terribly shocked at my innovation in uniting 

friends will be 

P. niveus 

with P. varius ; but I feel constrained to take this bold 

step, even at the risk of not being soon forgiven. I had 

for a long time great misgivings on the subject; but it 

was not until I had most carefully examined and com- 

pared a multitude of specimens 

of both these so-called 

species, collected from various and distant places, that I 

was able to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. The 

only points 

of difference between P. varius and P. niveus 

consist in the latter having a broader and flatter shell 

with more numerous and delicate ribs, and in the colour 

being 

white. All these characters are combined or

PECTEX. 57 

blended in specimens of P. varius and what I consider 

to be its two principal varieties. Some are broader and 

flatter than others : the number of ribs varies from 27 

to 45 , and consequently in their comparative fineness ; 

and the white of P. niveus is sometimes beautifully 

tinted with purple, and passes into different shades of 

other colours. I have taken P. niveus only in every 

part of the Hebrides, and I have never seen a single 

specimen of P. varius from that district. In Loch Fyne 

and at Jura an intermediate variety occurs. A specimen 

from the former locality has 36 ribs, and one from 

the latter 32 ribs. I noticed in the collection of M. 

Martin, at Martigues, a white variety having also 32 

ribs. A still more puzzling form was sent to me in 

1852 by Mr. Barlee from GlengarifF in Bantry Bay, 

which clearly connects the two species; and the variety 

purpurea forms another link in the chain of specific 

identity. I believe this varietal difference arises from 

habitat. The strong and few-ribbed P. varius lives on 

oyster-banks and rough ground on an exposed coast; 

while the delicate and many-ribbed P. niveus is only 

found in sheltered lochs and arms of the sea, moored by 

its strong byssus to the upper surface of the broad and 

smooth fronds of Laminari


P. Islandicus, Miiller, once lived within the area which 

now constitutes the more northern part of the British 

seas and nearly the whole of Scotland. It is, however, 

no longer an inhabitant of our coasts. Dead shells in a 

semifossil state, but occasionally retaining their beau- 

tiful pink colour, are not unfrequently dredged upon 

both sides of Scotland and off the coasts of Shetland, 

close to land and also at various distances from it, at 

of from 30 to 80 fathoms. It is not uncommon 

depths 

in pleistocene beds on the west of Scotland and in the 

Moray Firth. The best explanation 

I can offer for its 

never having been found alive in any part of our seas is 

by suggesting 

that the ancient sea-bed which it in- 

habited during some part, if not the whole, of the glacial 

above the level of the 

epoch was afterwards upheaved 

sea, so as to cause the extinction of this and other arctic 

species, and that at a subsequent period a great part of 

this district was slowly submerged and is now again 

covered by the sea. We know that this process of eleva- 

tion in some and depression in other parts of the Atlantic 

sea-bed is still going on. Sweden and Greenland are 

instances of the former phenomenon ; 

and to the latter 

may be referred the discovery by Dr. Wallich of starfishes 

belonging to a species which usually inhabits 

shallow water, living at a depth of 1260 fathoms, as 

well as the occurrence of Nassa incrassata and other 

littoral kinds of Mollusca in nearly 80 fathoms off the 

coast of Shetland. P. Islandicus survives and is abun- 

dant in every part of the Arctic Ocean at depths varying 

from 15 to 150 fathoms. It has not been recorded as 

living south of Drontheim ; 

and Malm says that it does 

not now exist anywhere on the Swedish coast, although 

it is common there in a fossil state. This species is not 

unlike the variety nivea of P. varius in shape and the

PECTEX. 59 

number of ribs; but the shell is more solid, the ribs 

sharper, and the surface resembles shagreen. 

3. P. opercula'ris*, Linne. 

Ostrea opercularis, Linn. Syst. ISat. p. 1147. -P. opercularis, F. & H. ii. 

p. 299, pi. L. f. 3 ; li. f. o, 6 ; liii. f. 7. 

Body thick, variegated with pink, creamcolour, fawn, orange, 

or brown, and mottled with flake-white meandering lines, spots, 

and blotches : mantle thin, except at the : fleshy margins cirri 

conical, white, of unequal length and irregularly disposed in 

two or three rows, the outer one of which has the longest filaments 

: ocelli 35-40, nearly globose, having pearl- coloured 

pupils within black circles : foot small, subcylindrical, deeply 

cloven or furrowed, and scoop-shaped at its extremity, of a 

yellowish-white colour. 

Shell circular and equilateral, except at the back (where the 

periphery is interrupted by the beak and ears), rather thin, 

scarcely glossy: sculpture, about 20 rounded ribs, which are of 

equal size and somewhat broader than the interstices ; the 

surface is more or less covered with extremely fine and wave- 

like transverse plates, which often form numerous rows of short 

prickles, especially along the ribs and on their crests, making 

the shell feel rough as shagreen : colour red, pink, orange, 

yellow, purple, brown, or of intermediate shades, 

often streaked 

or marked with blotches or spots, and sometimes (but rarely) 

milk-white : margins rounded in front and at the sides, notched 

or indented by the ribs, sloping gradually to the beak on each 

side from about three-fourths of the distance from the front 

toothed or ser- 

margin ; slope below the byssal sinus strongly 

rate : heaJcs : prominent ears nearly equal, sculptured by ribs 

which radiate from the beak; the ears of the lower valve 

slightly project beyond and overlap those of the upper valve ; 

byssal notch deep : hinge-line straight : cartilage rather large : 

ligament narrow and slight: hinge-plate somewhat broad, 

minutely striate across ; transverse rib strong and raised on 

each side of the : cartilage-pit inside fluted or grooved, so as 

to correspond with the folds of the outside ribs ; 

each shoulder 

under the ears is furnished with a thick ledge, which rests on 

that in the opposite valve, thus giving additional support to the 

* Like a cover or pot-lid.


hinge and preventing its being too closely pressed 

scars distinct. L. 2*35. B. 2-5. 

: muscular 

Tar. 1. lineata. Shell white, with a brown line running 

down the crest of each rib. P. liaeatus, Da Costa, Brit. Conch, 

p. 147, pi. 

x. f. 8. 

Yar. 2. tumida. Shell more swollen and deeper. 

Yar. 3. elongata. Shell smaller, and longer than broad. 

Habitat : Common on all sandy coasts, and gregarious, 

in 6-90 fathoms. Yar. 1. Not nnfrequently found 

with specimens of the usual colour, and sometimes having 

a mixed hue. Var. 2. Plymouth (J. G. J.) ; Exmouth 

(Clark); Cork (Humphreys). Var. 3. Loch Torridon, 

Ross-shire (J. G. J.); BirterbuyBay, co. Galway (Barlee) : 

rare. This species is a common fossil in the Scotch 

glacial deposits, and in the Norwich, Red, and Coralline 

Crag. Steenstrup informs me that he has found it in 

Iceland; Mohr has recorded it from the Faroe Isles, 

Weinkauff from Algeria, Forbes from the iEgean, and 

M c Andrew from Madeira; and it is widely distributed 

throughout the intervening seas. 

This pretty and well-known species was first described 

by Lister. Mr. Norman says that quantities are dredged 

in the Firth of Clyde, where they are called " clams," 

for bait in the long-line fishery. When cooked they 

have a rich and agreeable, but peculiar, flavour : they 

are not much eaten in this country. According to 

Montagu they are called " frills " or " queens " on the 

South Devon coast. The fishermen on the Dorset coast 

call them " squinns." In the north of France this kind 

bears the name of " vanneau " or " 1" 

olivette. 

The 

shells make pretty pincushion- cases; and in the North- 

American States another species (P. concentricus) is 

used for the same purpose.

PECTEN. 

The 'Rev. Dr. Landsborough has given the following 

interesting account of their habits in an earlier stage of 

growth :—" We observed on a sunny September day in 

a pool of sea-water left on Stevenston strand (Ayrshire) 

by the ebbing tide, what we at first thought some of the 

scaly brood at play. On close investigation, however, 

we found that it was the fry of Pecten opercularis 

skipping quite nimbly through the pool. Their motion 

was rapid and zigzag, very like that of ducks in a sunny 

blink rejoicing in the prospect of rain. They seemed, 

by the sudden opening and closing of their valves, to 

have the power of darting like an arrow through the 

water. One jerk carried them some yards, and then 

by another sudden jerk they 

different tack. We doubt not that, when full-grown, 

they engage in similar amusements, though, as Pectens 

of greater gravity, they choose to romp unseen and play 

their gambols in the deep." The animal of the adult 

61 

were off in a moment on a 

scallop, when at rest, is a study for a painter, with its 

large and bright pink ovary, and its mantle studded on 

each side with a row of brilliant eyelets, like dewdrops 

glittering in the sun of a May morning. The trans- 

verse plates form hollow or vaulted scales in young 

shells ; 

and their surface is minutely and closely tuber- 

cled, like the cells of Polyzoa. In the fry the upper 

valve is much larger than the lower one and overlaps 

it. The ribs are not then formed, but the byssal sinus 

is well developed. Specimens from the Firth of Forth 

and Shetland are much larger than usual, although 

slightly differing from each other in their relative pro- 

portions. I have one from the latter district measuring 

Sjjj inches long and 3^ broad, and another from Portobello 

3^- long and nearly 4 broad. Occasional distor- 

tions or monstrosities occur.

62 pectinid^:. 

P. opercularis may be readily known from either of 

the two foregoing species by its circular form, greater 

size, and nearly equal ears. The P. Audouinii of Payraudeau 

can hardly be considered a variety. Its sculpture 

is that of the P. lineatus of Da Costa, and only differs 

from that of ordinary specimens in the scales being 

more regular and continued across the ribs. The P. 

subrufus of Turton is merely the young state, 

straighter outline. Many other specific 

with a 

names have 

been invented by authors for still more trifling varieties. 

4. P. septemradia'tus*, Miiller. 

P. septemradiatus, Mull. Zool. Dan. Prodr. p. 248, no. 2992. P. Danicus, 

F. & H. ii. p. 288, pi. Hi. f. 1-2, 7-10. 

Shell nearly circular and equilateral, except as in the last 

species, thin, somewhat : glossy sculpture, mostly 7 rounded 

but compressed ribs (the middle one being the largest), which 

are much narrower than the interstices ; the surface is covered 

with minute and close-set longitudinal strise, which are crossed 

by equally fine but more remote transverse plates, 

so as occa- 

the sides 

sionally to form prickles at the points of intersection ; 

are marked with short and stronger strise, placed at right 

angles to the longitudinal striae: colour reddish-brown, mottled 

or streaked with white : margins as in P. opercularis ; 

slope below the byssal sinus seldom, and never distinctly, serrate 

: beaks prominent : ears nearly equal in the upper valve, 

but not so in the lower valve, in which the right ear is the 

from the 

larger ; all of them are sculptured by ribs radiating 

beak, as well as by fine and numerous striaa, which run from 

the sides or shoulders and diverge outwards ; there are also 

some wavy striaa in the line of growth, crossing the auricular 

ribs ; 

the ears of the lower valve project beyond and overlap 

those of the upper valve, but much less than in any of the pre- 

ceding species ; byssal notch slight : hinge-line straight 

: car- 

tilage small : ligament very thin : hinge-plate rather broad, 

transverse rib slight and raised 

microscopically striate across ; 

a little on each side of the cartilage -pit : inside fluted or 

* Seven-rayed.

grooved as in other ribbed species 

distinct. L. 1-625. B. 1*475. 

PECTEN. 63 

Var. 1. alba. Shell of a milk-white colour. 

: muscular scars rather 

Var. 2. Dumasii. Shell smaller and more solid, longer in 

valve less convex than the 

proportion to its breadth ; upper 

lower one and sometimes quite flat or even slightly concave : 

sculpture coarse, with 3-10 sharp ribs : ears often unequal, 

those on the byssal side smaller than the opposite pair. P. 

Dumasii, Payr. Cat. Moll. Corse, p. 75, pi. ii. f. 6, 7. 

Habitat : 

Rather plentiful in Loch Fyne, and generally 

distributed over our northern seas, and southward 

as far as the Northumberland coast, in 20-90 fathoms, 

rough ground. Var. 1. Loch Fyne and Shetland (Bar- 

lee). Var. 2. Hebrides and Shetland. This species is 

fossil in the Clyde basin, and in other glacial deposits in 

Scotland as well as Norway. It ranges from Finmark 

to the iEgean, but it appears not to be so common in 

the south as in the north. The variety Dumasii occurs 

in the upper miocene strata near Antibes. 

P. septemradiatus was added to the British fauna by 

the late Capt. Brown in 1835. It is remarkable that 

such a handsome and by no means small shell should 

have previously escaped the notice of Laskey, Fleming, 

Macgillivray, and others of our northern conchologists. 

This can scarcely be accounted for by the dredge not 

having been used in those days, because specimens are 

usually procured from fishermen. They are frequently 

caught in the herring-nets, when disturbed on their 

feeding-grounds and swimming or flitting 

about. I 

am not aware that the animal has ever been described ; 

and I have unfortunately missed the opportunity of 

observing it. Asbjornsen mentions his having taken 

which were full of a 

specimens in the beginning of May, 

milky fluid. The shell is extremely variable in respect 

of shape and the number of ribs, as well as of the pro-

64 PECUNIAE. 

portionate size of the ears. A single 

valve which I 

dredged off Skye in 1847 somewhat resembles Philippics 

var. 77. of P. polymorphus ; the front of each valve is 

folded inwards and grooved, with the inside margin 

finely notched or crenulated. In young shells the surface 

is regularly cancellated. The fry is glossy and has 

consists of nume- 

very prominent beaks ; its sculpture 

rous microscopical longitudinal strise on the upper 

valve, and equally minute transverse strise on both 

valves. 

A dozen names have been given by different concho- 

logists to this species. If the authority of O. F. Miiller, 

the original discoverer, were at all questionable, Gme- 

lin's name of hybridus would have the priority over that 

of Danicus, which was proposed by Chemnitz nineteen 

years after the publication of the Prodromus to the 

1 

Zoologia Danica/ 

P. glaber of Pennant and Montagu is a well-known 

Mediterranean species ; 

and there does not seem to be 

that it ever inhabited the 

any reason for supposing 

Welsh or Scotch coasts, as stated by those authors. 

I have a single valve of P. sulcatus, Miiller, which was 

dredged off the east coast of Shetland by Mr. Barlee ; 

but as it is an imperfect specimen, I do not at present 

describe this species as British, but merely offer a short 

notice of it. It has thirty-two ribs, besides small inter- 

mediate ones ; they are rounded and cord-like, with 

thin transverse plates in the interstices. The colour of 

my specimen is orange-yellow. The ears are propor- 

tionally larger than in P. septemradiatus. The inside 

is marked by furrows, which correspond with the ribs 

as in P. glaber. The species now noticed inhabits the 

Scandinavian seas. A small single valve, in a semi- 

fossil state, was taken by Capt. Hoskyns at a depth of

340 fathoms, in his recent soundings 

PECTEN. 65 

off the west coast 

of Ireland. In consequence of the specific name (sul- 

catus) having been preoccupied by Born for a very dif- 

ferent kind of scallop from Malabar, the name proposed 

bv Miiller is inadmissible : and Gmelin made a better 

hit than usual in changing the name of the northern 

shell to aratus. Lamarck carelessly applied the same 

name of sulcatus to another species of Pecten which is 

common in the Mediterranean. It is possible that the 

P. 20-sulcatus of Miiller may be a variety 

of his P. sul- 

catus ) and in that case the first of these names ought 

to be adopted in preference to that given by Gmelin. 

5. P. tigri'nus*, Miiller. 

P. tigerinv.s, Mull. Zool. Dan. Prodr. p. 248, no. 2993. P. tigrinus, F. & H. 

ii. p. 285, pl.li. 

f. 8-11. 

Body bright red or occasionally creamy-white : mantle 

edged with white and mottled with dusky or brown rays : 

cirri short : ocelli 10, brown with a golden centre : foot white 

and very flexible : byssus transparent. 

Shell of the same shape as the last two species, bnt rather 

narrower at the back, moderately solid, and somewhat glossy : 

sculpture, extremely fine and numerous impressed striae, which 

radiate from the beak and gradually diverge to the front and 

side margins ; these striae are not visible to the naked eye, and 

under a strong magnifier they appear regularly but slightly 

punctured in consequence of the intersection of equally minute 

and close-set transverse striae, which follow the fine of growth ; 

the longitudinal striae are sometimes irregularly waved or 

interrupted, and are often forked : colour yellow, brown, or 

purple, and now and then white, with variously disposed 

bands, streaks, blotches, spots and other markings of those 

hues : margins rounded in front, so as to form a semicircle, 

and sloping from near the middle to the beaks at an angle of 

about 45 degrees ; the front margin is sometimes folded inwards 

and strongly notched ; the upper part of the slope below 

* Barred like a tiger.

66 PECTINID^. 

the byssal sinus is finely toothed : beaJcs very prominent and 

considerably raised : ears unequal ; those on the left hand of 

the upper valve and right hand of the lower valve are at least 

four times the size of the others; 

all of them have a few 

strong ribs which radiate from the beaks, and they are also 

marked with coarse and numerous striae which cross the ribs 

obliquely ; the ears of the lower valve project very little beyond 

those of the upper valve ; byssal notch deep : 

hinge-line 

straight : 

cartilage small : ligament very thin : 

hinge-plate 

narrow, microscopically striate across ; transverse rib strong 

and considerably raised on each side of the : cartilage-pit inside 

nacreous, finely and closely striate lengthwise and notched 

on the front margin within ; the larger ears are strong grooves 

which correspond with the outside ribs : muscular scars dis- 

tinct, especially in aged specimens. L. 0-9. B. 0-885. 

Yar. costata. Shell stronger than usual, and having either 

five ribs and intermediate small ones, or else several riblets 

of equal size : inside grooved and striate accordingly. 

Habitat : 

Not 

uncommon from Shetland to the 

Channel Isles in 7-82 fathoms, on a sandy bottom mixed 

with gravel ; and the variety is equally diffused. This 

species occurs as an upper tertiary 

fossil in the Scotch 

glacial deposits, and also in the Red and Coralline Crag. 

It is a native of the Icelandic and Scandinavian coasts ; 

and Mr. M'Andrew has taken it in Vigo Bay at a depth 

of only 8 fathoms. 

The shell varies greatly in size and proportions, as 

well as in colour and the number of ribs. My largest 

specimens are one inch and two-tenths long, and nearly 

the same in breadth. Sometimes the breadth slightly 

exceeds the length. Young shells are proportionally 

longer than old ones. In the former the so-called "eyes" 

are perceptible through the semitransparent shell many 

years after the animal has ceased to exist. The fry are 

not sculptured, but perfectly smooth; and the lower 

valve is nearly flat and smaller than the other. Miiller 

noticed the way in which he presumed this scallop pro-

PECTEX. 67 

cures its food, viz. by rapidly opening the valves of its 

shell and clapping them together with an audible noise 

ten or twelve times in succession. It then kept them 

wide open and for a much longer time than suited the 

patience of the great zoologist. By this violent agitation 

of the water a fresh supply of animalcula may be 

brought 

to its insatiable maw. He adds that it can 

squirt the water out of a vessel half an ell high ; 

but I 

have never seen it perform such an extraordinary feat. 

The jet of water would be at least fifty times the length 

of the animal. 

A slight and pardonable liberty has been taken in 

changing the original spelling of the specific name from 

tiger inus to tigrinus. This shell was called P. parvus 

by Da Costa, P. domesticus (used of course in the sense 

of native) by Chemnitz, and P. obsoletus by Pennant. 

6. P. Test^:*, Bivona. 

P.. Testes. (Bivona) Philippi, Moll. Sic. i. p. 81, t. v. f. 17. P. furtivus, 

Lot. Ind. Moll. Scand. p. 31. 

Shell somewhat resembling P. tigrinus in shape, but 

rounder and much more depressed, rather thin and glossy : 

sculpture, minute longitudinal and transverse striae, which are 

arranged as in the last species, but they are more regular and 

never forked ; they are deeply punctured at the points of 

intersection ; 

sometimes there are also from 30 to 35 delicate 

ribs, which become scaly or prickly where they are crossed by 

the transverse striae: colour yellow, orange, brown, purple, 

pink, or occasionally white, usually diversified by streaks, rays, 

blotches, spots, diagonal lines, and other markings of the above 

hues : margins rounded in front, and forming an arc of twothirds 

of a circle in consequence of the lateral slopes towards 

the beaks commencing higher up than in P. tigrinus ; byssal 

slope finely toothed : beaks prominent but not much raised : 

ears unequal, those on the byssal side being about twice as 

large as the other pah ; all of them have several fine ribs, 

• * Named in honour of S r . Testa, a conchologist at Panorino in Sicily.

68 PECTINID^. 

which radiate from the beaks and are crossed by coarse flexuous 

strise ; the edges of the ears on the lower valve project very 

slightly ; byssal sinus deep : hinge-line straight, finely notched 

or serrate at its edge : 

cartilage rather large : ligament extremely 

slight : hinge-plate very narrow, microscopically striate 

across ; transverse rib slight, and not much raised on each 

side of the cartilage-pit, which is proportionally more open 

than in any of the foregoing species : inside slightly nacreous, 

finely and closely striate lengthwise, 

or furrowed when the 

outside is ribbed ; margin sometimes notched or crennlated : 

muscular scars indistinct except in aged specimens. L. 0*575. 

B. 0-55. 

Var. suborbicularis. Shell larger, with the slope much 

higher than usual, and considerably narrower behind: ears 

smaller. L. 0-7. B. 0-7. 

Habitat: Shetland, Skye, Larne (co. Antrim), Birterbuy 

Bay (co. Galway), Guernsey (J. G. J.) ; Exmouth 

(Clark) ; in gravelly sand, 18-80 fathoms. It is a rare 

species. The variety is remarkable. I obtained only a 

single valve by dredging off the north coast of Shetland in 

86 fathoms. Although of much smaller size, this 

variety 

resembles in shape and other respects the P. Gerardii 

of Nyst, one of our Coralline Crag fossils. The foreign 

range of P. Testa extends from Norway to Algeria and 

the iEgean. Asbjornsen gives the depth at which it is 

found in Christiania fiord as 10-20 fathoms. 

This beautiful species differs from P. tigrinus, with 

which it is sometimes found, in the following particulars. 

The shell is broader, flatter, and thinner; the 

ribs, when they occur, are scaly or prickly ; the punc- 

tures are very strongly marked and arranged in squares; 

the ears 

the beaks are much less prominent and raised ; 

are not so unequal ; and the inside margin is seldom 

crenulated. Forbes and Hanley considered it to be a 

variety of P. striatus-, but Malm has satisfactorily 

shown some of the points of difference between these

two species. 

PECTEN. 69 

I have never seen an intermediate form, 

although I have examined many hundred specimens of 

P. striatus and about fifty of P. Testce with a view to the 

comparison. The present species has some of the sculpture 

of P. tigrinus and the shape of P. striatus. The 

colouring of P. Testce is more bright 

and vivid than that 

of the other two. Some specimens are perfect gems. 

Mediterranean examples are usually much smaller than 

those from the North Atlantic, although 

I have seen 

several of a tolerable size which were collected by S r . 

Costa at Naples. Mr. Claries specimen from Exmouth, 

and I am 

in my collection, was mixed with P. tigrinus ; 

rather surprised that his habit of close observation did 

not enable him to separate them. 

It is probably the P. incomparabilis and P. vitreus 

of Risso; but his love of species-making seems to 

have been so inveterate, and his collection is in such 

a deplorable state of confusion, that it is almost hopeless 

to attempt any identification of his names. The P. 

vitreus of Chemnitz is quite a different species, as Phi- 

lippi has wr ell observed. 

7. P. stria'tus*, Muller. 

P. striatus, Mull. Zool. Dan. Prodr. p. 248, no. 2994 ; P. & H. ii. p. 281, 

pi. Ii. f. 1-4, and (animal) pi. S. f. 2. 

Body whitish, irregularly streaked lengthwise with opaque 

white lines : mantle edged with white and having an outer 

fringe of extensile white cirri : ocelli 25 in number, blueblack 

with crimson centres ; behind them is an inner fringe of 

short white cirri : 

gills also furnished with 20 reddish-brown 

ocelli, each of which surmounts the crest of a leaflet. 

Shell resembling that of P. Testce in shape; 

but it is rather 

larger, thinner, and more fragile, and the sculpture (especially 

of the upper valve) is very different. In the present species it 

* Striate.

70 pectinidjE. 

consists of numerous fine ribs, which radiate from the beaks to 

the front and side margins, and have their crests thickly set 

with short vaulted spines or prickles ; besides these riblets, the 

surface is closely covered with extremely minute and irregular 

longitudinal striae, which are raised and divaricate or become 

forked, but they are never reticulated or punctured as in 

P. Tested. The .colour is of a more sombre hue. The left ear 

of the upper valve hangs down much lower, and is nearly 

entire instead of being deeply notched as in that species ; 

the byssal sinus is consequently larger. L. 0-725. B. 0*7. 

and 

Habitat : Seas of Shetland, Scotland, north-eastern 

coasts of England, north, east, south, and west of Ire- 

land, Isle of Man, and Scilly, in 12-90 fathoms, hard 

ground. Morch has procured it from the Faroe Isles, 

and Danielssen from West Finmark. It also inhabits 

other parts of the Scandinavian coast. M fAndrew has 

dredged it in Vigo Bay at a depth of 15 fathoms, and 

describes it as a Calabrian fossil under the 

Philippi 

name of P. rhnulosus. 

The shell is sometimes distorted. The pallial ocelli or 

eyelets are of unequal size and irregularly placed ; they 

gleam with an opaline lustre. Living specimens which 

I dredged in 85 fathoms had the shells highly coloured 

and streaked. Mr. Norman has noticed, 

in his list of 

Clyde Mollusca, that the shells of this species lose the 

azure-blue colour after being kept in a closed cabinet. 

This is remarkable, because certain colours of shells and 

other animals {e.g. pink and reddish- brown) fade, and 

even vanish, unless the light 

is excluded. In the British 

Museum it has been found necessary to replace, every 

two or three years, fresh specimens of many delicate- 

tinted butterflies exposed in the show-cases; and in 

the museum at Amsterdam the shells are always kept 

covered to prevent loss of colour. P. striatus attains a 

greater size than P. Testes. My largest specimen is about

PECTEX. 71 

an inch long, and a trifle more than nine-tenths of an 

inch in breadth. The stride in the present species are 

raised and irregular ; 

and they are never punctured or 

reticulate. In the other species the striae are sunk or 

impressed and regular, aud they are strongly punctured 

or reticulate. The different substance of the shell, the 

style and intensity of coloration, and the comparative 

size of the left ear of the upper valve are also notable 

marks of distinction. Even the fry of each species ex- 

hibits its own peculiar characters. 

It is the P. fuci of Gmeliu, P. reticulatus of Chem- 

nitz, P. Landsburgi of Forbes, and P. aculeatus of my- 

self. 

8. P. si'milis *, Laskey. 

P. similis, Lask. Mem. Wern. Soc. i. p. 387, t. viii. f. 8 ; F. & H. ii. p. 293, 

pi. lii. f. 6, and (animal) pi. S. f. 1. 

Body very variable in colour, often pale yellow or whitish 

with brown streaks and blotches : mantle fawn-coloured with 

patches and lines of orange and black : cirri short some ; are 

white and others brown, a few being thicker and longer than 

the rest and mottled with milk-white : ocelli 6-8 in front and 

the former are 

nearly twice as many in a second row behind ; 

comparatively larger, pearly, and ringed with jet : foot 

brilliant orange-colonr 

or white. 

of a 

Shell nearly circular but expanding towards each side, 

where it forms an obtuse angle, and rhomboidal behind in 

consequence of the projection of the ears, equilateral, depressed, 

extremely thin and rather glossy ; lower valve con- 

siderably smaller than the other, and to some extent enclosed 

within it : sculpture, fine and close-set concentric lines only: 

colour yellowish or milk-white mottled with reddish-brown 

or flake-white spots or streaks, and often marked by longitudinal 

white rays or transverse zigzag lines of a Vandyke 

pattern : margins very thin, semicircular in front and sloping 

about halfway on each side at an angle of 45 degrees to the 

beaks ; byssal slope not toothed or serrate : heals small but 

* Like the fry of P. maxmius.

72 PECTINIBvE. 

prominent : ears long and drooping, nearly square-set, those 

on the byssal side being the smallest, rounded at the corner ; 

byssal notch slight: hinge-line straight, 

two-fifths of the 

breadth of the shell : 

cartilage small : ligament so thin as to 

be almost : imperceptible hinge-plate broad and smooth; trans- 

verse rib slight and scarcely raised : inside pearly, minutely 

: muscular scars distinct. L. 0*285. B. 0*3. 

striate lengthwise 

Habitat : Sparingly occurring, although gregarious, 

on all our coasts, in muddy sand at 2-82 fathoms. 

Glacial deposits, Fifeshire (Fleming) ; Coralline Crag 

(S. Wood). Its distribution extends from Finmark to 

the iEgean ; and both in northern and southern locali- 

ties it appears to have a considerable range of depth, 

viz. 15-200 fathoms, Upper Norway, according to 

M fAndrew and Barrett, and 27-185 fathoms in the 

iEgean, according to Forbes. Norwegian specimens 

collected by Professor Sars are of an extraordinarily 

large size. 

The animal, as well as the shell, 

of this tiniest of 

scallops is very lovely. If, when fresh caught, put 

it flits about like a bat for a 

into a glass of sea-water, 

long time, and then fastens itself to the side of the vessel 

by a fine and almost transparent byssus. 

After a while 

it slips its cable and resumes its voyage of discovery, 

until it becomes apparently exhausted by the fruitless 

search and lies down on one side. My largest specimen 

measures only 0'35 by 0375. The breadth invariably 

exceeds the length. 

For the discovery of this species science is indebted 

to the late Capt. Laskey, although he described and 

figured it from a right valve only, not having at that 

time obtained a perfect specimen. It is the Ostrea 

tumida of Turton, P.pygmaus of Von Minister, P. minimus 

of Sars, P. Actoni of Von Martens, and P. Foresti 

of Martin. The P. Grcenlandicus of Sowerby (P. vitreus

PECTEN. id 

of Dr. Gray but not of Chemnitz) resembles the present 

species in nearly every respect but that of size. It 

may be an arctic variety of P, similis or (more probably) 

a direct and ( 

descendant from the original 

stock. 

pur-sang ' 

B. Upper valve nearly flat and concave towards the beak : 

hinge-line ribbed obliquely. 

9. P. max'imtjs *, Linne. 

Ostrea maxima, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1144. P. maximus, F. & H. ii. p. 296, 

pi. xlix. 

Body pinkish-white above and bright red or pink in front : 

mantle variously marbled with brown, black, and white : cirri 

on the inner margin of the mantle short, white, and arranged 

in a single row ; those on the fixed or exterior margin are of 

different lengths and arranged in three irregular rows : ocelli 

of a greenish- blue or purplish hue, forming two rows, and 

numbering from 30 to 35 ; those in the front row are con- 

siderably larger than the rest, and correspond with the ribs of 

the shell : foot snow-white, short, grooved, with a spatulate 

extremity. 

Shell nearly circular, except behind, where the projecting 

ears give a square outline, equilateral above and nearly so 

beneath; upper valve slightly raised in the middle, and 

smaller than the lower valve, which is very convex ; it is thick 

and solid, glossy in the umbonal region but elsewhere of a 

dull hue : sculpture, 15 or 16 ribs in each valve, which radiate 

from the beaks, and are strong, and nearly as broad as the interstices 

between them ; the ribs and interstices are scored bv 

a few parallel striaB, which are more numerous on the lower 

than the upper valve ; the whole surface is covered with 

minute and close-set thin concentric plates, which are imbricated 

or overlap one another like roof-tiles : colour reddish- 

brown on the upper valve, with a yellow tint on the lower 

both valves are sometimes beautifully mottled or marked 

valve ; 

with bands, zigzag streaks, and spots of burnt umber, or bright 

yellow suffused with a delicate pink hue ; occasionally, but 

* Largest. 

E


rarely, the colour is white, with an orange tint at the beaks : 

margins semicircular in front and sloping 

at the distance of 

about one-fourth from the hinge-line at an angle of 30 degrees 

to the beaks ; byssal slope not notched or serrate : beaks small 

and not prominent in full-grown specimens : ears exactly equal 

on the upper valve and nearly so on the other valve, furnished 

with a few ribs or striae which radiate from the beaks ; byssal 

notch closed in the adult state: hinge-line straight, rather 

more than half the breadth of the shell : cartilage large, thick, 

and strong: ligament narrow and rather slight: hinge-plate 

broad, closely and microscopically striate across ; transverse 

rib strong and raised on each side of the broad cartilage-pit ; 

in the lower or deeper valve are two or three short oblique 

ribs, which diverge from above the cartilage-pit towards the 

sides in wave-like lines : inside glossy, tinged more or less 

deeply with reddish-brown, fluted as in P. opercularis, and 

having similar shoulders or ledges on the posterior slopes to prevent 

contact at the hinge -area : muscular scars well marked, 

especially on the upper 

Habitat : 

on banks, 

Nearly 

valve. L. 4*5. B. 5. 

everywhere, and often gregarious 

in 7-78 fathoms. It is also not uncommon 

in all our upper tertiaries, both new and old. Its foreign 

range comprises all the sea-bed lying between Norway 

and the Canaries ; and, according to Sars, it occurs with 

arctic shells in the "postglacial " beds of Christiania. 

If the oyster is the king of mollusks, this has a just 

claim to the rank and title of prince. In Lister's time 

they were held in nearly the same esteem; and the 

great scallop is even preferred by some, although from 

its luscious quality it is not so provocative of appetite. 

I have not heard of its being eaten raw in this country. 

In the fish-markets of the north of France it is called 

" grand'-pelerine," l ' 

gofiche," or " palourde." In the 

south of England it shares with P. opercularis the name 

of " frill/' and in the north that of " clam." According 

to Afhenreus, this or an allied species (P. Jacobceus) was 

used by the ancients for medicinal purposes, as well as

PECTEN. /O 

for food. Old fishermen have a notion that it is taken 

in greater quantities after a fall of snow ; but, if true, 

this is difficult of explanation, because a scallop never 

burrows or lives anywhere but on the surface of the 

sea-bed. They used to be plentiful in Lulworth Bay on 

the Dorset coast ; 

but now they are rarely found alive. 

I was told that the breed had been exterminated there 

by an epicurean officer of the coast-guard. The late 

Major Martin would allow any conchologist to dredge 

as much as he pleased in the bays of the Connemara 

coast, provided he only took useless shells, such as 

Tellina balaustina ; but all the big clams (P. maximus) 

were reserved for the table at Ballynahinch Castle. 

This kind of preserve would be much less expensive to 

keep than a good pheasant-cover or a well-stocked moor, 

and it would not be so liable to be poached. Nor were 

the shells less prized in the days when Ossian sung. 

The flat valves were the plates, the hollow ones the 

drinking-cups of Fingal and his heroes, and "the joy of 

the shell went round/'' The animal of P. maximus has 

long attracted the attention of naturalists. As Mr. 

Clark observed, " When the valves are opened, and the 

mottled surfaces of the double margins of each valve are 

in conjunction, and the various circles of filaments and 

cirri fullv exserted in a shallow basin of sea-water, 

scarcely possible 

it is 

to conceive a more beautiful and in- 

teresting appearance/' The animal is small compared 

with the size of the shell. This is also the case with 

other kinds of Pecten ; and it may be owing to the 

expansibility of the organs, which require much space 

for their action. Donovan mentions a strange idea, 

which was entertained by "modern as well as ancient 

authors," that the way in which scallops leap 

or raise 

themselves up is by forcing the under valve against 

e2


whatever they lie upon ! 

Shells sometimes attain an 

enormous size. Dr. Landsborough says he measured 

one which was 8 inches long. 

I have another specimen 

that is barely -g^th of an inch in length. The young are 

attached by a byssus. They are quite smooth ; and in 

the place of ribs a few fine white lines radiate from the 

beaks, as is not unfrequently 

seen in P. similis. This 

might be considered by the advocates of a theory, which 

was once put forward in the ' 

Vestiges of Creation/ a 

case of arrested development as regards P. similis ; but 

they ought to be aware of the fact that both these species 

of every age inhabit the same spots and yet retain their 

own distinctive characters. One species never grows or 

merges into the other. The young of P. maximus may 

be known from P. similis of the same size by the upper 

valve in the former being flat, and in the other convex, 

as well as by the inequality of the ears in the first-named 

species. It bears a considerable resemblance to a young 

Avicula, and shows the affinity which exists between 

that genus and the Pectinida. The adult seem not to 

have the power of spinning a byssus, nor to have any 

occasion for it. Their solid shells can withstand a good 

deal of buffeting by the tide ; 

if they were slighter, they 

would require the cable of a Pinna to hold them on their 

anchorage-ground. The substance of the shells is very 

durable. I have had some of the deep valves in frequent 

use during the last eighteen years for scalloping oysters ; 

and although they must have been baked in an oven at 

least five hundred times, they are as perfect and serviceable 

as ever. The prettiest specimens come from 

Dublin, Cork, and the Channel Isles. 

This species belongs to the genus Vola of Klein. The 

young 

conchologists. 

is the P. Icevis of Pennant and the older British

LIMA. 77 

P. Jacobceus (the famous " pilgrim " scallop) 

was at 

one time erroneously supposed to be a native of these 

seas. It is common in the Mediterranean, and M. 

Mace has lately included it in a list of shells which he 

has found at Cherbourg. It is distinguishable from the 

present species by the ribs of the lower valve being 

angular instead of rounded. 

Genus II. LIMA* Bruguiere. PI. II. f. 2. 

Body oblong : mantle not furnished with ocelli. 

Shell equivalve : cartilage external : muscular scar placed 

on one side. 

Lima and Pecten have nearly the same characters ; but 

the value or importance of generic, as well as of spe- 

cific differences is comparative and varies in each case. 

In the present genus the animal has a bright uniform 

colour, while the shell is always white. Both animal 

and shell in the other genus are more highly favoured 

in this respect and exhibit various hues. The former 

has its mantle studded with numerous eyes like the tail 

of a peacock, and looks down upon its cousin as a poor 

blind creature. The Lima moves or rather darts through 

the water like a scallop, but in a contrary posture. The 

hinder instead of the ventral end is in front, so that the 

mode of its progression may be compared to that of a 

fish swimming tail foremost. Some species construct 

dwelling-places called " nests " out of fragments of 

shells, nullipores, gravel, and other material, which 

they ingeniously fasten together by their byssal threads 

and attach to the roots of large seaweeds. Several 

young ones often occupy the same nest or case ; but 

when they become adult each individual has a house of 

* A file.

78 PECTINIDÊ. 

its own. This remarkable construction is funnel-shaped 

with the larger end contracted, and sufficiently wide to 

admit of the Lima moving freely up and down, but not 

turning round in it. Here it lives, secure from prowl- 

ing 

fish and crabs. The case is lined inside with a 

closely-woven net of byssal threads, plastered 

over with 

slime or excrement. This smooth and soft lining con- 

tains a quantity of Diatom- cells, and yields a rich 

harvest to those who collect these exquisite organisms 

for microscopical examination. Such remains of per- 

petual 

feasts remind one of the similar exuviae which are 

found at the bottom of a spider's web. No species of 

Lima is noticed in Dr. Gould's ' 

Invertebrata of Massa- 

chusetts/ or in any other work on the conchology of 

nor has Dr. Philip Carpenter, in his 

the United States ; 

elaborate list of the Mollusca inhabiting the north-west 

coast of America, enumerated any as belonging to the 

northern fauna of that extensive district. 

The very ancient genus Plagiostomus of Lhwyd (Pla- 

giostoma of Sowerby's ' 

Mineral Conchology ') is con- 

sidered by some palaeontologists to be identical with the 

present genus. It may be connected with it through 

the genus Limea of Bronn, and form a passage to Spondylus. 

Poli used the name Glaucus for the animal of 

the present genus. 

A. Shell equilateral, with a straight outline. 

1. Lima Sar'sii*, Loven. 

Limea Sarsii, Lov. Ind. Moll. Scand. p. 32. 

Body milk-white : mantle set with large, thick, and ringed, 

but not numerous cirri or tentacles. 

Shell roundish -oval, slightly oblique, convex, rather solid 

* Named in honour of Professor Sars, an eminent Norwegian zoologist.

LIMA. 79 

but semitransparent, glossy : sculpture, 25-30 raised concentric 

plates or laminae, which are imbricate and partly overlap one 

another in succession, the distance between them increasing 

in proportion to the period of formation, so that the earliest 

ones lie close together; these plates are crossed by about 

the same number of slight ribs, which give the surface an 

imperfectly cancellated appearance : colour white : margins 

rounded, except at the hinge : beaks small, straight and 

blunt, projecting beyond the dorsal margin: ears very small 

and indistinct : cartilage small, placed 

angular pit, which is perpendicular 

in a shallow tri- 

instead of horizontal as 

in the last genus : hinge-line short and straight : hinge-plate 

narrow, bluntly but distinctly crenulated across : inside pearly, 

grooved by the reflection of the ribs and strongly 

crenate or 

notched within the front margin : muscular scars slight. 

L. 0-125. B. 0-1. 

Habitat : 

Shetland, in 85 fathoms, with Limopsis aurita 

and other rare mollusks. This remote cluster of our sea- 

girt isles, which with their craggy fastnesses guard 

" The unadorned bosom of the deep," 

has yielded more novelties of the highest interest to 

marine zoologists than any other part of the British 

coasts. My friend Mr. Waller detected two fresh valves 

in some gravelly sand which I dredged in 1862 and sent 

to him for examination ; 

and I found another specimen 

this year on the same ground. The species was first 

discovered by Professor Sars at Bergen, and described 

by Professor Loven. Danielssen found it at Vadso, in 

40-80 fathoms, and Lilljeborg at Christiansund. It is 

rare. 

In consequence of the hinge-plate in certain fossil 

species of Lima being partly toothed or crenulated, the 

late Professor Bronn proposed in 1831 to make of them 

a new genus, which he called Limea ; and in the fol- 

lowing year Miinster described the same genus under 

the name of Limoarca. Bronn remarks that, but for 

its having only one muscular impression, this genus

80 PECTINID^. 

could scarcely be distinguished from Limopsis. The 

species which he noticed were five in number, viz. two 

from the lias and lower oolite, and three from tertiarystrata. 

But in giving the Ostrea strigilata of Brocchi 

as the type of his genus Limea, he seems to have mis- 

understood the Italian geologist, who nowhere mentions 

the hinge of his shell being toothed. The words used 

by him are, " II margine delle valve comparisce crenellato 

tutto all* intorno ; il cardine non e obbliquo come 

nella precedente [Ostrea tuberculata, Olivi) ma sibbene 

retto, e nel? area del legamento si scorge 

una fossetta 

trasversalmente bislunga." Brocchi^s species belongs 

to the section which comprises our L. Loscombii. Loven 

it to be 

adopted Bronn's genus for L. Sarsiij considering 

a passage towards Limopsis, and says that the mantle of 

the animal has no cirri ; 

but Sars, in his account of the 

Arctic Mollusca on the coast of Upper Norway, has 

since observed that the mantle of this species is like 

that of the rest, and set with proportionally large ten- 

tacles or cirri which are thick and ringed, although not 

particularly numerous. According to Searles Wood, 

some of his specimens of L. subauriculata from the Crag 

have the hinge-plate minutely crenulated. The same 

character is seen in many species of Pecten. These 

crenulations probably serve for the firmer attachment 

of the cartilage to the hinge-plate, and not for a separate 

fastening as in the interlocking teeth of Area. They 

Norwe- 

are too slight for the last-mentioned purpose. 

gian specimens of L. Sarsii are much larger than ours. 

This and the next two species form a distinct section, 

which Klein more than a century ago called Ctenoides, 

and for which Searles Wood has proposed the subgenus 

Limatula.

LIMA. 81 

2. L. ellip'tica*, Jeffreys. 

L. subauriculata, F. & H. ii. p. 2G3 (partly), pi. liii. f. 4, 5. 

Body pale orange : Untacula pale pink : foot pale orange. 

(F. & H.) 

Shell oval or elliptical, convex, slightly and almost equally 

expanding towards the sides, thin and glossy, semitransparent: 

sculpture, 30-40 fine longitudinal ribs, which become 

very faint and indistinct as they approach the sides ; one. of 

these ribs, near the middle but more towards the posterior 

side, is rather larger than the rest, and a corresponding furrow 

is formed inside each valve, appearing outside like an oblique 

white line; the ribs are crossed by extremely delicate and 

numerous concentric striae, making the crests beautifully 

serrate the substance of the shell also ; 

exhibits a few diagonal 

white streaks or lines, which diverge from the centre to each 

side : colour pearl-white : margins broadly rounded in front, 

and sloping with a gentle but somewhat flexuous curve upwards 

to the ears, much compressed at the sides : beaks extremely 

prominent and gibbous, projecting considerably beyond 

the hinge : ears triangular, small, erect : cartilage diamond-shaped, 

occupying about one-third of the hinge, and 

minutely striate across; there is also a very slight and indistinct 

ligament on each side of the cartilage : hhuje-line 

straight except in the middle, where it is incurved to receive 

an ob- 

the : cartilage hinge-plate blunt : 

cartilage-pit forming 

tuse triangle, smooth under ; each ear is a shelving triangular 

space confined below by a narrow rib : inside highly nacreous, 

and marked by a furrow which runs obliquely down the 

middle, and is the reverse or under side of the larger rib on 

the outer surface ; it is also 

indistinctly grooved by the im- 

pression of the ribs ; the front margin is slightly notched by 

the edges of those ribs : muscular scar irregularly circular and 

distinct. L. 0--55. B. 0*35. 

Var. leviuscula. Shell nearly smooth, the ribs being want- 

Habitat : 

Sandy 

mud, in 15-85 fathoms, 

off the 

Shetland Isles and west coast of Scotland. It is not 

uncommon in the latter district. The variety is from 

* Elliptical. 

E O

82 PECTIXID.E. 

Skye ; but although evidently immature, 

it differs from 

the young of the typical form in being destitute of ribs. 

Sars, Lilljeborg, and Malm have taken this species on 

different parts of the Scandinavian coasts from Bergen 

southwards, and supposed it to be the Pecten subauri- 

culata of Montagu. 

It does not appear that this or either of the other 

species in the present 

section is a nest-builder. I have 

often dredged living specimens in every stage of growth, 

but always found them free. The shell of L. elliptica is 

sometimes covered with Foraminifera and Polyzoa : but 

this does not prove that they are never enclosed in cases, 

because shells of L. hians, taken alive from their nests, 

are often thus encrusted. 

After much consideration I am satisfied that Mon- 

tagu's name of subauriculata ought to be assigned to 

the following species and not to the present. His de- 

scription and figure evidently apply to the other species, 

which occurs in the same locality that he mentions, viz. 

the coast of Devon. L. elliptica has not, I believe, been 

found south of the Hebrides. Both live together in the 

northern part of our seas, as well as on the Scandina- 

vian coast. Their distinctive characters will be pointed 

out after describing the next species. Forbes and 

Hanley united the synonyms 

and localities for the two 

species ; but their description appears to have been taken 

from a specimen of L. elliptica. 

3. L. subauricula'ta * } Montagu. 

Pecten suhav.riculata, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 03, 

t. 29. f. 2. 

Body milk-white : mantle clothed with about a dozen tubu- 

lar clear-white tentacles of different lengths, which are closely 

ringed and ciliated : foot white and cylindrical. 

* Slightly eared.

LIMA. 83 

Shell oblong, extremely convex, rather thin and glossy, 

semitransparent : sculpture, 24 slight but sharp ribs, which 

radiate from the beaks and do not extend to the sides ; the 

middle rib is the largest, and runs straight down to the front 

the ribs are crossed by extremely fine and numerous 

margin ; 

concentric stria?, making the crests appear somewhat : jagged 

colour milk-white: margins rounded in front, and sloping with 

a gentle curve upwards to the ears: beaks extremely prominent 

and gibbous, projecting considerably beyond the : hinge 

ears triangular, very small, hanging a little downwards : carti- 

lage diamond-shaped, occupying nearly one-third of the hinge : 

in the 

ligament narrow and slight : hinge-line straight except 

middle, where it is incurved : hinge-plate sharp : cartilage-pit 

forming an acute triangle, faintly striate across under ; each 

ear is a shelving triangular space as in L. ellipjtica, but pro- 

narrower : inside 

portionally 

highly nacreous, and marked by 

a furrow which runs down the middle, and is the reverse or 

under side of the central rib ; it is also indistinctly grooved 

by the impression of the outside ribs ; front margin slightly 

notched by the edges of those ribs: muscular scar faint. 

L. 0-275. B. 0-15. 

Habitat : 

Sandy 

and gravelly ground in almost every 

part of the British seas, from 18 to 90 fathoms. It is 

also a Coralline Crag fossil. Its distribution in other 

parts of the northern hemisphere is very extensive, em- 

bracing Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Adriatic, 

both shores of the Mediterranean, the iEgean, and the 

Canary Isles. Nor is its bathymetrical range in widely 

separated seas less worthy of remark. Wallich obtained 

it by means of his deep-sea soundings in the North 

Atlantic from 227 fathoms ; 

and M'Andrew has recorded 

the depths at which he dredged living specimens on the 

coast of upper Norway as 15-150 fathoms, and Forbes 

in the iEgean as 15-140 fathoms. 

The animal is shy. It uses its foot for crawling. The 

alimentarv and branchial current enters in at the middle 

of the front margin ; and the excretory current passes 

out below the ear on the posterior side. In a single

84 PECTINID-E. 

valve now before me, one of the ears is twice the size of 

the other. The fry, —th of an inch long, are roundish- 

oval and distinctly ribbed. 

L. subauriculata differs from L. elliptica in the shell 

being more arched or equally convex throughout, as 

well as much smaller and longer ; the sculpture is coarser 

and the ribs fewer; the ears are smaller and droop a 

little; and the furrow is straight and placed in the 

middle. In the other species the shell is considerably 

the sculpture is finer and 

broader and more expanded ; 

the ribs more numerous ; the ears are larger and more 

erect; and the furrow runs obliquely, and is placed 

somewhat nearer to the posterior margin. The young 

of each species have corresponding characters. That 

of L. elliptica resembles L. Sarsii in shape, but differs 

toto ccelo in the sculpture and in having a conspicuous 

furrow. 

The present species is the L. sulcata (" Leach ") of 

M oiler, L. elongata of Forbes, L. subauricula of Phi- 

lippi, L. sulculus (" Leach ") of Loven, andL. unicostata 

of Leach's posthumous work on the Mollusca of Great 

Britain. I at one time thought it might also be the 

Ostrea nivea of Renier, which has been well described 

and figured by Brocchi. But although our shell is found 

in the Adriatic, and may therefore have been the species 

intended by Renier, I do not believe it occurs in the 

Subapennine tertiaries, so as to have fallen under 

Brocchi's observation ; and neither of these authors has 

noticed the central groove or furrow, which is so charac- 

teristic of this species and L. elliptica. The Ostrea 

subauriculata of Turton's ' 


appears to have been the young of L. Loscombii, judging 

from his description and specimens.

LIMA. 

B. Shell inequilateral, with an oblique outline. 

4, L. Loscom'bii *, G. B. Sowerby. 

L. Losco?nbii, Sow, G-en. Sh. (Lima) f. 4 ; F. & H. ii. p. 265, pi. 

85 

liii. f. 1-3. 

Bod y bright orange-colour : mantle haying its edges over- 

lapping one another in front : tentacles of different lengths, 

ringed or verticillate as in some Nudibranchs, and arranged 

in several irregular rows ; the front row is folded back over 

the outer edge of the shell : foot cylindrical and extensile, 

reddish-orange. 

Shell rhomboidal, twisted to one side, extremely convex, 

thin, rather glossy : sculpture, 50-60 very fine and sharp ribs 

or fluted striae, which radiate from the beaks to the front and 

sides, but become faint or absent on the sides and near the 

hinge ; the ribs are slightly flexuous and of unequal size, 

often alternately large and small, or two or three small ribs 

between some of the larger ones; there are also the same 

microscopical transverse lines as in L. subauriculata and other 

species, producing a similar serrature or corrugation of the 

ribs : colour snow-white : margins thin, oblique, bluntly 

rounded in front, ventral edge compressed and nearly straight, 

posterior edge rounded and sloping from the front and hingeline 

to an obtuse angle about one-third down; the valves 

when closed gape a little on the upper part of the dorsal side : 

beaks extremely prominent and gibbous, projecting considerably 

beyond the hinge : ears triangular and veiy small, wrinkled 

in the line of : growth cartilage large and yellow : ligament 

thin, olive-green: hinge-line nearly straight, slightly 

curved outwards : hinge-plate narrow and sharp : cartilagearea 

broad ; triangular space on each side of the beaks and 

within the ears small, but supported by a stout and somewhat 

incurved : ledge 

inside pearly, slightly granular, showing (al- 

front mar- 

though faintly) the impression of the outside ribs ; 

gin crenulated in young, but thickened in adult specimens : 

muscular and pallial scars distinct. L. 0*8. B. 0*55. 

Habitat : 

With 

the last species, and equally distri- 

buted, but usually not so common nor at such great 

* Named in honour of Mr. C. W. Loscombe, who discovered this and 

other shells at Exmouth.

86 PECTINIDJE. 

depths. Capt. Beechey, however, dredged a living specimen 

off the Mull of Galloway in 1^5 fathoms. It 

occurs fossil in our Red and Coralline Crag. Abroad it 

ranges from the coast of East Finmark to the iEgean 

and the North African coast of the Mediterranean. 

Asbjornsen gives the depth at which he found this species 

living in Christiania fiord as 5-20 fathoms. 

It seldom makes a "nest"; but I have one enclosed 

in this way, which I dredged on the north coast of Ire- 

land. The case lies within a valve of Mytilus modiolus, 

and is composed of large fragments of shells, crabs, and 

barnacles. Sars obtained a similar specimen on the 

Norwegian coast. In all probability this habit depends 

on the nature of the sea-bottom. When the latter is 

soft mud the Lima can partly bury itself, and does not 

require to be otherwise protected 

from its voracious 

enemies. The haddock seems fond of it, the shells being 

often found in its stomach. The animal of L. Loscombii 

differs but little from that of L. hians. The pallial ten- 

tacles are somewhat thicker, and the foot is shorter and 

of a paler hue. Mr. Clark has seen it " repeatedly fix 

itself by fine byssal filaments, 

then detach itself and 

move with the greatest rapidity, crossing a dish of six 

inches diameter whilst one could be counted." When 

it crawls it uses its foot in the same way as Modiolaria 

discors, by extending and attaching the flexible point to 

the surface of the body it is traversing, and then draw- 

ing or warping itself up. This mode of locomotion is 

much slower than the usual one of swimming by a repetition 

of jerks. The fry are ribbed like the adult, but 

the lines of division between the strise in the former arc 

more remote. 

but not of Chem- 

It is the Pecten fragilis of Montagu 

nitz, the L. bullata of Turton but not the Ostrea bullata

of Born, 

LIMA. 87 

and the L. reticulata of Leach. The L. Los- 

combea of the last-named author, from Torbay, is in all 

probability the young of the present species ; but his 

considers Turton's 

diagnosis is very obscure. Philippi 

L. bullata to be the L. strigilata of Scacchi but not the 

Ostrea striyilata of Brocchi. The latter is a common 

miocene fossil, and constitutes the type of Bronn's 

genus Limea. 

5. L. hi'ans*, Gmelin. 

Ostrea kians, Gmelin, Linn. Syst. Is at. ed.xiii. p. 3332. L. Mans, F. & H. 

ii. p. 268, pi. lii. f. 3-5, and (animal) pi. E, as L. tcnera. 

Body of different shades of colour between pale crimson and 

intense vermilion : mantle of an orange tint : tentacles very 

numerous, arranged in rows as in the last species : foot also 

similar. 

Shell rhomboidal, considerably 

twisted to the ventral or 

anterior side, compressed, rather solid, of a dull aspect : sculpture 

nearly the same as that of L. LoseomLii ; but the ribs are 

stronger, and often become coarse and rough 

towards the 

margins : colour snow-white in the young, but dirty-brown in 

old specimens, which are frequently covered with fragments 

of byssal hairs, as well as with zoophytes and Foraminifera : 

margins thick, oblique, bluntly rounded in front, the ventral 

or anterior edge compressed and nearly straight, and the posterior 

edge truncate and sloping outwards at the same angle 

with the lower margin of that side as in the last species ; the 

valves when closed gape very widely on both sides : heals 

prominent and gibbous, not projecting much beyond the hinge : 

ears triangular, strong, and unequal, that on the anterior side 

being longer and wider than the other, which is sharp-pointed; 

both are coarsely wrinkled in the line of growth : cartilage 

and ligament large, horncolour : hinge-line formed like an arch, 

and increasing with age in the degree of curvature ; 

its length 

is not equal to one-third of the entire breadth of the shell : 

hinge-plate thick, incurved in the middle to receive the carti- 

lage : cartilage-area very large, causing the beaks to be widely 

separated when the valves are closed ; triangular space 

on the 

anterior side indistinct, but that on the other side is deeply 

* Gaping.


perforated in the centre and strengthened by 

a thick rib : in- 

side pearly, closely granular, slightly impressed by the ribs ; 

front margin scalloped or fluted in the young and very thick 

in the adult: muscular and pallial scars indistinct, especially 

the former. L. 1*6. B. 1. 

Var. tenera. Shell smaller, narrower, and more depressed, 

with fewer ribs. L. tenera, Turton in Zool. Journ. ii. p. 362, 

t. xiii. f. 2. L. 1. B. 0-6. 

ground, in 12-40 fathoms, very com- 

Hard Habitat : 

mon in the West of Scotland; Orkneys (Thomas); 

Aberdeen (Macgillivray) ; north-east coast of Ireland 

(Portlock, Hyndman, and Waller) ; Anglesea (M fAn drew and Forbes) Isle of Man . 

; (Forbes) A specimen 

from the last-mentioned locality, which I received from 

the late Professor Forbes, is intermediate between the 

typical form and the variety, as well as a specimen 

which Mr. W.W.Walpole sent me from Killiney Bay, 

near Dublin. As an upper tertiary fossil it has been 

noticed by the late Mr. W. Thompson and Mr. Grainger 

in a bed of blue clay at Belfast, and by Mr. Searles 

Wood in the Coralline Crag at Ramsholt. The variety 

is found on the southern coast of Cornwall and in the 

Channel Isles. It is not uncommon at Herm, under 

large stones, at low-water mark. The range of this 

been re- 

variety southward is very extensive, having 

corded by numerous authors in different parts of the 

Mediterranean, iEgean, and North Atlantic seas, as 

far as the Canary Isles, Madeira, and the Azores, at 

depths of 0-50 fathoms. The typical or northern form 

inhabits 

fathoms. 

the coasts of Norway and Sweden, in 4-30 

Malm found a specimen in the stomach of a 

cod-fish. 

In Mr. Norman's interesting notices of the Clyde 

Mollusca (published in the c 

Zoologist' for 1858) 

is the 

following :— " Nothing can be more lovely than the ani-

LIMA. 89 

mal of L. hians, with its thousand delicate and beauti- 

fully ringed vermilion tentacula, each maintaining, as it 

were, a life independent of its neighbours, turning and 

twisting in every direction ; 

the rich crimson foot and 

snow-white shell form an object which, to my eyes, is 

unsurpassed among the British Mollusca." He, however, 

adds :—" There is but one thing I have to say against 

this interesting molluscan ; and that is, the animal has 

a peculiar, tenacious, and to me sickening odour : after 

having handled a number of them it is no easy 

matter to 

remove the smell from the hands with soap and water ; 

and so strong a hold has the nauseous -smell sometimes 

taken on my olfactory nerves that a whole night has 

scarcely sufficed to remove the impression." Perhaps 

the nasty smell may be accounted for by presuming that 

its apartment is never cleaned. When the Lima is first 

taken out of its case and put into a basin of sea- water, 

it is exceedingly active and restless, either violently 

darting round the sides of the vessel, or else gracefully 

careering about, with its long and thick fringe of fila- 

ments trailing behind it. In the course of a few minutes 

it seems to get tired, or reconciled to its prison ; 

and it 

then lies on its back, the valves of the shell expanded, 

and reposes on its own soft luxurious cushion. The 

filaments at first curl and entwine round one another, 

a perfect nest of snakes, but afterwards they are with- 

drawn and become contracted ; a circular inner row, 

like a coronet, surrounds the slowly-flapping gills ; and 

the outer rows fold over on each side and form a sort of 

chevaux de frise. Dr. Landsborough supposed that these 

filaments were useful to the Lima in catching its prey. 

He observed that they are veiy easily broken off, and 

that they seem to live for many hours after being de- 

tached from the body, wriggling about like so many

90 PECTINID^. 

worms. The fry are of the same shape as the adult, and 

have slight but distinct ribs. 

The habit of making a case or " nest " appears to be 

common everywhere % nor is it restricted to full-grown 

individuals. The Rev. It. N. Dennis informs me that he 

found at Herm certainly more than one hundred specimens 

of the variety thus enclosed, and that they were 

of all ages, but mostly young. He adds, " The nests 

were generally fixed under good-sized stones at low- 

water mark, and were broken in turning over the 

stones, when the Limas swam off in all directions. The 

largest number I found in one nest was, I think, seven ; 

the largest and oldest-looking specimens were alone in 

the nest. I did not find a single specimen out of a nest. 

The Herm people call them ' 

Angels' -wings. ; '' The nest 

of L. Mans measures from two to ten inches in length, 

according to the age and size of the occupier and the 

supply of materials. It somewhat resembles the case 

made by certain species of Mytilus (or Modiola), and 

has no analogy to the nest of birds and some fishes, 

being permanently inhabited by the Lima itself, or a 

colony of them. The fry are always left to provide for 

themselves, and do not require any parental care. This 

kind of u nest-hunting/' therefore, is not a cruel, though 

an unusual sport. In a review of my first volume in 

f Blackwood's Magazine/ the writer referred the pursuit 

of natural history to a Nimrod instinct. Perhaps, after 

all, he touched the right chord j 

for although we dignify 

hunting for shells, insects, and flowers by the imposing 

names of Conchology, Entomology, and Botany, such 

researches may partake as much of an innate love of 

sport as of the spirit of scientific inquiry. Dredging 

for Lima's nests is at any rate an amusement more 

suitable to grave naturalists, than looking after the eggs

LIMA. 91 

of our feathered songsters in woods and hedges, like 

schoolboys. A very intelligent naturalist, Mr. David 

Robertson of Glasgow, has favoured me with more in- 

formation respecting the habits of L. Mans in Scotch 

waters. He says, " In confinement they build freely ; 

and so far as my observations go, they live longer in 

that state when they are supplied with the requisite 

materials, but failing such supply they frequently make 

nests of their own byssus. They also spin their byssal 

threads to assist them in ascending perpendicular or 

steep places; and, like the common mussel, the Lima 

often suspends itself by one or more fibres. Its attach- 

ment, however, is only slight; for the least irritation 

or alarm causes it to detach itself from the cable and 

bound off. It does not seem to be particular as to the 

kind of building-material which it uses. At Lochronsa 

in Arran I found their nests among the muddy roots of 

Phyllophora rubens, without the addition of any harder 

substance. At Rothesay the nests are made of small 

gravel and ; at Cumbrae they soon fill the dredge, being 

formed of thick and matted clusters of nullipore. On 

this bank I never find them free ; they are all encased, 

at all seasons of the year, young and old, from the size 

of a pea to the full-grown state, each having its own 

separate nest. A remarkable peculiarity 

of Lima con- 

sists in the tenacious grasp of its tentacles. Some- 

times when my finger touched the animal, it was rapidly 

seized by the tentacles, as by those of an Actinia, and 

so firmly that I have thus dragged the Lima round the 

tank. It seldom let go its hold till the tentacles were 

torn away, or (as I believe) voluntarily thrown off by 

the animal. The tentacles so detached still adhere 

closely to the object they have grasped, 

their free ends 

twisting about as if in conscious life, and they are with

92 PECTINIDJ2. 

difficulty taken off. Notwithstanding this property, I 

frequently find a small crab (Porcellana longicornis) in 

their nests, and not unfrequently an annelid (Polynoe), 

but almost invariably a greenish gelatinous annelid. 

This last kind I have noticed lying across the tentacles 

of a large Lima, which seemed to be quite at its ease 

and by no means incommoded by its neighbour. I 

have frequently kept L. hians in captivity for many 

months. I have now (January 1863) one which I took 

in May last, and it looks in good health. It com- 

menced building in a day or two after it was put into 

the tank, and has ever since lived under its own roof, 

adding from time to time to the size of its oblong nest. 

This word (' nest ') is, in a wide sense, not inappro- 

priate as applied to the mode of architecture ; but it 

must not lead to the idea of incubation, with which the 

structure seems in no way connected." I am indebted 

also to Mr. Robertson for another important observa- 

tion, 

viz. that he has seen some individuals of L. hians 

shedding blood-red ova, and others spermatozoa at the 

same time, and that the flow of ova continued for about 

fifteen minutes, and to all appearance in two streams. 

This observation is of great value as regards the generative 

system of the Lamellibranch Mollusca; but we 

must not overlook the possibility that each individual 

may be of both sexes, although the period may vary for 

the development of its — i. e. organs that it may be male 

at one time and female at another, as is said to be the 

case with Valvata and Ancylus among the freshwater 

univalves. Or it may be analogous to what takes place 

in certain flowering plants. Lobelia is hermaphrodite, 

but usually sheds its pollen before the anther is prepared 

to receive it, so that self-fertilization is seldom 

effected, and the pollen of a neighbouring plant with the

AVICULIDÊ. 93 

aid of winds or insects is almost always necessary to 

ensure propagation. 

It is to be hoped that some expe- 

rienced physiologist will investigate the subject in all 

its bearings and set at rest this long-agitated question. 

L. Mans differs from L. Loscombii in its much larger 

size, being more depressed, and widely gaping at both 

sides instead of at the dorsal side only. It is the L. 

jrag His of Fleming, L. vitrina of Brown, L. aperta of 

Sowerby, L. inflata of Forbes, and L. tenuis of Leach. 

The original describer of the species was Schroter ; but 

the name he gave it, being in his own language, is not 

admissible according to scientific rules. The Ostrea 

tenera of Chemnitz is a West Indian species of Lima and 

very different from the southern variety of L. Mans. 

I found a very small and imperfect single valve of 

L. inflata (Philippi) in trawl-refuse from the Plymouth 

coast. It is rather common in the Mediterranean. The 

shell is tumid and very strong for its size ; the surface 

is coarsely decussated or reticulate by strong longi- 

tudinal ribs and transverse plates ; 

ably small ; 

the ears are remark- 

and the hinge is furnished with a horizontal 

cartilage-pit as in Pecten. Lamarck's species 

of the 

same name is distinct from this ; and according to him 

it inhabits " POcean americain." 

** Mantle open in front, and forming at the posterior side 

(rarely at both sides) one or two tubes, which are mostly 

sessile. 

Family IV. AVICU'LIDÊ, Swamson. 

Body obliquely oval or oblong, compressed : mantle open, 

and free at its edges, which are fringed with cirri : foot small 

and cylindrical, furnished with a byssal groove.

94 AVICULID.E. 

Shell shaped like the animal, inequilateral, scaly outside 

and nacreous within: beaks straight: ligament long and 

narrow, mostly internal and contained in a groove. 

In this distinct family we have only two genera, each 

containing but a single species, which widely differs 

from the other. The intermediate links are wanting at 

our northern end of the chain. Elsewhere both genera 

and species abound in great variety; and, in remote 

periods of the earth's history, what are now called the 

British seas had also their full share. In studying the 

particular fauna of any district we are too apt to regard 

it in an isolated point of view, instead of associating it 

with the faunae of other and distant regions. No mem- 

ber of this large family has been noticed as inhabiting 

the north-east coast or the northern part of the western 

coast of America, nor is any one enumerated in the 

lists of Arctic or Scandinavian Mollusca. The shell is 

composed of outer and inner layers. The outer layers 

are of a fibrous texture, and consist of extremely minute 

and closely-packed tubes or cells, which exhibit on 

their surface irregularly hexagonal prisms ; they are 

separated from each other by a deposit of unusually 

thick animal matter ; and, upon being steeped for some 

time in caustic potash, they easily become disintegrated 

and fall asunder, resembling in that state extremely 

short threads of spun glass. 

compact and highly 

The inner layers are more 

iridescent. The surface of the 

shell, both in Avicula and Pinna, appears 

under the 

microscope to be finely punctured, as in some species of 

Lepton. The anterior adductor muscle is small, showing 

a transition from the Monomyaria to the Dimyaria. 

Leach included this family in the first-mentioned di- 

vision.

Genus I. AVI'CULA*, 

AVICULA. 95 

Klein. PL II. f. 3. 

Body oval : palps or labial appendages large : byssus fibrous, 

coarse, and thin. 

Shell square or elliptical, often winged or lobed, inequivalve 

: upper margin of the lower or left valve notched for 

the passage of the : byssus beaks placed nearer the anterior or 

narrower end, but never terminal: hinge furnished with 

teeth. 

This genus is distinguished by the nacreous and 

iridescent lining of its shell, which in one species pro- 

duces the oriental pearl, and in another is extensively 

used for inlaying and button-making. 

1. Avicula hirun'do f, Linne. 

Mytili's hirundo, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1159. A. Tarentina, F. & H. ii. 

p. 251, pi. slii. f. 1-3, and (animal) pi. S. f. 4. 

Body suboval, yellowish-white 

mottled with brown : cirri 

arranged in two rows, numerous and close-set, those in the 

front or outer row being longer than those in the inner row : 

foot white. 

Shell elliptical, resembling that of a Pinna, with the 

addition of an unequal wing-like appendage on each side of 

but less so in the 

the beak, very inequivalve in the young, 

adult state, the upper or right valve being larger than the 

other, much compressed towards the margins, rather fragile, 

more or less : glossy sculpture, thin concentric plates or scales, 

which irregularly imbricate the surface and are sometimes 

spinous towards the anterior margin, besides superficial microscopic 

and close-set punctures : colour yellowish-brown, with 

purplish 

streaks which radiate from the beaks and are fre- 

quently interrupted or zigzag : margins very thin, rounded in 

front, more or less deeply incurved on the upper part of eaeh 

side in consequence of the projection of the wings, straight or 

nearly so behind : beaks small, sharp, and slightly projecting 

over the hinge : wings triangular and bluntly pointed ; they 

are of unequal size, those on the anterior side being small, 

* A little bird. t Swallow.

96 aviculid^:. 

and the opposite ones from six to ten times as long in full- 

grown specimens : hinge-line very long : ligament broad, sepa- 

rating the beaks, so as to form a rather wide area : hinge-plate 

thick, strong, and ronnded : teeth consisting 

of a blunt tubercle 

a little in front of and below the 

in the upper valve, placed 

hinge, and a double tooth in the other valve, into which the 

tubercular tooth locks: inside highly and beautifully irides- 

cent, marked with faint and irregular grooves which diverge 

that of the 

from the beaks : muscular scars distinct, especially 

posterior 

Habitat : 

adductor. L. 3. B. 1*65. 

the trawlers 

Plymouth offing, procured by 

in 20-25 fathoms, sometimes attached to species of 

Gorgonia 

and Sertularia. It is said also to have been 

found in Dublin and Bantry Bays ; 

but this wants con- 

firmation. Dr. Turton's specimen from the first of 

these localities looks too highly coloured to be British, 

and is more probably of foreign extraction. The collec- 

tion of Irish shells made bv the late Mr. T. W. Warren, 

and now in the museum of the Boyal Dublin Society, 

contains a single valve of A. hirundo, which, according 

to Mr. Warren's Catalogue, was found by him at Portmarnock. 

This specimen has been kindly sent to me 

by Dr. Carte, the Superintendent of the museum, for 

my inspection. Together with it, and on the same 

tablet, is a young shell of a tropical species 

of Avicula 

(or Meleagrina) , which is not unfrequently met with on 

the bottoms of vessels from South America. The pre- 

sent species, being in our seas an inhabitant of deep 

water and always attached, is not likely to be thrown up 

on a sandy shore. I have never heard of a Pinna being 

picked up as a similar waif of the ocean. Dr. Carte informs 

me that wrecks too frequently occur in Dublin 

Bay, which is completely exposed to eastern gales and 

situate in very nearly the same parallel of latitude as 

Liverpool, to which port 

the unfortunate merchant

AVICULA. 97 

vessels are bound. Miss Hutchings, who (according to 

the late Mr. James Sowerby) discovered this species in 

Bantry Bay, was infinitely better acquainted with seaweeds 

than with shells. I have some of the latter which 

Mr. Dillwyn received from that lady, as collected by her 

in Bantry Bay, and which are unquestionably Mediter- 

ranean and not Irish. One of them is Area barbata. 

Such mistakes often happen in spite of the best inten- 

tions. I do not say, however, that A. hirundo has never 

been found in Ireland, or that it may not hereafter be 

rediscovered there. It occurs, but very rarely, in the 

Coralline Crag. Its exotic distribution is wide, and 

comprises both sides of the Mediterranean, as well as 

the Adriatic and iEgean Seas, the Canary Isles, Madeira, 

and the Azores. Mr. M 'Andrew has taken it on the 

shore near Gibraltar, and in the Canaries as deep as 50 

fathoms. 

The shell has a very remarkable shape, not unlike 

that of a swallow on the wing. Two of Lamarck's 

species of Avicula (Atlantica and Tarentind) appear to 

be the same as the present species, representing the 

younger and mature states of growth. The former he 

describes as having the valves unequal in size, and the 

latter as being equal- valved. If one of these specific 

names had to be selected, the description of "Atlan- 

tica " would therefore be more appropriate than that of 

" Tarentina M to our shell. Linne's diagnosis of Mytilus 

hirundo is equally applicable ; and it would be a pity to 

reject that time-honoured name in favour of any other 

given by subsequent 

when he described, in his f 

writers. Turton was mistaken 

Conchological Dictionary/ a 

second species {A. morio) as British, on the authority of 

Dr. Leach. The latter distinctly stated that species to 

be exotic; but in his account of the genus Avicida 

F

98 AVICULIDiE. 

(contained in the ' 

Zoological Miscellany' for 1814) lie 

mentioned that " one indigenous species " had been dis- 

covered at Plymouth by Mr. Prideaux. In his ' 

Synopsis 

of the British Mollusca' he gave the last-mentioned 

species 

the name of Britannica. 

Pema alata (Crenatula Travisii of Turton) is a native 

of tropical seas, but was accidentally imported into this 

which came into Scar- 

country on the bottom of a ship 

mollusca have been introduced 

borough. Many foreign 

in the same way. They continue to live for some time 

after entering our colder seas, but they never become 

acclimatized. 

Genus II. PINNA *, Lister. 

Frontispiece 

and PL III. f. 1. 

Body oblong and attenuated : palps small : byssus silky and 

copious. 

Shell forming an elongated triangle, equivalve, widely 

gaping in front, and slightly on the anterior side for the passage 

of the byssus : margins entire : beaks terminal and pointed : 

hinge toothless. 

We now approach the Mussels, to which the shells 

composing the present genus bear a considerable resem- 

blance. The principal distinction is that the former 

have the valves entirely closed, while in the latter they 

as well as that the beaks 

gape widely at the larger end, 

in Mytilus and its allies are not placed at one end of the 

shell as in Pinna. According 

to Da Costa the shell of 

Pinna is called in France "jambon" and "jambonneau" 

; and it looks exceedingly like a small ham. In 

another point of view it is a wingless Avicula. Pliny's 

account of the little pea-crab, which is so often found in 

this mollusk (as well as in Mytilus modiolus and Cyprina 

* From the irivva of Aristotle, who first mentioned tins mollusk.

PINNA. 99 

Islandica), and of its playing the part of jackal 

to the 

lion, has been so often repeated, that I will not inflict it 

again on my readers. Cicero was fully persuaded 

of the 

truth of this pretty fable, and he used it as an illustra- 

tion in his treatise ' De Natura Deorum/ Swan, in his 

' 

Speculum Mundi/ moralized upon it as follows :— 

cc And thus day by day they get their living, like a com- 

bined knot of cheaters, who have no other trade than 

the cunning deceit of quaint cousenage ; hooking in the 

simple sort with such subtill tricks, that be their purses 

stuft with either more or lesse, they know a way to 

sound the bottome, and send them lighter home : lighter 

in purse, though heavier in heart." But Pierius, in his 

( 

Hieroglyphica/ draws a different conclusion ; for, after 

quoting Theophrastus (" vita fortasse conchis servari non 

potest, nisi ope cancri "), he commends the example of 

the Pinna and its companion to any one who cannot do 

without the aid and counsel of another. Poli gave the 

name Chimcera to the animal of this genus, and fully 

treated its anatomical details, the illustration of which 

occupies no less than four plates of his magnificent work. 

But he denied it a foot (" pes nullus"), and stated that the 

byssus issued from the base of an organ 

e ' 

which he called 

ligula." Another Neapolitan writer (Giannettasi) , 

although not also a naturalist, celebrated the Pinna at 

great length in the eighth 

book of his ' 

1. Pinna ru'dis*, Linne. 

Halieuticon/ 

P. rudis, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1159. P. pectinata, F. & H. ii. p. 255, pi, xliii. 

f. 1, 2, and pi. liii. f. 8. 

Body large, reddish-brown or yellowish : cirri arranged in 

two rows on the posterior margin of the mantle, and in one 

only on the anterior margin : 

foot conically subcylindrical, and 

having a byssal groove at the posterior bend. 

* 

Bough. 

f2

100 AVICULID.E. 

Shell tapering to a point at one end and expanding at the 

other to an obtusely rounded or slightly truncate edge, convex, 

with a gradual slope towards the sides, rather thin for its size, 

more or less : glossy sculpture, 8-12 long delicate ribs on the 

dorsal portion, radiating from the beaks, and sometimes numerous 

shorter ribs on the anterior portion of the shell, extend- 

ing to that margin ; these ribs often rise at irregular intervals 

into vaulted prickles in consequence of an exfoliation of the 

outer layers ; the whole surface is also covered with the mi- 

croscopical punctures peculiar to this family : colour yellowish-brown 

: margins very thin in front and on the anterior 

side, but thickened on the dorsal side, which is straight or 

occasionally a little incurved, and sloping gradually on the 

other side (with the exception of a slight indentation for the 

byssus) to a blunt angle, where it meets the front margin : 

beaks strong and exceedingly prominent, much worn and 

broken in adult specimens, and furnished inside with a series 

of concentric plates, in consequence of the successive shift- 

ings and advance of the anterior adductor muscle : hingeline 

extremely produced, occupying two-thirds of the entire 

length : ligament horny, narrow, very strong and elastic : 

so as to contain it in a 

hinge-plate folded over the ligament, 

kind of sheath or groove, closed or firmly soldered for a short 

distance beyond the posterior termination of the ligament : 

inside highly nacreous and iridescent, of a darker colour on 

the upper half than below: muscular scars very distinct. 

L. 10-5. B. 6. 

Habitat : 

Sparingly and locally 

distributed on all the 

British coasts, but gregarious., from low-water mark to 

80 fathoms, in muddy or sandy gravel. Fragments have 

been found in the Coralline Crag. Its foreign range 

extends south to both sides of the Mediterranean, and 

also to the Canary Isles. It has not been noticed as 

occurring anywhere 

north of Shetland. 

The " fan-mussel " is by far our largest shell, mea- 

suring sometimes fifteen inches in length and eight in 

breadth. It varies greatly in proportions and sculpture. 

Specimens in some situations have a tendency to expand, 

and become distorted in consequence of their confined 

position. The fry have spoon-shaped and some-

PINNA. 101 

what incurved beaks, and in that state no ribs or strise are 

formed. Dr. Walker savs that the Gaelic name of the 

shell is " feaskand." Very little appears to be known in 

this country as to the animal. Pennant gravely called it 

" a slug." Montagu, and recently Mr. Couch, imagined 

that it could close the larger end for the same purpose 

as that stated by the ancients, viz. to catch little fish ! 

Many writers have supposed that it can weigh anchor 

when it pleases, and remove to a better feeding-ground ; 

but it would not seem to be fond (if capable) of changing 

its place of abode, unless when very young, and before 

it has settled down for life. The worn state of the 

beaks and the not unfrequently distorted contour of the 

shell show that it lies partly buried in the ground and 

continues for a long time in the same place. If it is 

it can un- 

forcibly torn or driven from its anchorage, 

and reattach itself. The 

doubtedly spin a new byssus 

fibre of this curious appendage or " beard V is tubular 

like hair. When dried it is stiff and wiry j 

but if used 

fresh it is sufficiently flexible to be woven into gloves 

and stockings. Tarento is a noted place of manufac- 

ture for such articles ; and at our last International 

Exhibition a Cornish muff made of this material might 

have been seen by those who were disposed to venture 

into an obscure gallery in search of the few objects of 

natural history for which any space was allotted. Ac- 

cording to Verany the byssus is a successful remedy for 

the ear-ache : but he does not sav in what manner it is 

of more 

applied. However, this production is evidently 

use to the Pinna than it can be to man. Most other 

bivalves are provided with the same apparatus. Reaumur 

justly remarked that the sea has her spinners in 

the mussels, as the earth has in her caterpillars and 

spiders. The animal is said to be good to eat; but it

102 MYTILIDÊ. 

requires five or six hours' stewing, and then is not so 

tender as a scallop. The fibrous particles which com- 

pose the shell are crystalline, and very beautiful objects 

for the microscope. 

Mr. Spence Bate informs me that 

the trawlers at Plymouth call these shells "eaper- 

longers," and that they avoid the Pinna-ground for fear 

of their nets being torn. The shells are described as 

standing upright on their narrow end, and as bearing 

some resemblance to trees in a thick forest. The word 

"caperlonger " appears to be a corruption of Cappa lunga, 

which name the Pinna is known in the Mediter- 

by 

ranean. So many 

of our men-of-war have been at 

Naples, that the familiarity of Plymouth 

such Italian words is easily explained. 

seamen with 

Owing to the variableness of its sculpture and solidity, 

this species has received many names from British con- 

chologists, viz. borealis, pectinata, fragilis, muricata, 

ingenSy l

MYTILUS. 103 

behind, so as to form a separate opening 

for excretal 

purposes, as well as in the shell increasing excentrically, 

and not being scaly but provided with an epidermis, 

and in its beaks being incurved instead of straight. 

Although all mussels spin a byssus, and are commonly 

attached by this mode, some of them have a consider- 

able power of locomotion, dropping 

their anchors and 

casting new ones at will. The composition of their 

shells, according to Mr. Sorby, is calcite, and ought 

therefore to be durable; but I have generally found 

them to be much decomposed in the newer tertiaries. 

The anterior adductor muscle is very small and placed 

immediately 

within the beaks of the shell. 

Genus I. MY'TILUS * Linne\ PL III. f. 2. 

Body subcorneal : mantle widely open in front : 

shaped. 

Shell oblong or oval : hinge 

tubercular teeth. 

* 

foot strap- 

often furnished with small 

The Linnean characters of Mytilus were very various, 

and comprised freshwater as well as marine shells. 

Bruguiere was the first to restrict and define the genus 

as it is now recognized. Lamarck separated from it 

certain species to form his genus Modiola ; but I believe 

the opinion that they ought to be reunited is held by 

most authors who have bestowed much attention on the 

classification of the Mollusca. The only indications 

which Lamarck has given to distinguish Modiola from 

are that the beaks of the shell in the first of 

Mytilus 

these genera are not quite terminal, and that the ani- 

mal is seldom fixed by a byssus. But on neither ground 

can the genera be separated. Any one who has exa- 

* From [xvtLXos, a name given by the Greeks to this sort of shell-fish.

104 MYTILIM. 

mined the beaks in a common mussel must see that 

they are not placed at the end. Their comparative 

distance from this point is in every case, whether of 

Mytilus or Modiola, a mere question of degree. The 

so-called Modiola are invariably fixed by a byssus ; 

and 

the typical species (M. modiolus) are attached to the beds 

on which they congregate precisely in the same way as 

Mytilus edulis. The only appreciable difference in a 

generic point of view that I can detect between M. mo- 

diolus and M. edulis is that in the latter the front 

edges of the mantle are fringed, while in the former they 

are plain, and also that the small tubercles of the hinge 

in M. edulis only occur in the very young of M. modiolus, 

and not in a subsequent stage of growth. In M. pha~ 

seolinus, however (which has always been regarded as a 

Modiola), these tubercles are represented by minute 

but distinct crenulations. The shells of all the British 

species of Mytilus are smooth. The byssus proceeds 

from a gristly shaft, which appears to support the bundle 

of filaments like the handle of a broom. Mytilus is a 

very ancient name, and was also spelt by classic authors 

Mytulus, Mitulus, and Mutulus. The animal is the Cal- 

litriche of Poli. 

1. Mytilus edulis"^, Linne. 

M. edulis, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1157 ; F. & H. ii. p. 170, pi. xlviii. f. 1-4, 

and (animal) pi. Q. f. 5. 

Body varying in colour from white to orange-yellow, with 

a tint of reddish-brown or purple : mantle having two margins 

; outer one plain ; the inner one pinnated, or fringed on 

the ventral and anterior sides with 15-25 tentacular cirri, and 

serrated on the branchial : portion foot dark brown, occasionally 

streaked with wrhite down the middle. 

Shell irregularly triangular, expanding from the smaller 

* Eatable.

MYTILUS. 

105 

end to an obtusely rounded edge, gibbous with a gradual slope 

towards the front and sides, rather thin and glossy : sculpture, 

concentric and indistinct lines of increase: colour bluish or 

purple : epidermis dark brown or olive, occasionally yellowish 

or having a reddish tint, rarely black, microscopically striated 

lengthwise and shagreened, sometimes puckered in particular 

on the ventral 

spots : margins rather thick, nearly straight 

rounded in front : beaks 

side and arched behind, obliquely 

blunt, more or less divergent, placed a little below the termination 

or point of the shell, which is formed by the dorsal 

edge of the first-formed part or nucleus beneath the beaks 

; 

is an imperfect lunule or heart-shaped impression, which 

often appears to be repeated, showing the marks of successive 

growth: hinge-line nearly straight, occupying almost the 

upper half of the dorsal margin: ligament very thick and 

strong : 

hinge-plate partly folded over the ligament, the middle 

furnished with 3-10 

of which is : consequently exposed hinge 

small tubercular teeth in each valve : inside chalky-white, 

slightly nacreous at the edges, and pitted (as in Unio margaritifer) 

by the impressions of the mantle : muscular scars very 

distinct. L. 2-3. B. 1-2. 

Yar. 1. ungulata. Shell larger, more pointed at the narrower 

end, and sometimes angular at the other, with the 

ventral margin incurved : beaks more widely separated than 

usual. M. ungidatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1157. 

Yar. 2. incurvata. Shell stunted and bent, often marked 

by longitudinal ravs of purple. M. incurvatus, Pennant, Brit. 

Zool. iv. p. Ill, pi. 64. f. 74. 

Yar. 3. Galloprovincialis. Shell broader and natter, with 

the ventral margin somewhat prominent and the posterior 

angle more acute than in the typical form : beaks incurved. 

M. Galloprovincialis, Lamarck, An. sans Yert. vi. p. 126. 

Yar. 4. pellucida. Shell thin, narrower, less gibbous, and 

beautifully streaked by longitudinal rays of dark brown or 

purple, which are 

irregularly disposed. M. pellacidus, 

Penn. 

63. f. 75. 

op. c. p. 112, pi. 

Habitat : 

Abundant 

everywhere and gregarious, from 

high-water mark to the depth of a few fathoms, on a 

rocky, stony, or muddy 

bottom. Var. 1. Cornwall and 

Channel Isles, at low spring tides. This variety is the 

f5

106 MYTILIM. 

M. hesperianus of Lamarck. It attains a considerable 

size, and I have a specimen which measures nearly five 

inches in length. I may here observe that Mr. Barlee's 

British Mollusca ' 

shell, recorded in the f 

as belonging 

to this species and eight inches and a half long, is M. 

modiolus. Var. 2. On all rocky coasts, filling crevices 

and crowded together, so as to prevent the free deve- 

lopment of each individual. Var. 3. Solitary 

and there- 

fore larger and more expanding. Var. 4. On floating 

buoys and sunken wrecks, often at a considerable distance 

from land. Young shells of the ordinary kind 

often resemble the last variety in substance and markings. 

The common mussel is found in all our upper tertiaries ; 

but only the sublittoral variety [M. hesperianus) occurs 

in the Coralline Crag. It is distributed throughout the 

northern hemisphere from the polar circle to the iEgean 

Sea and the coast of Morocco, and it seems to thrive 

equally on both sides of the Atlantic. The M. trossulus 

of Gould, from Vancouver's Island, probably differs in 

no other respect than being called a " representative " 

species. 

Although M. edulis here inhabits the coast-line only, 

Dr. Walker is said to have dredged it in Baffin's Bay at 

a depth of 140 fathoms. I once obtained a fresh single 

valve in between 70 and 80 fathoms about forty miles 

off the Shetlands ; 

but it had perhaps been voided by a 

coal-fish (Gadus carbonarius) , which frequents the shore 

in the spawning- season. The mussel is occasionally found 

with the common periwinkle [Littorina litored), living 

on the shore in a stream of perfectly fresh water during the 

recess of the tide. The common cockle (Cardium edule) 

and My a arenaria have the same habit; and I have 

even seen the two latter species associated with fresh- 

water mollusca. All of these can exist for many days

MYTILUS. 107 

out of water. Young shells of M. edulis are coated with 

short bristly hairs, and resemble in shape those of M. 

modiolus. They grow very rapidly. According 

to Mr. 

are left for a week 

Clark, if the fishermen's lobster-pots 

or two in the autumn, they will be covered with mussels 

more than half an inch long. M. Bouchard-Chan- 

tereaux has often watched this mollusk in the act of 

spinning its byssus. He says that when put into a 

vessel of sea-water, it first creeps along the bottom by 

means of its foot and tries to ascend the side. After a 

while it deposits from the end of its foot a speck of white 

transparent matter, which spreads out and immediately 

hardens like china-cement. This plate serves as a base 

of attachment ; and from the centre of it the mussel 

secretes very slowly and by a backward movement a 

gluey thread, repeating this process ten or twelve times 

in a circular direction. The threads become horncolour 

in from twenty-four to thirty hours after being spun. 

It is said to have the power of contracting its byssus at 

will ; but I should be inclined to doubt it. The mussel 

is on the whole a respectable and stay-at-home cha- 

racter, seldom leaving its place of abode unless it has 

been dislodged by an unusually boisterous wave or by 

the equally rude and violent hands of man. Charles 

Lamb speaks of its t( 

dignified leisure," while traversing 

the circuit of two inches square, within which it swings 

by 

the aid of its elastic cables. When confined in a 

prison called an aquarium, it appears 

to be more rest- 

less than in its native haunts, perhaps trying to escape 

from the unaccustomed quarters in which it finds itself, 

and in vain awaiting the welcome refluence of the 

tide. It may then be observed making occasional jour- 

neys from one part to another, and leaving at every 

stage or halting-place a bundle of filaments attached to

108 mytilidê. 

the glass. It is also curious to notice a young mussel 

in a rock-pool, slowly and painfully warping itself along 

by its extensile foot, the point of which is attached like 

the sucker of a leech. The foot is stretched far beyond 

the beak of the shell on the anterior side. For anato- 

mical details of the animal I would refer my 

readers to 

tlfce admirable treatise of Professor Loven on the deve- 

lopment of the Lamellibranchiate Acephala. The fry 

has two very distinct eyes, which soon disappear and 

are quite absent in the adult. The cilia which clothe 

the gills are extremely beautiful and interesting objects 

of microscopical examination. If a small portion of 

one of the gills is cut off and put into sea-water, it will 

swim about for a considerable time by means of these 

cilia, appearing like an independent 

animal. The shell 

sometimes grows to a colossal size. In the ' 

tions ' 

Transac- 

of the Imperial University of Moscow for 1863 

is a notice by Dr. Nordmann of a gigantic form of the 

present species found by Holmberg on Edgecombe Isle 

in Russian North America. One specimen, which is 

figured of the natural size, measures upAvards of 9 

inches in length and 4^ in breadth, and is stated to 

weigh 1 lb. 5 dr. 16 gr. The stunted variety (incurvata) 

forms on some parts of our rocky coast a mass so closely 

packed that the point of a knife could scarcely be thrust 

between them. This was probably the " amazing bed 

of small mussels " mentioned by Pennant in his ' 

Intro- 

duction to Arctic Zoology/ and as to which he remarks, 

11 1 think they were brought there by sea-fowl to eat at 

leisure " ! Fabricius says it is viviparous, and that in 

the spring he has found the fry lodged within the hinge 

of their parent's shell ; but it seems more probable that 

this was only a place of temporary shelter for them. 

In the Shetland Isles the edible mussel is called "Crock-

MYTILUS. 

109 

ling," being evidently a corruption of the Icelandic 

word " Kraeklingur," having the same signification. The 

hinge-teeth are usually three or four only. 

often distorted. 

The shell is 

The mussel has been from time immemorial a fa- 

vourite article of food in this and other maritime coun- 

tries. Pennant, after a preface of " Ne fraudentur 

gloria sua littora," especially praises 

those from Lan- 

cashire. Large quantities are regularly brought to 

Billingsgate from the Dutch coast. A small kind, 

called in 

" 

Brittany Cayeu," is chiefly in request there, 

" 

Potage 

being esteemed more delicate and digestible. 

aux moules " is by no means to be despised at the table 

d'hote of the Hotel de PEpee at Quimper. Herr 

Adolphe Meyer informs me that boughs of elm and 

other trees are laid down in the Bay of Kiel, and taken 

up at the end of three, four, or five years, between 

December and March, being 

then covered with fine 

mussels. These laden boughs are sold by weight, and 

the shell-harvest is sent into the interior of Germany, 

where it is in great request. He adds that the mussel 

is not reckoned wholesome in summer. Many 

cases of 

serious illness, and even of death, have resulted from its 

occasionally deleterious qualities. "The faculty" seem 

to be completely at fault as to the nature of this poison. 

By some it is attributed to the mussels living among 

putrescent matters, 

as in docks and near the outlet of 

public sewers ; by others to their feeding on the spawn 

of starfish, which are well known to be poisonous ; by 

others to their being too freely eaten and causing a sur- 

feit, or to a morbid state of the system in the persons 

eating them ; by a few to their imbibing 

into their 

tissues a solution of copper; and Delle Chiaje showed 

that in many instances it was owing to these mollusks

110 MYTILIDjE. 

being at the time in spawn and therefore out of season. 

A strange notion once prevailed that the poor little peacrab 

was the author of all this mischief; and it was consequently 

stigmatized as " malignant. " 

Nor is it only as an article of food that these shell-fish 

are of use to man. In Lister's time live mussels were 

gathered and spread 

over the fields in Lancashire for 

manure. Fabricius mentions that the fish eaten raw is 

an excellent remedy for sore eyes, and that the shell 

serves as a razor to shave with. I should not like to 

try the latter experiment on a frosty morning, or when 

late for breakfast. Mohr says that mussels are not 

eaten in Iceland, but that lime is made from their cal- 

cined shells, and is much more binding and becomes 

harder than mortar made from limestone. They are 

also used extensively for bait in our long-line fisheries ; 

and Asbjornsen has given, in his ' 

Christianiafjordens 

Litoralfauna/ some interesting particulars of the mus- 

sel-fishings on that part of the Norwegian coast, and 

especially with regard to an epidemic that in the summer 

of 1852 destroyed millions of them and caused great 

distress to the poor fishermen. In Drummond's * 

Letters 

to a Young Naturalist' it is stated that mussels are 

used at Bideford to fix by means of their byssus the 

stones of a bridge, which is difficult to keep in repair 

of the tide. The interstices of the 

owing to the rapidity 

bridge are filled with them, and it is said that only their 

strong threads support the fabric and prevent its being 

carried away. It is one of the instances of contrivance 

enumerated by Paley in illustration of his chapter on 

compensation, and to show that the works of the Deity 

are known by expedients. He " 

saj^s, A muscle, which 

might seem, by its helplessness, to lie at the mercy of 

every wave that went over it, has the singular power of

MYTILUS. Ill 

spinning strong tendinous threads, by which she moors 

her shell to rocks and timbers." Pearls too are produced 

by them in considerable quantities, although of 

an irregular shape and indifferent lustre. Formerly 

they were applied medicinally as an absorbent. Great 

numbers are still collected at the mouth of the River 

Conway in North Wales, the fish being boiled and trodden 

out by the naked feet of women. What is done with 

these " seed-pearls " is a mystery. I have been told 

that the Jews purchase them for the Birmingham mar- 

ket; and a correspondent in Loudon's Magazine of 

Natural History for 1830 mentions a surmise that they 

are exported to India to be dissolved in the sherbet of 

the nabobs ! 

This species in a recent and fossil state has received 

twenty-eight different names. Its variability 

tensive with its diffusion. 

2. M. modi'olus *j Linne. 

is coex- 

M. modiolus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1158. Modiola modiolus, F. & H. ii. 

p. 182, pi. 

xliv. f. 1,2. 

Body dark orange, speckled with white and often tinted 

with brown: mantle having both margins plain throughout, 

and whitish at 

but finely ciliated : foot red on the upper part, 

the base, where it is very thick and strongly wrinkled. 

Shell oblong, bluntly rounded, nearly square at the smaller 

end and expanding outwards to a semicircular edge in front, 

convex, and gibbous towards the beaks, solid and glossy : 

sculpture, fine concentric lines of increase : colour purplishyellow 

: epidermis thick, dark brown or dusky, almost black 

in the adult, minutely striate lengthwise, foliated in the 

young and produced into long thorn-like filaments, which are 

plain at their edges and arranged in concentric rows on the 

posterior side and in front : 

'margins thick, straight or but 

slightly incurved on the ventral side, obtusely 

rounded be- 

hind and semicircular in front : beaks blunt, divergent and in- 

* The box of a pump.

112 MYTILID.E. 

curved, placed a little below the point 

of the shell and at a 

short distance from the anterior margin: hinge-line gently 

curved, occupying nearly the upper half of the dorsal margin : 

ligament extremely strong, partly exposed : hinge-plate 

solid : 

hinge toothless, reflected: inside nacreous and often studded 

with : incipient pearls muscular and jjallial scars very distinct. 

L. 5. B. 2-5. 

Var. 1. ovata. Shell smaller, narrower at the smaller end 

and broader at the other. L. 3. B. 2. 

Var. 2. umbilieata. Shell narrower ; anterior margin inflected 

and forming a deep sinuosity. M. umbilicatus, Penn. 

Brit. Zool. iv. p. 112, pi. 65. f. 76. 

Habitat : 

Coasts of England, Wales, Ireland, and 

Scotland, from low-water mark to 80 fathoms, and at a 

distance of more than forty miles from land, in muddy 

gravel. It is not common in the first two localities, 

but abundant and gregarious in the north and west of 

Scotland and Shetland, at depths varying from 2 to 

20 fathoms. Var. 1. Lismore (Bedford) ; Portmarnock 

and county Antrim (J. Gr. J.). Var. 2. Cork Harbour 

(Humphreys). The species occurs in all our upper ter- 

tiaries, and especially in the glacial beds. It ranges 

from Behring's Straits (Wosness), New England (Stimpson), 

and Iceland (Steenstrup) to the Danish coasts of 

but I am not aware that it has been noticed 

the Baltic ; 

further south. In Calabria, however, it is fossil, and was 

described by Philippi under the name of Mocliola grandis. 

This is another proof of arctic conditions having for- 

merly pervaded the South of Europe. 

Pennant must have considered this to be a fish, when 

he says it " often seizes the bait of the ground-lines." 

It is now and then caught by the beard and hooked up 

in this way. In some parts of Shetland and the north 

of Ireland it is eaten by the poorer class ; and every- 

where it is reckoned an excellent bait for fish. The epi-

MYTILUS. 113 

dermis of immature shells is yellowish-brown, and has 

an agglutinating property, being frequently coated with 

gravel and bits of shell. In this state the dorsal angle 

is more acute. Rude nests or cases are occasionally 

made by the young for their protection. The spots 

where pearls are in course of formation exactly corre- 

spond with the holes drilled by species 

of the curious 

called Cliona from the outside of the shell. A 

sponge 

transverse section admirably displays the mode of growth 

and secretion of colour. The outside layers are purple ; 

while the inner layers, which are three times as thick 

and numerous as the others in full-grown shells, are 

white. The "horse-mussel/' as it is called, 

enormous size under favourable circumstances. One of 

my specimens, which Professor King got 

attains an 

on the Nor- 

thumberland coast, is about nine inches and a quarter 

long and of a proportionate breadth and capacity. It 

would have made a dainty drinking-cup for Mimer, or a 

pretty toy for one of the other giants, 

' 

slager sung in his Nordische Guder/ 

of whom Ohlen- 

"And all round the cavern might plainly be seen, 

Where Giants had once been at play ; 

For the ground was with heaps of huge muscle-shells strewn, 

And strange fish were mark'd in the clay." 

This is the Modiola papuana of Lamarck, but not the 

Mytilus Papuanus of D'Argenville, which is a tropical 

species. The former referred to his Modiola tulipa the 

Mytilus modiolus of Linne. Mr. Hanley also states that, 

from an examination of the typical specimens, the M. 

modiolus of Linne is not our species but the Modiola 

tulipa of Lamarck. This shows the discrepancy between 

the Linnean collection of shells and the ' 

System a Naturae/ 

and how little reliance can now be placed on the 

former for identifying some of the species. Linnets de-

114 mytilidjE. 

scription agrees 

ad amussim with trie common shell which 

is usually regarded as M. modiolus, the animal of which 

he says is eaten in Norway. According to Lamarck, his 

Modiola tulipa inhabits " les mers d'Amerique." Our 

shell is the Modiola vulgaris of Fleming. The young is 

the Mytilus curtus of Pennant and the Modiola barbata 

of Macgillivray. 

3. M. barba'tus #j Linne. 

M. barbatv.s, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1156. Modiola barbata, F. & H. ii. p. 190, 

pi. 

xliv. f. 4. 

Body reddish-brown : mantle not folded : 

coarsely pectinated ; 

the upper ones. 

gills narrow, 

lower pair more than twice the depth of 

Shell irregularly triangular, pointed at the smaller end and 

expanding obliquely outward to a broad and obtusely rounded 

edge in front, compressed, but gibbous towards the beaks, solid, 

somewhat glossy on the upper part, but elsewhere of a dull 

hue owing to the close investment of the bearded epidermis : 

sculpture, numerous concentric membranaceous ridges 

: colour 

yellowish-red, or scarlet: epidermis thick, yellowish-brown, 

minutely but deeply striated lengthwise, thickly foliated, and 

rising on the posterior side and in front into a fringe of thorn - 

like projections, which are distinctly serrated or barbed on the 

the epidermis is reflected over 

side facing the ventral portion ; 

the front edge and forms a glistening band inside it : margins 

thick, straight or incurved on the ventral side, angulated 

behind, and obtusely rounded in front : byssal sinus large and 

rather : long beaks small, close together, incurved, placed (as 

in M. edulis) very near the point of the shell: hinge-liiie 

straight, occupying about one-half of the dorsal margin : liga- 

ment narrow, much sunk: hinge-plate thick, deeply grooved 

for the reception of the ligament : hinge toothless, 

reflected : 

inside highly nacreous and iridescent, sometimes beautifully 

stained with purple on the posterior side and occasionally 

studded with sessile pearls : muscidar scars indistinct : pallia! 

scar well defined. L. 1*8. B. 1. 

Yar. oblonga. Shell more elongated and tumid ; ventral 

* Bearded.

MYTILUS. 115 

f 

side incurved, and dorsal side arched instead of being angu- 

lated. 

Monstr. Upper valve nearly flat and much smaller than the 

other. 

Habitat : Not uncommon on the southern and west- 

ern coasts of England, Wales, and Ireland, and found 

by Mr. Bean at Scarborough, on rocky and stony ground, 

from low-water mark to 18 fathoms. Var. Portsmouth 

(J. G. J.). Monstr. South Devon (Mus. Loscombe). 

This species is a Red Crag fossil. It has not been re- 

corded from any place north of England; but its south- 

ern range extends to the iEgean and Algeria. 

According to Mr. Clark the " 

gills entirely coast the 

body, being brought close to the posterior extremity to 

receive the water. This structure of the branchiae is 

the substitute for the absence of tubes or any sort of 

siphonal fold of the mantle." The shaggy 

beard of the 

shell is very peculiar. Montagu says that it is partly 

owing to the epidermis being broken and divided into 

fibres; and he also observes that, while in a soft and 

glutinous state, it arrests such extraneous matter as 

comes in contact. Gould suspected that the epidermis 

but he evidently had not then 

was a parasitic vegetable ; 

had an opportunity of seeing it. The byssus resembles 

a bundle of fine tow. M. barbatus differs from the young 

of M. modiolus in the shell being narrower at the an- 

terior and much broader in proportion at the posterior, 

side, as well as in the angularity of the dorsal margin, 

straight hinge-line, strong laminar ridges, reddish colour, 

and the epidermis being serrated or barbed on one side 

instead of being plain as in that species. 

This species does not appear to inhabit the north of 

Europe, unless it is the shell noticed by 

' 

Zoologia Danica • 

as 

Muller in his 

smaller than M. modiolus, with a

116 MYTILID^. 

black epidermis and quite of a purple colour inside to- 

wards the broader end, and having the valves less raised 

near the hinge and compressed in front. The M . bar- 

batus of his ' 

Prodromus ' 

is probably the young of M. 

modiolus. Linne also described the present species in 

his ' Fauna Suecica/ but not with sufficient precision. 

It is the Modiola Gibbsii of Leach's c 

Zoological Miscel- 

lany/ and Mytilus Gibbsianus of his work on British 

Mollusca edited by Dr. Gray. 

4. M. Adria'ticus *, Lamarck. 

Modiola adriatica, Lam. An. s. Yert. vi. p. 112. Modiola tulipa, F. &H. 

ii. p. 187, pi. xlv. f. 7 ; pi. xlviii. f. 6 ; and (animal) pi. Q. 1". 6. 

Body pale red with a yellowish tint : mantle forming two 

incomplete very wide and short tubes, which are of equal length 

and scarcely separated from each other ; the mouth of each 

tube is fringed with about twenty close-set short cirri : 

gills 

pale brown : 

foot long, flattish and slender, divided lengthwise 

by a flake-white line, and having a byssal groove which in- 

creases in depth from point to heel : 

byssus strong, yellowish. 

Shell oval, inclining to rhomboidal, bluntly pointed or 

rounded at the smaller end, and expanding outwards as in the 

last species, convex, extremely gibbons towards the beaks, thin 

and of a delicate texture, glossy : sculpture, fine but irregular 

lines of growth: colour yellowish, with usually rose-red rays 

these rays or streaks 

on the posterior half, occasionally purple ; 

resemble those of a tulip, and are very beautiful ; they are 

variously arranged, and sometimes broken or interrupted : 

epidermis thin, yellowish, and like a coat of varnish, sometimes 

a little exfoliated on the dorsal side and in front, and 

forming slight hairs, marked lengthwise by minute lines or 

scratches : margins thin, straight on the ventral side, angniated 

behind and rising into a shoulder or sharp keel towards 

which the posterior sides are compressed, semicircular in front : 

byssal sinus represented by a narrow slit : heals small, close 

together, inflected, placed at comparatively 

a considerable dis- 

tance from the anterior margin : hinge-line gently curved, 

occupying about one-half of the dorsal : margin ligament nar- 

* Inhabiting the Adriatic. 

i

MYTILTJS. 117 

row, much sunk : hinge-plate thin, with a deep ligamental 

groove beneath it, which is supported by a strong rib : hinge 

toothless, reflected : inside nacreous and iridescent, sometimes 

red or tinged by the outside rays : scars rather distinct. L. 1*2. 

B. 0-7. 

Var. ovalis. Shell much larger and narrower, almost cylin- 

drical, more solid ; ventral margin slightly incurved : colour 

yellow, with dark-purple rays : epidermis horncolour or 

brownish-yellow. L. 2. B. 0-85. Modiola ovalis, Sowerby, 

111. Ind. Brit. Shells, pi. 

Habitat : By 

7. f. 7. 

no means rare, although not common, 

in the South of England and the Channel Isles, as well 

as on the coasts of North and South Wales and Ireland, 

in 7-40 fathoms, muddy gravel or sand. I know of only 

three localities for it in Scotland, viz. Firth of Forth 

(Forbes) j off Foula, Zetland, in 45 fathoms (M f An- 

drew) ; and Loch Carron, Ross-shire, 

in 28 fathoms 

(J. G. J.). A specimen dredged by me in the last-men- 

tioned place is of a uniform pale yellow and much larger 

than those from the south, as might have been expected. 

The variety is rather plentiful in one part of Falmouth 

harbour ; and I have also taken it off Guernsey, but of 

small size. The same variety occurred in excavating 

a channel in Belfast harbour, and may be considered a 

newer pliocene fossil. Lilljeborg has found this species 

in Finmark, Malm on the coast of Sweden in 10-15 

fathoms (in one case attached by the byssus to Corallina 

officinalis), 

and Hsellebsek on the Baltic coast of Zea- 

land. Its distribution southward extends to the iEgean 

and the Gulf of Tunis, at depths varying from 2 to 50 

fathoms. 

This prettily painted mussel often makes in its young 

state a case like that of M. modiolus. When the animal 

is dead, the shell floats on the surface of water, by 

reason of its lightness and being perhaps buoyed up by

118 MYTILID.E. 

gas generated in the process of decay. The thin texture 

of the shell, the coloured rays, and the greater distance 

of the beaks from the anterior margin will readily serve 

to distinguish this species from the young of M. modio- 

lus. It differs from M. barbatus in its rhomboidal 

shape, in being much more convex, and its paler colour, 

as well as in the rays, position of the beaks, sculpture, 

and epidermis. 

M. Adriaticus appears to have been known to Montagu 

; for in his account of M. barbatus he says, " A 

variety is faintly radiated." The Modiola tulipa of 

Lamarck (for which the British species has been mis- 

taken) is described as a native of the American seas, 

and a variety of it as coming from New Holland. The 

tropical shell is of a different shape 

and substance from 

ours, and they only agree in the style of colouring. 

Lamarck pointed out the distinction between them. 

The present species may be the Mytilus pictus of Gmelin 

(from Bonanni), 

which is said to inhabit the coasts of 

Spain ; but the diagnosis given by him is too slight for 

the purpose of identification, and the Modiola picta of 

Lamarck is another species and better known. In 

Thorpe's f 

' 

Marine Conchology 

our shell has the appropriate 

name of " radiata" which appears to have been 

given to it by the late Captain Brown. 

5. M. phaseoli'nus *, Philippi. 

Modiola phaseolina, Phil. Moll. Sic. ii. p. 51, tab. xv. f. 14; F. & H.ii. 

p. 186, pi. 

xliv. f. 3. 

Body reddish-brown : 

strong, light horncolour. 

foot long and cylindrical : 

byssm- 

Shell conformable with its name, obliquely expanding from 

* Shaped like a kidney-bean.

MYTILUS. 119 

a blunt point to a rounded edge, remarkably convex and gib- 

bous, rather solid and glossy: sculpture, fine but irregular 

lines of growth : colour beneath the epidermis yellow tinged 

with : purple epidermis thick, yellowish-brown and of a darker 

hue on the sides, exfoliated in all parts except towards the 

anterior margin, and rising 

into numerous stiff beard-like 

points of different lengths, those on the lower part 

of the 

ventral side being the finest : margins thick, incurved on the 

ventral side, rounded behind, both these margins being nearly 

sinus narrow but dis- 

parallel, semicircular in front : byssal 

tinct : beaks small, blunt, and inflected, lying horizontally on 

the point of the shell, slightly diverging from each other, and 

placed at a very short distance from the anterior margin : 

hinge-line slightly curved, occupying 

less than two-fifths of 

little ex- 

the dorsal margin : ligament thick and strong, very 

posed : hinge-plate solid, with a deep ligamental groove as in 

the last species, and the rib is continued within the anterior 

margin, so as to form a small vaulted chamber below the 

hinge; inner edge of the dorsal margin finely crenulated 

across : hinge thick and prominent, also finely crenulated or 

inside nacreous and iridescent, purplish-yellow, and 

toothed : 

stained with brown on the dorsal side and in front : scars in- 

distinct. L. 0-65. B. 0-375. 

Habitat : On all our coasts, from the extremity of 

Shetland to the Land's End and Jersey, rather common 

on rocky and hard ground from low-water mark to 86 

fathoms. It appears to be a Coralline Crag fossil, 

as I 

observed in Mr. Searles Wood's collection some specimens 

mixed with the young of M. modiolus from that 

deposit. Steenstrnp found it in Iceland; and it has 

been enumerated by all writers on the Scandinavian 

mollusca as occurring from Vadso (near the North 

Cape) southwards at depths ranging from 30 to 160 

fathoms. A living specimen has been taken at Cannes 

by M. Mace. It was first described by Philippi from 

the upper tertiary beds of Calabria and Sicily. 

The animal is rather active when detached from its 

byssus, using its extensile foot for creeping 

geners, and moving with considerable agility. 

like its con- 

It often

120 MYTTLID^:. 

invests itself in a case of gravelly and shelly fragments. 

The fry are of a rhomboidal shape. The size of adult 

specimens does not appear to exceed three-quarters of 

an inch, those from the south being much smaller than 

northern ones. The shell resembles that of Modiolaria 

in the denticulation of the dorsal margin. It differs 

from the young of M. modiolus in having this peculiar 

character, as well as in being much thicker, more con- 

vex, of a darker colour, and angulated behind. 

Allied to M.phaseolinus in respect of the denticulated 

hinge and dorsal margin is the M. crenatus of Lamarck, 

which was imported in 1816 into. Portsmouth harbour 

on the bottom of H. M. S. Wellesley from Bombay; 

but it has not become naturalized. M. bidens of Linne 

and M. Africanus of Chemnitz were subsequently intro- 

duced in the same manner, and with a like result, into 

Scarborough and Plymouth. The former is a West- 

Indian, and the latter a West-African species. 

Modiola 

agglutinans of Cantraine (M. vestita, Philippi) is said to 

have been once found in Ardmore Bay, near Youghal, 

and was described by Captain Brown under the name 

of Modiola Ballii. It is a Mediterranean species. The 

was found 

Mytilus (Lithodomus) aristatus of Dillwyn 

many years ago in a piece of ballast limestone imported 

into this country from the West Indies, and was for- 

merly included among 

British shells. 

Genus II. MODIOLA'RIA * Beck. PI. III. f. 3. 

Body suboval : mantle folded in front into a wide incurrent 

tube, and behind into a conical excurrent tube : 

foot strapshaped. 

Shell rhomboidal, sculptured by two rows (one on each 

the middle 

side) of striae which radiate from the beaks, leaving 

* Allied to the genus Modiola of Lamarck.

MODIOLARIA. 121 

portion smooth : berths incurved : hinge mostly toothless, but 

sometimes crenulated : hinge-plate finely notched. 

This genus differs from Mytilus in the mantle being 

folded into a distinct tube for the supply of food and 

aerated water, as well as in the remarkable sculpture of 

the shell. The hinge-plate is crenulated as in Mytilus 

phaseolinus . The 

foot is very flexible and extensile ; and 

when fully stretched out, it is two or three times as long 

as the shell, and becomes almost thread-shaped. The 

animal can crawl rather fast along a level surface by 

extending and fixing the point of its foot in front, using 

it as a fulcrum, and then dragging itself forwards ; 

and 

it occasionally floats on its back like Kellia suborbicu- 

laris and other small bivalves. One species (M. mar- 

morata) 

burrows into the tunic or outer coat of Asci- 

dians, and others form nests or wrapping-cases with the 

aid of their byssus. It would seem, however, 

that the 

European habit of infesting Tunicata is not possessed by 

any Transatlantic species. 

Although Beck has the credit of founding the genus 

Modiolaria, and it has been adopted by Loven, Mid- 

dendorff, and other writers on the northern mollusca, 

it has never been described or characterized by any of 

them. The same remark applies to the genera La- 

nistes of Humphreys and Lanistina of Gray, 

which are synonyms of the present genus. 

both of 

Modiolaria 

may be distinguished from Brown's genus Crenella by 

the shell of the latter being covered all over with stride 

or ribs, and by its having a strong and crenulated 

tooth in the hinge of each valve. The animal also 

differs in some important particulars, which will be pre- 

sently noticed. Whether all these differences are generic 

or subgeneric, may be a moot question ; but as the 

lines of demarcation between any one group of animals 

G

122 MYTILIDiE. 

and those on each side of it in the same family are 

never capable of being precisely defined, it is obviously 

undesirable to encumber our system of classification 

with more divisions and names than are necessary to 

separate and recognize the species 

group. 

contained in such 

1. Modiolaria marmora'ta*, Forbes. 

Mytilus marmoratus, Forb. Mai. Mon. p. 44. Crenella mctrmorata, F. & H. 

ii. p. 198, pi. 

xlv. f. 4. 

Body thick, pale-yellow: incurrent tube large and bagshaped, 

formed of two pendulous puckered flaps of the mantle, 

mottled with purplish- or reddish-brown and white flakes ; 

margin plain : ecccurrent (or anal) tube small and conical, of 

the same colour as the larger tube, farrowed at the base, and 

having the mouth or opening fringed 

witb four or five minute 

dark cirri : foot white, very long and almost cylindrical, with 

a deep byssal groove : 

byssus semitransparent but strong. 

Shell oval, very gibbous and obliquely angular, rather 

thin, glossy, and somewhat iridescent : 

sculpture, 15-18 longitudinal 

ribs on the anterior side and 20-25 on the other 

side ; these ribs or striae occupy the two sides only ; the intermediate 

space is smooth, with the exception of very fine and 

crowded transverse lines, which traverse the whole surface 

and give the ribs an appearance of being minutely punctured : 

colour yellowish, irregularly mottled with purplish- or reddish-brown 

spots or blotches, sometimes forming zigzag 

streaks, occasionally of a uniform orange hue : epidermis light 

green : margins rounded and obliquely truncate at the anterior 

end, nearly straight and slightly gaping on the ventral 

side, wedge-shaped or bluntly pointed at the posterior end, 

whence they slope backwards with a gentle curve to the dorsal 

angle or hinge-line : byssal sinus long and narrow : beaks 

small, swollen, inflected (as in the genus Verticorclia), and 

divergent, placed near the anterior margin: ligament thick 

and strong, yellowish-brown, nearly concealed in the embrace 

of the hinge-plate : hinge-line slightly curved, occupying the 

whole of the dorsal margin : hinge-plate strengthened by an 

internal rib and receiving the ligament in a shallow groove ; 

* Marbled. 

it

MODIOLARIA. . 

123 

is obliquely and finely crenulated : hinge reflected and deeply 

indented : inside nacreous and iridescent, notched all round 

the edge, except on the ventral side : muscular scars slight and 

scarcely perceptible. L. 075. B. 0*45. 

Habitat : Imbedded in the skin or outer integument 

of Ascidia mentula and other simple Tunicata, or 

attached by its byssus to old shells, in the Laminarian 

and Coralline zones on all our coasts. It is by no 

means rare ; 

and sometimes a score of specimens may 

be extracted from a large Ascidia. In a fossil state it 

The limits of its 

occurs in the Red and Coralline Crag. 

foreign distribution comprise the sea- bed lying between 

Finmark and the iEgean, and reach westward to the 

Canaries. On the Norwegian coast Asbjornsen has 

given 10, and Danielssen 150 fathoms as its bathymetrical 

range. It has not been quoted in any list of 

Icelandic, or of North American shells. 

On being dislodged from its usual place of abode, 

M. marmorata puts out its foot and feels its way in 

search of another retreat ; and when it has found one to 

its liking, it immediately spins a byssus and securely 

fastens itself, sometimes on or within the fold of a 

seaweed, or in the crevice of a stone. I have seen it (as 

if acting on a sudden impulse, or disliking to be watched) 

detach itself from its mooring and set out again on its 

The 

travels to select a more sheltered or suitable spot. 

genesis or development of the animal has been fully and 

most ably elucidated by Loven. 

This species used to be called the Mytilus discors of 

Linne; and it is not improbable that in his description 

he included it with the Mytilus discrepans of Mon- 

tagu, which we now refer to Linnets species. 

epithet " fusca "i in the ' 

applicable to the present species; 

But the 

Systema Naturse * is scarcely 

and as one of the 

g2

124 mytilidjE. 

localities given by Linne, on the authority of his pupil 

Zoega, is Iceland (where M. marmorata has not since 

been found), it may be on the whole better to confine 

the specific name of discors to the other species. 

Leach 

was, I believe, the first to call in question the identity 

of M. marmorata with the Mytilus discors of Linne. 

In his monograph of the genus Modiola, published in 

i 

the 'Zoological Miscellany (vol. ii. p. 56), he says, as 

to the species in one section, 

" 

Montagu described two 

as natives of Great Britain : one he named M. 

species 

discors (but I am by no means satisfied that it is the 

discors of Linne) ; the other, which is a very distinct 

species, discrepans" The change of name afterwards 

Forbes was not effected without much 

proposed by 

opposition. Philippi called it Poliana, in the Supple- 

plement to his work on the Sicilian Mollusca, 

' 

Zeitschrift fiir Malakozoologie ' 

in the 

for June 1844 ; Hanley 

substituted another name (tumida), in his Appendix to 

Wood's ' 

Index Testaceologicus '; and D'Orbigny after- 

wards added a fourth, viz. Europcea. Lamarck had 

described it in 1819 as Modiola discrepans. If the 

Linnean collection of shells had been preserved intact, 

instead of being so often and so carelessly disarranged and 

rearranged by Sir James Smith's pupils 

and various 

other persons, it might have helped to explain some of 

the short and doubtful descriptions contained in the 

' 

Systema 

Naturse ' 

and other works of the great Cory- 

phaeus of northern naturalists, and would have prevented 

much of the confusion which has prevailed with 

regard to the species above alluded to. Even the numbers 

marked on some of the specimens, with reference 

to those works, cannot be identified with the handwriting 

of Linne ; and it is extremely rare to find a case where 

the name has been so inscribed.


2. M. costula'ta *, Risso. 

Modiolus costidatus, Risso, Hist. nat. l'Eur. rnerid. iv. 

p. 324, 

Crenella costidata, F. & H. ii. p. 205, pi. 

xlv. f. 1. 

f. 165. 

Shell oblong, narrower at the anterior than at the opposite 

about 10 ribs 

end, convex, rather thin, and : glossy sculpture, 

on the anterior side and twice as many on the other side ; 

middle area somewhat depressed, destitute of ribs, but the 

whole surface of the shell is marked by very numerous and 

wavy transverse striae, which gives it a silky appearance : 

colour cream-white, beautifully mottled with rich purplishbrown 

streaks often arranged in a zigzag pattern : epidermis 

thin, light green : margins rounded at the anterior end, nearly 

straight or slightly incurved on the ventral side, broad and 

rounded at the posterior end, and forming a gentle curve on 

the dorsal side : beaks small, inflected and divergent, not so 

much swollen as in M. marmorata, nor placed so near the 

anterior : margin byssal sinus, ligament, and hinge-line 

that : species hinge-plate strengthened by 

as in 

an internal rib or 

ledge and strongly toothed ; ligamental groove narrow : hinge 

reflected and slightly indented or notched : inside highly na- 

creous, and of a deep purplish-brown except at the edge, 

which is finely crenulated on the anterior and posterior sides : 

scars indistinct. L. 0*4. B. 0-2. 

Habitat : Under stones and among 

small sea-weeds 

in rock-pools at low spring-tides on the south coasts of 

Devon and Cornwall ; Herm (Macculloch) ; Oxwich Bay, 

near Swansea (J. G. J.) ; and Bundoran, co. Donegal 

(Waller). It is rather local, but not uncommon. Searles 

Wood has found it in the Red and Coralline Crag. It 

appears to be a southern form, and to range from Brittany 

(Mace) to Sicily (Philippi) and the Canaries (Webb and 

Berthelot) . 

This very pretty shell differs from M. marmorata in 

being less gibbous or tumid, much narrower, and of a 

brighter and more variegated colour; the posterior 

margin is regularly curved instead of obliquely wedge- 

* Slightly ribbed.

126 MYTILIDJE. 

shaped ; the central area is depressed ; and the beaks 

are placed at a greater distance from the anterior 

margin. Mr. Dennis says that it is frequently imbedded 

in a very snug little nest on seaweeds, but never among 

their roots, where M. discors takes up its abode and 

occurs in great numbers. My largest specimen 

is half 

an inch long; but I believe it is usually very much 

smaller, and that in cubical contents it is not a tenth of 

the last species. 

3. M. dis'cors*, Linne. 

Mytilus discors, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1159. Crenella discors, F. &H. ii. 

p. 195, pi. xlv. f. 5, 6 ; and pi. xlviii. f. 5. 

Body yellowish-white, with a few scattered minute specks 

of flake-white : incurrent tube formed by a wide protuberant 

slit of the mantle in front for the admission of food and 

water: excurrent tube conical, and projecting considerably 

beyond the shell at the posterior or broader end : foot strapshaped, 

capable of being extended more than twice the 

length of the shell, and used (like that of Mytilus edulis) for 

crawling. 

Shell oval, much broader than either of the other species 

above described, somewhat compressed, rather thin, usually 

not glossy : sculpture, 10-12 remote ribs on the anterior side, 

and 30-40 close-set ribs on the other side ; middle area de- 

pressed and smooth ; transverse stria? very minute and fine : 

colour yellowish-brown : epidermis rather thick, light green : 

margins rounded on all sides, except the ventral, which is 

nearly straight : beaks small, rather prominent, incurved and 

diverging, placed near the anterior margin : 

byssal sinus, 

ligament, and hinge-line as in the other species : hinge-plate 

strengthened by an internal rib, and obliquely and strongly 

toothed ; ligamental groove narrow : hinge slightly reflected 

and thickened, crenulated: inside highly nacreous, purplishyellow 

or livercolour, with the anterior and posterior edges 

finely 

notched : scars rather distinct. L. 0-5. B. 0-35. 

Var. 1. angustior. Shell smaller, narrower, and more glossy. 

* Disagreeing.


Yar. 2. semilcevis. Shell narrower, yellowish-horncolonr; ribs 

on the posterior area slight and scarcely perceptible, L. 0*1 7-5. 

B. 0-1. 

Habitat : Gregarious at the roots of seaweeds (especially 

Corallina officinalis) between tide-marks, and in 

the Laminarian zone everywhere from Shetland to the 

the Channel Isles. Var. 1. Southampton (J. G. J.) ; 

estuary of the Orwell, Suffolk (Clarke). Var. 2. Staffa 

(Alder). Some specimens from Lismore near Oban 

also have no trace of ribs on the upper part of the pos- 

terior area. Having had an opportunity of carefully 

examining and comparing an extensive series of specimens 

of Modiola laevigata, Gray, and the variety sub- 

striata, from different parts of the Arctic seas, I am convinced 

that they are not distinct from the present species. 

The gradual passage from any one of these forms 

to another is very evident, if a sufficient number ol 

examples of all ages and from many localities are submitted 

to the inspection of a tolerably practised ob- 

server; and the deplorable fashion of species-making 

might be in some measure restrained by adopting this 

method in all cases, instead of selecting a few particular 

specimens and discarding young shells and those 

which offer inconvenient proofs of transition. As an 

upper tertiary fossil the variety laevigata 

has been found 

at Elie in Fifeshire by the Rev. Thomas Brown, and the 

typical 

form occurs in the mammalian bed at Chilles- 

ford. It has a wide extra- British range, from North 

Greenland and New England to the iEgean. 

This little creature is a very industrious seamstress ; 

for Mr. Alder says it " forms for itself a kind of nest or 

case by stitching together the small seaweeds or coral- 

lines with its byssal threads." Forbes and M'Andrew 

dredged it at a depth of 30 fathoms in the Irish Sea, off

128 mytilid^:. 

Anglesea, in the line of strong currents, enveloped in 

similar nests. Dr. Gray has observed that " it creeps 

with the foot on the surface of the water, with the shell 

downwards like a Cyclas, and it has the power, like that 

genus, of crawling up the smooth surface of glass or 

china."" The old northern writers called it " anatum 

cibus," its littoral habitat rendering it a tempting prey 

to wild- fowl. According to Fabricius it is eaten, al- 

though seldom, by 

the Greenlanders. 

The meaning of the specific name has reference to 

the opposite direction in which the two sets of ribs or 

stria? appear to diverge. It is to be regretted that this 

discordance has extended to the synonymy. Montagu 

called the present species Mytilus discrepans ; and more 

than ten years afterwards Lamarck used the same name 

for Modiolaria marmorata, as well as for M. impacta, 

a tropical shell. 

4. M. ni'gra*, Gray. 

Modiola nigra, Gray, Supp. to App. to Parry's First Voyage to the North 

Pole, p. ccxliv. Crenella nigra, F. & H. ii. p. 202, pi. xliv. f. 5, and 

(animal) pi. Q. 

f. 7. 

Body " of a transparent white hue, with the margin of the 

cloak and siphon tinged with pink, and speckled with brown 

and opaque white." (Alder.) 

Shell oval, inclining to oblong, compressed, rather thin, 

moderately glossy and slightly iridescent: sculpture, about a 

dozen remote ribs on the anterior side, and 50-60 close-set 

and thread-like ribs on the other side, which latter become 

finer towards the middle of the shell ; ventral area not de- 

pressed, but without ribs ; transverse striae numerous, coarse, 

and flexuous, sometimes forming tubercles or a rough network 

where they intersect the longitudinal ribs : colour 

purplish-brown : epidermis rather thick, fawn-colour in the 

young, olive-green at a subsequent stage of growth, and dark 

* Black.


brown or even pitch-black in aged examples : margins rounded 

on all sides except the ventral, which is nearely straight : 

beaks small, prominent, incurved, and diverging, placed at 

some distance from the anterior margin : byssal sinus, ligament, 

and hinge-line as in the other species : hinge-plate strength- 

ened by a rib to receive the ligament, and hnely notched; 

ligamental groove narrow and deep : hinge 

crenulated : inside 

highly nacreous, purplish-brown, finely notched on the anterior 

and posterior edges, and showing the impressions of the 

ribs as well as faint traces of similar but finer striae on the 

middle area : scars distinct. L. 1*5. B. 0*65. 

Habitat : 

Muddy gravel, at depths varying from 7 

to 90 fathoms on the coasts of Yorkshire, Northumber- 

land, and Durham, both sides of Scotland, and the Shetland 

Isles. Although not generally distributed, it is not 

uncommon in some places, and in the Firth of Forth it is 

called by the fishermen the " corduroy mussel." The 

Dogger bank appears to be its southernmost limit in our 

seas. The Rev. H. W. Crosskey found a single valve in a 

and Mobius 

postglacial bed in the Kyles of Bute. Meyer 

obtained specimens by dredging in the bay of Kiel, on 

the German coast of the Baltic, whence the species 

ranges northwards along the Scandinavian shores to 

Nova Zembla on the east, and Iceland on the west. On 

the other side of the Atlantic it inhabits the coasts of 

Greenland, Newfoundland, New England, and Massa- 

chusetts. 

This fine species may be at once known from M. 

discors by its sculpture. There are nearly twice as 

many ribs on the posterior area, and the transverse stride 

or wrinkles are so coarse as to give a granular appear- 

ance to that part of the shell. Besides, 

margin is more produced, and consequently 

the anterior 

the beaks 

recede further from that extremity. The fry are quite 

smooth and have a prismatic lustre. The largest specimens 

I have seen were lately procured on the Durham 

g 5

130 MYTILIM. 

coast, one of them measuring nearly 

two inches and 

a half in length. 

Chemnitz and Fabricius considered it to be a variety 

of M. discors ; and Montagu noticed it as a large form 

of his Mytilus discrepans. Leach, in his ' 

Miscellany/ excellently described it by 

Zoological 

the last-men- 

tioned name; and he referred the Devonshire specimens 

of M. discors to a small variety of the same species. 

This was many years before Gray's publication; and 

perhaps, in strict justice, the name of discrepans ought 

to be restored and applied to the present species. 

But 

I will mercifully abstain from increasing the perplexity 

which has so long involved the nomenclature of the 

Modiolarice. 

Genus III. CftENE'LLA*, Brown. PI. III. f. 4. 

Body roundish-oval : mantle open in front, and folded behind 

into a sessile excurrent tube : foot worm-shaped, the 

point being disk-like and issuing 

out of a sheath. 

Shell oval or rhomboidal, cancellated by longitudinal ribs 

and transverse plates : beaks straight : ligament small : hinge 

of each valve furnished with an upright tooth, which is crenu- 

lated as well as the hinge-plate. 

The name of this genus was probably derived from 

the circumstance of the hinge-plate being slightly 

notched. The shell is entirely composed of nacre, and 

has a silvery hue when deprived of the epidermis : in 

this respect it resembles that of Nucula. The animal is 

unlike that of Modiolaria. It has the mantle completely 

open in front, instead of being folded into a special tube 

for the entry of food and water ; the excretory tube is 

exceedingly short, and sessile, instead of being produced 

* A little notch.

and conical ; 

CRENELLA. 131 

and the foot is a very extraordinary organ. 

This is formed of two parts : one is the stalk, of a cylindrical 

form \ and from the npper end of it, as if from a 

sheath, issues a tongue-shaped 

disk which serves for 

crawling. The animal does not spin a thick byssus, 

like Modiolaria, but secretes only a single slight thread 

or filament as a point of attachment, and by means of 

which it holds itself suspended in the water. 

Herrmannsen supposed that the genus was synonymous 

with Limopsis and belonged to the Arcidce. Mac- 

gillivray placed it with Lima and Anomia in his family 

Pectinina. 

1. Crenella rhom'bea"*, Berkeley. 

Modiola rhombea, Berk, in Zool. Journ. iii. p. 229. C. rhombea, F. & H. 

ii. 

p. 208, pi. 

xlv. f. 3. 

Shell obliquely rhomboidal, gibbous, rather solid, somewhat 

glossy 

and iridescent : 

sculpture, 60-70 fine longitudinal ribs, 

crossed by 12-15 transverse plates ; the former radiate from 

the direction of the beaks, and occasionally bifurcate or 

branch off towards the margin; the latter form imbricated 

ridges, and are stronger on the posterior slope : colour pearlwhite 

: epidermis extremely thin and easily rubbed off, pale 

yellow : margins truncate or obtusely 

rounded on the anterior 

side, slightly incurved in front, produced into a semicircular 

lobe on the posterior side, and forming a wing or arched crest 

behind: byssal 

sinus small: beaks globular and prominent, 

placed close to the anterior margin, minutely striate in a 

transverse direction, but not sculptured in any other way: 

ligament narrow but thick, yellowish-brown, occupying about 

two-thirds of the hinge-line : hinge-line straight : 

hinge-plate 

rather broad and strong, finely crenulated: hinge furnished with 

a rather large wedge-shaped serrated tooth in each valve, one of 

which interlocks within the other : inside nacreous and glossy, 

inner margins 

showing distinctly the impression of the ribs ; 

notched all round : muscular scars very slight. L. 0*13. B. 0-2. 

Habitat : 

Rocks and gravelly bottoms, from low- 

* Rhomboidal.

132 MYTILID^l. 

water mark to 20 fathoms, on the coasts of Cornwall, 

Devon, Dorset, and the Channel Isles. The collection 

of Mr. George Humphreys, the well-known dealer in 

shells, made in the last century, contained a single 

valve labelled lc Ireland ? ; but if the locality was cor- 

rectly stated, this species 

has not been rediscovered 

there. I am only aware of a few (ten) places where it has 

been discovered in England, though it is tolerably common 

at Lulworth and Guernsey. Single valves are very 

abundant in the Coralline Crag at Sutton. M. Martin 

has found it in the Gulf of Lyons, and Mr. M'Andrew in 

the Gulf of Tunis and the Canary Isles. 

Dr. Lukis informed me that some of his finest speci- 

mens were taken alive in a rock-pool lying immediately 

below half-tide mark on the western shore of Guernsey. 

They occupied a chink in the rock a little under the 

surface of the water. The transverse ridges perhaps 

denote the annual growth of the shell. The fry are so 

totallv dissimilar from the adult, that I was misled into 

describing and figuring 

Limopsis pellucida 

in the ' 

the former under the name of 

Annals and Magazine of 

Natural History ' for January 1859. They 

are smooth 

and oval, resembling a minute Ungulina in shape ; 

hinge is placed exactly 

the 

in the middle of the dorsal 

margin ; and the arrangement of the teeth or crenula- 

tions on the hinge-line further indicates the affinity of 

Crenella to Nucula. 

Dr. Leach admirably described this lovely and re- 

markable shell in his ' 

Zoological Miscellany ' 

" Modiola Prideaux." Unfortunately 

(1814) as 

the termination 

of the specific name is not in accordance with the rules 

of zoological nomenclature, and it must therefore be re- 

jected. 

It is true that Capt. Brown altered the name to 

Prideauxiana in his ' 

Illustrations of British Concho-

CRENELLA. 133 

logy/ published in 1827, being the same year 

which Mr. Berkeley's notice appeared in the f 

Journal/ a circumstance that undoubtedly 

as that in 

Zoological 

must have 

some weight with a scientific jury ; but after consider- 

ing the whole case, and taking into account the positive 

disadvantage which would result from a change of any 

name that has been generally recognized, I must give 

my verdict in favour of Mr. Berkeley. This species is 

the Modiola asperula of Searles Wood's Catalogue of 

Crag fossils. 

2. C. decussa'ta*, Montagu. 

Mytilus decussaftis, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 69. C. decussahis, F. & H. 

ii. p. 210, pi. 

xlv. f. 2. 

Body greyish-white : mantle quite open in front, and folded 

at the posterior or broader end of the shell to form an excre- 

tory tube ; edges fringed with very short and minute glistening 

cilia, which correspond with the ribs of the shell : tube very 

short and sessile, with a plain margin : foot worm-shaped, consisting 

of a long stalk with a sheath at the end, from which 

proceeds an oval creeping- disk. 

Shell obliquely oval, with a slight approach to a rhomboidal 

form when viewed sideways, rather solid, somewhat glossy and 

prismatic : sculpture, 50-60 fine longitudinal ribs, crossed by 

40-50 transverse striae ; the former resemble those of the last 

the latter are thread-like and form minute nodules or 

species ; 

beads on the ribs at the points of intersection : colour pearlwhite 

: epidermis rather thick and yellowish-brown : margins 

rounded on all sides except at the back, where an obtuse 

angle separates the hinge-line : beaks globular and prominent, 

placed close to the anterior margin, over which they slightly 

project; they are quite smooth, with the exception of some 

delicate transverse striae : ligament thick, reddish-brown : 

hinge-plate rather broad, finely cre- 

hinge-line nearly straight : 

nulated : hinge toothed as in the last species : inside nacreous, 

showing more or less distinctly the impression of the ribs ; 

inner margin notched all round : scars more perceptible than 

* Divided crosswise.

134 mytilidjs. 

in C. rhombea, owing to the greater thickness of the inner coat 

of nacre. L. 0-15. B. 0-12. 

Habitat : 

Coasts of Yorkshire, Northumberland, An- 

trim, and Scotland from the Clyde district and Firth of 

Forth north to the Shetlands, in gravelly sand from 3 

to 70 fathoms. It appears to be gregarious. Post- 

glacial deposit at Elie, Fifeshire (Rev. T. Brown). It 

inhabits the seas of Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland, 

and New England, occurring at various depths from 

low-water to 150 fathoms. 

This exquisite gem of a mollusk is hardy and active. 

Not being able to examine living specimens at the time 

they were taken, I picked out a few from a small heap 

of dredged sand, which had been lying on a pathway for 

two days, exposed to continual rain and partly trodden 

underfoot. After keeping them eighteen hours in a 

small glass vessel of sea-water, they revived and were 

alive for many days, the water being occasionally re- 

newed. While crawling about, they sometimes carried 

the shell erect with the beaks in front, but more fre- 

quently in a slanting position. They 

seemed fond of 

getting to the surface of the water, when the Crenella 

would spin with its foot a single pellucid thread, which 

it fixed to the side of the vessel, and it would hang (like 

a Sphcerium) for hours thus suspended, the beaks of the 

shell being undermost. The shell being nearly trans- 

parent during the lifetime of the animal, the green liver 

is distinctly seen through it, occupying the umbonal 

region. The foot-stalk or pedicle is semicylindrical, 

and becomes twisted if the animal is placed on the wrong 

side. The creeping-disk or lobe is very flexible and in 

some degree extensile. It is half as broad again as the 

stalk, and proportionally thicker. A dusky line runs 

down the middle of the stalk, apparently showing the

CRENELLA. 

135 

muscle which connects the terminal lobe with the basal 

attachment of the foot to the body. While the animal 

is crawling a tremulous movement is seen to pervade 

the lobe. The stalk and sheath are faintlv wrinkled 

across. The foot is protruded from the ventral opening 

in the mantle, and extends in a direction opposite to 

that of the beaks. 

Col. Montagu described and established this species 

from a single valve, which was found by his friend 

Capt. Laskey at Dunbar; but he erroneously supposed 

it might be the Mytilus faba of Miiller. It is the 

Modiola cicercula of Moller, but not the M. glandula of 

Totten, which latter species (as Sars has remarked) is 

more rhomboidal and broader, besides being three or 

four times the size of our shell. C. glandula and C. 

faba are more nearly allied. The Mytilus 

Lamarck is a large South American mussel. 

decussatus of 

Two specimens of C. faba were procured some years 

ago by Professor King from the stomach of a wild duck 

that was shot near Newcastle ; and one of them is in 

my 

collection. This shell is common in the arctic zone 

on both sides of the Atlantic. The bird may have picked 

up the shells in upper Norway or Iceland ; and better 

evidence is wanting before C. faba cau be admitted into 

the British fauna. 

Another species, however, of a much more novel and 

interesting kind has been takemon our northern coasts 

under similar circumstances. During the severe winter 

of 1855 several birds of passage were killed near Scar- 

borough. One of them came into the possession of 

Mr. Alfred Roberts, an intelligent bird-stuffer, who 

found a number of small shells in its crop. These he 

gave to Mr. Bean, and they proved to be the young of 

Mytilus edulis and Littorina litorea, and an unknown

136 MYTILID^. 

bivalve. Mr. Bean kindly sent me a specimen of the 

latter, and I described it in the f 

of Natural History ' 

name of Modiola cuprea. 

Annals and Magazine 

for January 1859 (p. 40) under the 

I subjoin the description :— 

" Testa ovato-trapezoidea, gibbosa, solidula, nitida, epidermide 

prismatica, frdva (antice flava), pilosa vestita, subtus 

albida, rugis concentricis raris irregulariter notata; angulo 

transversali ex apicibus ad latus posticum oblique decurrente ; 

umbonibus obtusis ; lateribus, dorsali rectiusculo elevatiore 

postice rotundato, antico abrupte truncato, ventrali convexo 

subsinuato antice declivi, posteriore quadrato ; marginibus in- 

tegris ; bysso ex filis perpaucis curtis crassulis composito ; 

long. -1 lat. 4- unc." 

On* ft 

But this description is incomplete, inasmuch as 

no mention is made of the internal structure of the 

hinge. Having succeeded in opening the shell, after 

steeping it for a long time in water, 

I am now enabled 

to supply this deficiency; and the result has compen- 

sated for the care and patience bestowed on the operation. 

Each valve has on the anterior side of the beak 

four small but prominent tubercular teeth, and on the 

posterior side the same number of angular teeth, which 

are set obliquely and resemble in shape those of Nucula 

or Leda. The hinge-line is microscopically but indis- 

tinctly notched, as in Crenella and some species of Area. 

I do not know if this peculiar arrangement of tuber- 

cular teeth on one side and of lamellar teeth on the 

other side of the hinge has any parallel in bivalve 

shells, unless it be the genus Nuculocardia of D'Orbigny. 

The little shell in question is evidently littoral, judging 

from the habits of the other species which were found 

with it in the bird's stomach. From what coast, or 

from what part of the northern hemisphere, it was 

brought to our shores, it is almost impossible 

to con- 

jecture. The animal was preserved in my specimen,

arcidjE. 137 

and does not seem to have undergone the least decom- 

position; and the shell still retains its original colour 

and gloss. The species has not been noticed by any 

other writer, nor have I detected anything approaching 

it in the extensive collections made by Dr. Torell on 

the coasts of Iceland, North Greenland, and Spitzbergen. 

There is some doubt as to the kind of bird from whose 

crop 

the shells were extracted. Mr. Bean asserts that 

that it was a Sanderling. Mr. Roberts is equally posi- 

tive that it was a Brent-goose ; and he supports his state- 

ment by the following domestic anecdote. Having 

heard that a Brent-goose was excellent eating, he de- 

pended on this bird for his Sunday dinner; but, to 

his disgust, when his wife was preparing it for the spit, 

it smelt so very " loud," that bread and cheese had to 

be substituted. He attributed the smell to the decaying 

Ulva on which the bird had fed, and among which 

were the shells he had given Mr. Bean. Mr. Roberts 

therefore had good reason for remembering what bird it 

was that caused so much pleasure to Mr. Bean, but disap- 

pointment to himself. Several specimens of this singular 

bivalve were taken on the above occasion. It 

is figured in Sowerby's Illustrated Index to British 

Shells, pi. 7.1 11. 

Family VI. AR'CID^, Lowe. 

Body thick, corresponding in shape 

with the shell : mantle 

open in front, but in some genera forming a single fold or two 

tubes at the posterior end : 

gills two on each side, arranged in 

pairs : 

foot shaped like a disk, worm, axe, or tongue, capable 

of burrowing, creeping, or spinning a byssus. 

Shell triangular, oval, wedge-shaped, round, oblong, or 

rhomboidal, equivalve, inequilateral : epidermis thick : 

ligament 

external ; certain genera have an internal 

cartilage 

in

138 ARCID.E. 

addition to, or subtitution of, the ligament : hinge-plate furnished 

with a row of close-set teeth in each valve, which 

mutually interlock : muscular scars lateral, deep or distinctly 

marked. 

The old and characteristic genus Area of Linne has 

multiplied so fast since his time, 

very numerous family. 

that it now forms a 

The quota which has been con- 

tributed to it by palaeontology, or the record of extinct 

races and generations, is nearly equal to that of recent 

genera ; and in this sense the march of science may be 

said to advance with almost the same rapidity in a re- 

trograde as in a forward direction. Both zoologists 

and palaeontologists are strenuous in the race ; but in- 

stead of being hostile rivals, the only object of their 

emulation is to assist each other and thus promote the 

common cause. 

The character which makes this group (whether we re- 

so distinct 

gard it as a genus, a family, or a set of families) 

and self-contained is the peculiar structure of the hinge. 

Instead of having, like other bivalves, only one, two, three, 

or, at the most, four tubercular teeth under the beak, and 

occasionally a single or double laminar fold on each side, 

all the Arcidce are furnished with a symmetrical row 

of these processes, occupying the whole of the hinge in 

each valve, and interlocking like the real teeth of many 

kinds of fish. This apparatus, aided by stout retractor 

muscles and an elastic ligament, and in some genera by 

a strong internal cartilage, enables the mollusk to keep 

its house closed against most of its predatory enemies ; 

and it is only when the shell is drilled by some canalifer- 

ous Gasteropod, or else swallowed whole by a voracious 

fish or by a member of the Bulla family, that its days 

are numbered. Those species of Area which habitually 

shelter themselves in the crevices of rocks, and are

ARCID^. 139 

attached by a solid byssus, may escape this doom for a 

longer period. The thickness and apparent longevity of 

specimens of A. tetragona and A. lactea may 

be thus 

accounted for. Lamarck proposed the expressive name 

of " Polyodontes " for the present family. According 

to Dr. Carpenter, a microscopical examination of the 

shell shows in many of the genera 

a tubular structure 

intersecting the upper layer and spreading outwards, the 

lower or inside layer being nacreous. 

The Arcidce may be conveniently divided into two 

sections, viz. 

smooth and 

t Shell triangular or wedge-shaped : epidermis 

glossy : beaks close together and recurved : hinge furnished 

with a row of teeth set like those of a comb, on 

each side of an oblique spoon-shaped process, which 

contains a cartilage. 

* Shell triangular. 

1. Nucula. 

** Shell wedge-shaped. 

2. Leda. 

ft Shell round, oblong, or rhomboidal: epidermis hairy or 

fibrous : beaks separated by the ligamental area, and in- 

continuous row 

curved : hinge furnished with a single 

of plate-like teeth, destitute of an intermediate cartilage 

or pit. 

* Shell round. 

3. Limopsis. 

4. Pectukctjlus. 

** Shell oblong, or rhomboidal. 

o. Aeca.

140 ARCID.E. 

Genus I. NU'CULA*, Lamarck. PL IV. f. 1. 

Body roundish-oval, somewhat compressed : mantle open in 

front and at both sides : 

lapping 

the other : 

gills unequal in size, one pair over- 

lips or palpi long and pendulous : 

and having its margin serrated or notched. 

foot oval 

Shell triangular and compressed, highly nacreous : margin 

of the posterior side rounded : lunule or area below the beaks 

heart-shaped : ligament partly internal : 

cartilage 

contained in a : spoon-shaped cavity teeth sharp and recurved, 

those on the anterior side being fewer than those on the other 

side : pallial 

scar entire. 

internal and 

The Nuculce inhabit mud, sand, and gravel in all the 

marine zones on our coast ; 

and they appear to be gre- 

garious. They are found in every degree of longitude 

and latitude throughout the globe. The umbonal area, 

or that part of the shell which is terminated by the 

beak, is often eroded and the nacreous layers exposed, 

probably owing to the action of sulphuretted hydrogen, 

which is evolved from animal matter in a state of de- 

composition 

contained in the mud. Sometimes the 

beak is encrusted with a ferruginous or mineral deposit. 

The lunule in the present genus and Leda projects considerably, 

so as to resemble a pair of pouting lips. Each 

organ (in the mollusk as well as in Woman) encloses a 

row of dazzling white teeth. But here the analogy ends. 

Such comparisons of natural beauty constitute one of 

the minor charms of science, and may be pardoned in 

an enthusiastic naturalist. 

I am not prepared to accept D'Orbigny's proposition, 

which has been adopted by Gray and other concho- 

logists, that this genus ought to form a distinct family. 

The genus Nuculana of Searles Wood resembles Nucula 

in shape, but has teeth like those of Pectunciihts, and no 

* A small nut.

NUCULA. 141 

cartilage ; while Limopsis has the form of Pectunculus, 

with a cartilage and a cavity for its reception, as in the 

so-called Nuculida, although placed differently, 

viz. out- 

side the hinge, instead of in the middle of it. Stimpson 

advocates the separation of Nucula from the Arcidce be- 

cause of the want of a byssus ; but Pectunculus has none. 

This appendage is only necessary when the habitation is 

rocky or " hard/' In sandy and muddy, or " soft " 

ground the foot is used for burrowing, instead of spin- 

ning a byssus; and it is consequently larger in Nucula, 

Leda, Limopsis, and Pectunculus, which live in such 

situations, than in Area, which attaches itself to rocks 

and old shells. Recluz suggested the removal of Leda 

from the Arcidae and Nuculidce, and considered that all 

of them belonged to different tribes ; 

but our progress in 

classification has not yet advanced sufficiently to allow 

of such extreme subdivision. Gray placed Nucididce 

between the families represented by Solen and Mya, and 

in another order than that which contains Area, Pec- 

tunculus and Limopsis. Leach's arrangement is rather 

more eccentric or opposed to general views. His fami- 

lies of Nuculadce and Pectunculidae lie between Mactra 

and Venus, and his Arcadce [longo intervallo) between 

Pinna and Avicula. The late Mr. G. B. Sower by was 

the first to point out the separation of Leda and Nucula 

from Area. 

A. Inner margin notched. 

1. Nucula sulcata*, Bronn. 

N. sulcata, Bronn. Italiens Tertiargebilde, p. 109, no. 633. N. decussata, 

F. & H. ii. 

p. 221, pi. 

xlvii. f. 1-3. 

Shell obtusely triangular, rather convex, solid, of a dull 

hue: sculpture, numerous transverse striae or ridges, which 

* Furrowed.

142 ARCID.E. 

are crossed by finer longitudinal striae or ribs, giving 

the sur- 

face a cancellated appearance ; these markings are coarser and 

more irregular at the sides, but they do not extend to the 

lunule or space below the beaks : colour flake- white under the 

epidermis, which is thickish, olive-green, and microscopically 

striate like hair- cloth in a transverse direction : margins an- 

gular and slightly truncate on the anterior side, curved in 

front, and expanding on the posterior side to a wedge-shaped 

but rounded : angle beaks rather prominent and blunt, slightly 

recurved : lunule furrowed obliquely by strong and irregular 

wrinkles (being a continuation of the transverse striae), and 

indented or grooved in the direction of the beaks ; it is separated 

from the rest of the shell by a ledge, and projects in the 

middle so as to form a distinct keel : ligament narrow but 

strong : cartilage small, pear-shaped, 

contained in a narrow 

cavity underneath the beaks and projecting inwards : hingeline 

gently curved : hinge-plate broad and strong, occupying 

the whole of the dorsal space and rather more than one -third 

of the circumference of the shell : teeth sharply pointed, 10-12 

on the anterior side and 20-24 on the posterior side of the 

cartilage -pit, arranged in nearly straight rows, which diverge 

outwards at almost a right angle ; they become larger as they 

recede from the beak, in consequence of the progress of 

growth: inside creamcolour and slightly iridescent, faintly 

striated, or marked with lines which radiate from the beak and 

terminate in distinct notches or crenulations on the anterior 

angle and in front ; but these notches do not extend to the 

posterior angle : muscular scars oval and conspicuous. L. 0'65. 

B. 0-7. 

Habitat : 

Sandy 

mud and clay on the west coast of 

Scotland, at various depths, as well as in Dublin Bay 

(Branscombe and Warren) ; Bantry Bay (Humphreys) ; 

and south-west coast of Ireland (M f 

Andrew). Captain 

Bedford has dredged it in a semifossil state at Lismore, 

imbedded in a concrete of indurated clay. It is a local 

species. 

Loven, Asbjornsen, 

and Malm have recorded 

it from several parts of the Scandinavian coasts, the 

second of these authors giving 15-20, and the last 14-35 

fathoms. It also inhabits the coasts of Spain and both 

sides of the Mediterranean, as well as the iEgean, where

NUCULA. 143 

Forbes obtained it at depths varying from 45 to 145 

fathoms. Bronn and Philippi have described it as a 

fossil of the Subapennine tertiaries ; 

in upper miocene strata at Biot near Antibes. 

and I have found it 

This is the largest British species of Nucula. It can 

Conchological 

Illustrations/ because the description and figure do not 

answer to our shell, and that species is stated to have 

come from the Gulf of Guinea. It may be his N. rugu- 

hardly be the N. decussata of Sowerby's f 

losa, which is said to be of the size of N. nitida, although 

the locality is not mentioned. At all events Bronn's 

name has the precedence of many years 

over those of 

Sowerby. Philippi described, in the first volume of the 

' 

Sicilian Testacea/ the present species under the name 

of N. Polii. Bronn^s diagnosis exactly agrees with our 

shell ; and he justly observes that it is larger and 

broader than A 7 , nucleus. In the l 

Proceedings ' 

of the 

Zoological Society for 1856, another species from New 

Zealand has been called, by Mr. A. Adams, N. sulcata. 

2. N. nu'cleus*, Linne. 

Area nucleus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1143. N. nucleus, F. & H. ii. p. 215, 

pi. xlvii. f. 7, 8, and (animal) pi. P. f. 4. 

Body suboval, cream-colour, mottled with flake-white: man- 

tle having a plain margin : 

gills triangular and elongated, 

finelv striated on the outer and inner surfaces, and of a brown 

colour ; the upper lamina of each pair is by far the larger of 

the two, and entirely covers the other : 

lips pendulous, and 

transversely striated, each of them folded inwards or doubled : 

foot oval, pale yellow, deeply serrated at the margin, and exhibiting 

about fifty denticles. 

Shell like that of the last species in shape, but much smaller, 

shorter, and more tumid, as well as more triangular in con- 

sequence of the posterior side being less produced : 

* A small nut. 

sculpture,

144 ARCID^. 

numerous fine striae which radiate from the beak, and a few 

irregular lines of growth which form dark zones but do not 

intersect the longitudinal striae ; these striae are wanting 

on the lunule and dorsal area : colour greyish- white under 

the epidermis, which is yellowish -green and very closely and 

microscopically wrinkled in a transverse direction : margins 

angular and somewhat truncate on the anterior side, curved 

in front, and obtusely wedge-shaped and rounded on the 

posterior side ; beaks prominent bat blunt, slightly 

recurved : 

lunule marked obliquely by the lines of growth, and strongly 

indented or grooved across below the beaks it is ; defined by 

a slight furrow, and projects a little outwards, so as to form a 

blunt and indistinct keel : ligament slight : cartilage oval, con- 

tained in a short projecting cavity underneath the beaks : 

hinge-line somewhat curved : Jiinge-plate as in the last species : 

teeth sharply pointed and slightly recurved, about 15 on the 

anterior, and 25 on the posterior side : inside nacreous and 

highly iridescent, striated and notched as in N. sulcata, but in 

the present species the crenulations extend to the posterior 

angle 

: muscular scars oval and distinct. L. 0*475. B. 0*475. 

Yar. 1. radiata. Shell larger, flatter, more decidedly triangular 

and produced at the posterior side, and marked with 

numerous purplish-brown streaks, which radiate from the 

beaks outwards. L. 0*6. B. 0*6. N. radiata, F. & H. ii. 

p. 220, pi. xlvii. f. 4, 5, and xlviii. f. 7. 

Yar. 2. lumidida. Shell smaller, more triangular and con- 

vex. N. tumidula, Malm, Proc. Scand. Soc. (1862), p. 621. 

Habitat : 

Common 

in sand and gravel on all our 

coasts from Shetland to the Channel Isles, at various 

depths ranging from 3 to 85 fathoms. Capt. Beechey 

in 145 fathoms. 

dredged it off the Mull of Galloway 

Var. 1. More local, but widely distributed in the British 

seas, as well as from the Swedish coast (Malm) to 

Algeria and Sicily (M f 

Andrew). Var. 2. Off Unst, in 

85 fathoms ; very rare. This variety is also Scandi- 

navian, and was obtained by Dr. Torell in 80 fathoms. 

The typical form and the first variety occur in all the 

upper tertiaries, both in Great Britain and the south of 

Europe. Beyond our shores the recent species inhabits

NUCULA. 145 

every coast from the Faroe Isles to Sicily and the 

iEgean, and also 

terranean. 

the North African side of the Medi- 

Mr. Clark says that the animal is timid, and therefore 

difficult to observe. When in motion, 

its foot becomes 

a flat and nearly circular disk; its progress 

is not 

direct, but, turning round as on a pivot, its path describes 

an irregular ellipse. M. Gay of Toulon informs 

me that he constantly finds empty but perfect shells, 

with the epidermis entire, inside starfishes, which would 

therefore seem to have the power of killing the animal 

and sucking it out of the shell, after swallowing it. 

Petiver called this pretty kind the " silver cockle ?'} and 

it is a favourite prize of children when they gather their 

sea-side harvest in the autumn, 

It may be 

" On the beached margent of the sea." 

"The shell from the bright golden sands of the ocean. 

Which the emerald waves at your feet gladly threw," 

alluded to bv Keats in his delightful sonnet to some 

ladies. Specimens are now and then found more convex 

than others, even from the same localitv. Occasionallv 

the lines of growth are raised ; 

and where they cross the 

longitudinal striae a decussated appearance is the result. 

My first impression, that the N. radiata of Forbes 

and Hanley was a distinct species, has yielded to a con- 

trary conviction, in consequence of having compared 

numerous specimens of all ages and sizes from various 

places ; and I feel myself bound to reunite it with 

N. nucleus. Typical, and even ordinary specimens of 

each form cannot be confounded with each other ; 

but 

I have some from Plymouth and Tenby, which may be 

referred to either form. The grounds of supposed dif- 

ference are the comparative size, shape, convexity, and 

H

146 ARCIDM. 

colouring. The first ground is evidently untenable, 

because size is notoriously dependent on food, shelter, 

and the proportionate quantity of carbonate of lime con- 

tained in sea-water, according to its proximity to the 

shore, or distance from it, and to the action of freshwater 

and marine currents. The second ground, or the 

degree of those angles 

which affect the contour of 

Nucula, is influenced by the growth of the shell in any 

particular direction. All the Nuculce represent 

an iso- 

sceles triangle, the beak or point of one angle always re- 

maining the same, while the sides or points of the other 

two angles extend pari passu by the addition of new 

layers in either direction. If one of these sides is more 

produced than the other while the angle of each is 

greater or less than that of the beak, a scalene triangle 

is the result. This is the case with N. radiata ; and if 

it were a permanent or invariable character, I should 

regard it as having considerable weight in deciding the 

question. But were the most acute mathematician to 

measure the angles in certain specimens of the two so- 

called species, he would assuredly fail to detect any 

sensible difference. As to convexity, it is true that specimens 

of N. radiata are usually more compressed than 

those of N. nucleus. Other specimens, however, of both 

species are equally convex. The coloured rays are 

clearly a varietal, and not a specific character. They 

are even more conspicuous in another species (N. nitida), 

which has commonly a plain and sober hue. Instances 

of a similar diversity in this respect occur in Astarte 

triangularis and many other marine shells, as well as in 

species of the freshwater genus Unio. The nature and 

cause of colour in shells has not yet received that atten- 

tion from philosophical chemists which the interest of 

this curious subject demands. Probably 

the most in-

NUCULA. 147 

structive and elaborate examination of this problem will 

be found in the essay of Professor Lacaze-Duthiers, 

entitled "Natural History of the Purple of the Ancients/' 

to which I have referred in the Introduction to the first 

volume (p. lxvii), and which I shall again have occasion 

to notice. There seems to be no doubt that all colours 

are of mineral origin, and that they are secreted, by the 

Mollusca and other animals, from inorganic matter hj 

special glands. But there is no necessary connexion 

between the colour of the mollusk and that of its shell. 

The plain variety of our native Cowry (Cypraa Europcea) 

is a familiar illustration of this fact. While the shell 

is of a uniform porcelain-white colour, its inhabitant 

and fabricator exhibits most varied and brilliant tints of 

vermilion, yellow, brown, green, 

and red. The coloured 

markings of shells cannot be relied upon as a specific 

test, especially when the same hue predominates; and 

N. radiata is in this respect undistinguishable from 

N. nucleus. Taking into consideration the question of 

with reference to the remarks which I made in 

locality, 

the Introduction to Vol. I. 

(pp. xix and xx), I believe it 

will be found that the two forms do not live together. 

I have never taken them in the same spot ; 

and Forbes 

and M.'Andrew have observed that N. radiata occurs 

at Milford Haven " always in separate parts of the bay 

from nucleus" This circumstance would of itself in- 

cline me to doubt the propriety of separating these forms 

unless as varieties. Sufficient weight does not seem to 

have been given to the remarkable occurrence in the 

same locality of different species of marine animals 

which are bisexual but require mutual impregnation *. 

* Oppian speaks of this mode of generation with abhorrence :— 

Eire irpbs dXXrjXcov, repas dypiov, eKcpvovrai, 

Notri/u 7r69iov, Kai vbatyi fa\ui)v, na\ vbatyi tokoio. 

H 2

148 ARCID.E. 

The difficulty arising from the sterility of hybrids among 

unisexual animals being thus removed, how does it 

happen that so many distinct but allied species assemble 

and live together without interbreeding or mingling 

their respective races ? There is no fusion, there are 

no intermediate forms or gradations from one to an- 

other; each pursues its own course and mode of life, 

and appears to have no communion w T 

ith its neighbour. 

Surely 

this emboldens naturalists to maintain the in- 

tegrity of species as at present existing, 

however much 

they may have changed in the course of bygone ages. 

We take Nature as it is and apparently has been— not as 

it might have been ; and all speculations as to the origin 

of species, although ingenious and interesting, are useless, 

for want of sufficient data to guide us in the inquiry. 

The variety tumidula resembles N. nitida in shape ; 

but the surface is not glossy as in that species, and the 

is the same as in N. nucleus. 

sculpture 

The present species seems not to be liable to distor- 

tion ; but a valve now before me from Guernsey has a 

fold on the posterior slope, contracting the shell, and 

somewhat resembling the sinuosity of Axinus fleocuosus. 

Specimens 

from the Hebrides and the south-west of Ire- 

land are larger than any I have seen from other parts, 

whether British or foreign. Besides the characters above 

noticed in the description of this species, it differs from 

N. sulcata in sculpture, in the beaks being more promi- 

nent, the hinge-line more curved, and the cartilage-pit 

shorter and broader, in having more teeth on the ante- 

rior side, and in the crenulations of the inside margin 

extending further towards the posterior angle. 

It is the Area margaritacea of Bruguiere, and Gly- 

is the Nucula 

cijmeris argentea of Da Costa. The fry 

argentea of Brown.

NUCULA. 149 

3. N. ni'tida*, G. B. Sowerby. 

X. nitida, Sow. Conch. 111. (Nucula) p. 5, f. 20 ; F. & H. ii. p. 218, pi. xlvii. 

f. 9. 

Body similar to that of N. nucleus ; but the gills are light 

brown, smoother outside, and more strongly striated on the 

inner surface : foot of a paler colour, and its disk less deeply 

serrated at the margin. 

Shell acutely triangular, convex towards the beaks, but 

compressed in front, moderately solid, remarkably glossy : 

sculpture nearly the same as in jV. nucleus but the ; longitudinal 

striae are slighter, and the transverse striae are stronger, 

especially at the sides, giving the surface a partly cancellated 

or notched appearance at the points of intersection ; the lunule 

is only marked by the lines of growth, and the dorsal area is 

smooth: colour milk-white under the epidermis, which is 

yellowish-brown, highly polished and lustrous, without any 

trace of the microscopical lines or wrinkles observable in 

the foregoing species; the latter is sometimes beautifully 

tinted with yellow or purplish -brown longitudinal streaks, 

which are arranged in irregular bundles, and resemble the 

rays of the setting sun : margins 

truncate on the anterior 

side, forming an obtuse angle where it joins the ventral range, 

rounded in front, and slightly produced or wedge-shaped at 

the posterior side : beaks prominent, apparently overhanging 

the anterior margin owing to its truncature, and re- 

curved : lunule as in the last species, but deeper immediately 

below the beaks, and not so much raised, separated 

from the 

rest of the shell by a blunt ridge in each valve : ligament very 

slight: cartilage pear-shaped; cavity larger and projecting 

more than in the last : species hinge-line slightly curved : 

hinge-plate rather narrow : teeth long, sharp, and recurved, 

about twelve on the anterior, and twenty on the posterior 

side : inside highly nacreous and iridescent, conspicuously 

striated lengthwise, strongly notched on the ventral and 

anterior margins, but the crenulations do not extend to the 

posterior angle : muscular scars oval, not very 

B. 0-45. 

Habitat : 

distinct. L. 0*4o. 

With the last, but neither so generally dif- 

fused nor so plentiful. I have taken it at low spring-tides, 

* Shining.

]50 arcidjE. 

and at depths ranging between that mark and 86 fa- 

thoms. Glacial deposit, Paisley (Crosskey). Morch 

and Walker have recorded it from Greenland, Asbjorn- 

sen from Norway, Loven and Malm from Sweden, 

M'Andrew from the Spanish coast and Algiers, and I 

have fonnd it in the Gulf of Genoa. Gould says that 

the N. proximo, of Say (from the Massachusetts coast) 

is closely allied to the present species, if not identical 

with it ; 

but that shell seems to be less glossy, and the 

shape rather more obliquely transverse. 

My 

description, ' 

note of the animal differs a little from Mr. Clark's 

' 

and is as follows :— Colour greyish-white. 

Mantle finely fringed. Foot tongue-shaped, folded 

up when at rest; when it is expanded, it assumes a 

roundish-oval shape, and its margin is regularly den- 

tate, or set with numerous point-like 

tentacles." The 

shell is usually less solid than that of A r . nucleus ; the 

anterior slope is more abruptly truncate, and the posterior 

slope more produced ; the umbonal area is more 

convex and prominent; the beaks are more terminal; 

and the polished epidermis will always serve to distin- 

guish it from its dull congener. 

It is not the Area nitida of Brocchi, which is a species 

of Leda. Weinkauff supposes that our shell may be the 

but this idea is not correct, and I 

young of N. sulcata ; 

fear that it may 

tend to throw some discredit on his list 

of Algerian Mollusca, although 

he has considerably extended our knowledge of this 

it cannot be denied that 

branch of the North African fauna, and further results 

The 

may be expected from his zeal and opportunities. 

young of N. sulcata, instead of being smooth and glossy 

like N. nitida, is remarkably rough, and of a dusky hue, 

and it is a much broader and flatter shell.

NUCULA. 151 

B. Inner margin plain. 

4. N. te'nuis*, Montagu. 

Area tenuis, Mont, Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 56, tab. 29. f. 1. N. tenuis, F. & H. 

ii. p. 223, pi. xlvii. f. 6, and (animal) pi. P. f. 5. 

Body white : mantle open in front and at the posterior side, 

with a : plain edge foot white, rather longer and not so decidedly 

pedunculated as in the other species, nor are the margins of its 

disk so coarsely serrated, although the crenulations are more 

numerous. 

Shell obtusely and obliquely triangular, and inclining to a 

circular form, compressed, thin, glossy : sculpture, only slight 

and irregular transverse ridges : colour bluish-white under the 

epidermis, which is yellowish, with a tinge of light brown, 

highly polished and lustrous, and destitute of microscopical 

or any other markings : margins truncate at the anterior side, 

and obtusely angled at the point of junction with the ventral 

range, rounded and broad in front, and slightly produced or 

wedge-shaped on the posterior side : beaJcs blunt, and scarcely 

prominent, not much recurved: lunule comparatively small 

but raised, denned by a : 

slight ridge ; ligament strong carti- 

lage pear-shaped, contained in a rather large and broad cavity : 

hinge-line curved, occupying about one-third of the circumference 

of the shell: hinge-plate forming an oblique groove 

on each side of the beak : teeth long, sharp, and nearly straight, 

about six on the anterior, and sixteen on the posterior side : 

inside silvery-white and iridescent, faintly striated lengthwise, 

with the margin somewhat thickened : muscular scars 

roundish-oval, rather distinct. L. 0-425. B. 0-45. 

Var. inflata. 

with the front or ventral margin 

Shell smaller, more triangular and tumid, 

less curved : 

beetles 

more pro- 

minent. L. 0-3. B. 0-3. N. inflata, Hancock, in Ann. & Mag. 

Nat. Hist, xviii. p. 333, pi. v. f. 13, 14. 

Habitat : Sand and mud, in 25-100 fathoms, on the 

north-east coast of England, every part of Scotland 

from the Firth of Forth to Unst, Dublin Bay, and 

(according to the late Mr. Thompson) 

the east of Ire- 

land. It is, however, a local species. Dr. Goodall was 

* Thin.

152 ARCID^S. 

mistaken in giving Tenby as a locality. He collected 

many shells there, but procured his specimens of N. 

tenuis from the late Mr. G. B. Sowerby. It occurs in 

all our upper tertiaries, and especially in deposits con- 

taining shells of arctic species. The variety comes from 

the deepest part of Loch Fyne and the Shetland sea. It 

resembles N. nitida in shape, but is more convex. The 

foreign distribution of this species and its variety extends 

from Spitsbergen and Greenland to New England in the 

Western hemisphere, and from Iceland along the whole 

of the Scandinavian coast on our side of the Atlantic. 

Danielssen has taken the variety at Vadso at from 30 to 

160 fathoms. The typical form has been dredged by 

Sars and M fAndrew in Finmark and Upper Norway, 

by (Jrsted and Asbjornsen in Christianiafiord, and by 

Malm on the coast of Bohuslan in Sweden, at various 

depths from 55 to 100 fathoms. Philippi has recorded 

it as a Calabrian fossil under the name of N. decipiens, 

being probably one of the numerous relics of the glacial 

epoch. 

Torell regards the N. expansa of Reeve (Belcher's 

Arctic Voyage, vol. ii. p. 397, pi. 33. f. 2 a, b) 

as iden- 

tical with the N. inflata of Morch, and perhaps also 

with Hancock's species ; 

and he suggests the possibility 

of its being a high-northern or arctic variety of the pre- 

sent species. Having examined a great number of spe- 

cimens of all acres collected by Dr. Torell in the arctic 

seas and Iceland, which he refers to Reeve's and Morch's 

species, and having compared the types 

of Hancock's 

species, I have been unable to detect anything beyond 

a slight varietal difference between these shells and 

British specimens of N. tenuis. The arctic specimens 

are exactly of the same shape as the Shetland variety 

above described, but considerably larger.

LEUA. 

Genus II. LE'DA*, Schumacher. PL IV. f. 2. 

153 

Body transversely oval : mantle open in front, as well as on 

the anterior side, and forming on the posterior side two cylin- 

drical tubes of unequal length. Other characters as in Nucida . 

Shell triangular- oval, or oblong : margin produced 

on the 

posterior side, and in some species slightly gaping or open : 

lwn.uk lance-shaped : ligament, cartilage, and teeth as in Nucula, 

except that the number of teeth on the anterior side is nearly 

equal to that on the posterior side : pallial scar interrupted by 

the tubes. 

This genus is closely 

tion and habits, 

allied to Nucula in its distribu- 

as well as in most of the characters exhi- 

bited bv the animal and shell : but the mantle in Leda 

forms two distinct tubes, and the shape of the shell is 

oval or oblong, instead of triangular as in Nucula. The 

teeth, also, in the present genus are set more obliquely, 

and the disparity of number is less between those in the 

front and those in the back row. It corresponds with 

the genus Lembulus of Leach, quoted by Risso; and 

according to Morch (' Gronlands Bloddyr ') 

genus Nuculana, a name of prior 

Schumacher. 

it is Link's 

date to that of 

Yoldia is said to differ from Leda in 

Holler's genus 

the tubes being longer, and curved instead of straight, 

in 

the foot being larger and thicker, in the posterior edges 

of the mantle being ciliated instead of plain, and in the 

shell gaping at both ends, whereas that of Leda is closed 

at the anterior end and truncate at the other ; 

and the 

posterior side has two or three blunt external ridges, 

and an internal rib or epiphysis caused by the separation 

of the tubes. But in L. minuta the posterior edges of 

the mantle are ciliated, or fringed by short filaments, 

and the shell of L.pygmaa, which is referred by northern 

* A proper name in Greek mythology. 

H 5

154 ARCID.E. 

writers to the so-called genus Yoldia, is closed at both 

ends. These (and probably L. pernula) being the only 

species indigenous to our seas, I must hesitate before 

admitting the proposed division of Leda into two genera, 

so far as concerns the British Mollusca. 

A. Shell triangularly oval, smooth and polished; posterior 

extremity rounded and closed : lunide indistinct ; teeth set 

like those of a comb. 

1. Leda pygmê'a*, Minister. 

Niccula pygmcBa, (Minister) Goldfusa, Petref. p. 157, t. cxxv. f. 17. L. 

pygm&a, F. & H. ii. p. 230, pi. xlvii. f. 10, and (animal) pi. P. f. 3. 

Body pale fawn-white colour : tubes short, united, with plain 

orihces : foot hatchet-shaped, and widely grooved at its posterior 

edge, forming when expanded a crenated disk. 

Shell nearly equilateral, sloping gradually from the beak to 

each side, tumid, glossy, and iridescent : sculpture, only a few 

irregular marks of growth : 

colour pearl-white under the epi- 

and lustrous : 

dermis, which is yellowish -brown, highly polished 

margins rounded at the anterior side, with an oblique slope to 

the ventral range, which is also rounded, somewhat produced 

and wedge-shaped at the posterior side, with a slight tendency 

to curve upwards : 

recurved ; 

beaks small and blunt, rather incurved than 

lunide lance-shaped, but scarcely visible, and faintly 

denned by an obscure ridge, which runs from the beak to the 

posterior angle in each valve : ligament exceedingly slight : 

cartilage and the cavity containing it very 

Jiinge-line slightly curved, occupying nearly 

small and short : 

the whole of the 

dorsal area and considerably more than one-third of the circumference 

: hinge-plate deeply grooved, and becoming wider 

as the distance from the cartilage-pit increases : teeth rather 

long and sharp, placed on the inner margin of the hingeplate, 

slightly curved outwards or reflected ; there are 10-12 

on the anterior side, and 12-14 on the other : inside glossy, 

with the margin somewhat thickened and entire : pallia! and 

muscular scars slight, except in aged or dead specimens. 

L. 0-15. B. 0-2. 

* Dwarf.

Habitat : 

Mud 

LEDA. 155 

and sand, in 20-86 fathoms, on the 

Antrim coast, Skye, Hebrides, and Shetland. It is 

very local in a recent state, but widely diffused in 

glacial beds, and occurs also in the Coralline Crag. 

Many conchologists have noticed it as an arctic and 

Scandinavian species ; Danielssen and Asbjornsen say 

it is found on the Norwegian coast at depths varying 

from 10 to 140 fathoms, and Malm on the coast of 

Sweden in 30-53 fathoms. The only southern habitat 

that I am aware of is Naples, where Scacchi is said 

(according to Philippi) to have taken it. It is a tertiary 

fossil in Siberia and Sicily. 

Some specimens are shorter and more gibbous than 

others. Owing to the semitransparency of the shell, 

the teeth are distinctly 

visible outside the hinge-line. 

Philippi named this species Nucula tenuis, before he 

was aware that Goldfuss had described it, or that Mon- 

tagu had already used that name for another species. 

Mr. James Smith called this species Nucula gibbosa, 

and Moller N. lenticula. The Yolclia abyssicola of Torell 

and Sars is probably a variety of the present species. 

The Y. lucida of Loven seems different. 

B. Shell triangularly oblong, transversely ribbed, with two 

ridges extending obliquely from the beak in each valve 

to the posterior extremity, which is truncate and somewhat 

open : teeth set in a herring-bone fashion. 

2. L. mintj'ta*, Miiller. 

Area mimda. Mull. Prodr. Zool. Dan. p. 247, no. 2985. L. cav.data, 

F. & H. ii. p. 226, pi. xlvii. f. 11-13, and (animal) pi. P. f. 2. 

Body oblong and pear-shaped, greyish-white: mantle fringed 

or denticulated at its posterior side by a row of five very short 

* Small.

156 ARCIDiE. 

filaments : tubes united for more than half their length, 

considerably produced, slender and smooth ; the incurrent 

(or branchial) tube is shorter than the excurrent (or anal) 

tube, and the latter has a square orifice, with finely pointed 

angles : foot oblong, compressed, white, deeply grooved, and 

capable of being expanded into a creeping-disk with notched 

margins. 

Shell inequilateral, sloping from the beak with an oblique 

curve to the posterior extremity, which somewhat resembles 

a duck's bill, compressed, rather solid and opaque, scarcely 

glossy : sculpture, 

about 30 transverse laminar ribs which 

vary very much in strength and compactness, besides extremely 

fine glittering and prismatic lines, which radiate from the 

beaks, but do not usually extend to the front margin unless 

in very young shells ; and there are also two ridges, which 

diverge from the beak in each valve, and embrace the truncated 

point at the posterior angle : colour pearl-white under 

the epidermis, which is yellowish-brown and generally of a 

dull hue : margins rounded at the anterior side, more or less 

curved in front, and elongated at the posterior side to a blunt, 

upturned, and truncate point, where the valves slightly gape : 

beaks small, rounded, nearly straight, destitute of transverse 

ribs, and : glossy lunule lance-shaped, ribless, depressed, with 

slightly prominent edges or lips, and defined by 

the inner 

ridge of the posterior slope : ligament slight : cartilage oval 

and small, contained in an : oblique pit hinge-line curved on 

the anterior side of the dorsal area, and inflected on the other 

side, occupying about two-fifths of the circumference : hingeplate 

grooved, and increasing in width in proportion to the 

growth of the shell: teeth vault-like or concave, slightly 

curved outwards, higher in the centre of each row, and dimi- 

there are about 16 on the 

nishing in size towards either end ; 

anterior side, and about 20 on the posterior side : inside porcellanous 

and glossy, somewhat thickened near the margin, 

which is smooth, with a distinct ridge running down the middle 

of the beak -like extension of the posterior side : pallial and 

muscular scars well marked. L. 0'3. B. 0-55. 

Var. brevirostns. Shell smaller, longer in proportion 

to its 

breadth, with the posterior extension much shorter, more convex 

or tumid : ribs finer and more crowded. 

Habitat : 

Everywhere 

on our northern coasts, in 

muddy gravel and sand, from 20 to 90 fathoms. Captain

Beechey has dredged 

LEDA. 157 

it alive in 145 fathoms off the 

Mull of GaUoway. It occurs in all our upper tertiary 

deposits, although in all probability an allied species 

(L. pernula, Miiller) has been often mistaken for it in 

has a more 

compiling lists of fossil shells. The variety 

southern habitat, and is found on all the English, Welsh, 

as well as at Oban and in the Hebrides. 

and Irish coasts, 

Both the typical form and variety frequent the Arctic 

and Scandinavian seas, at depths of from 10 to 160 

fathoms. Gould has recorded this species from Massa- 

chusetts, and observed that he could find no difference 

between the American shell and a specimen of L. minuta 

from Norway, which had been sent to him by Dr. Loven. 

Specimens vary very much in convexity 

gree of striation. Those obtained from deep 

and the de- 

water are 

usually flatter, and more delicately grooved, while specimens 

from comparatively shallow water are more or 

less tumid, and have stronger ribs. The flat and fine- 

ribbed form has been taken by Dr. Torell at Spitz- 

bergen. The fry have no ribs, but the cross lines are 

very conspicuous. 

Loven has not given any reason why he considers the 

Area minuta of Montagu is not that of Fabricius, and 

this eminent conchologist has strangely omitted the 

authority of O. F. Miiller for that name. Three vears 

after the publication of his * 

Prodromus to the ' 

Zoo- 

logia Danica/ Miiller described L. pernula ; so that he 

was evidently aware of the difference between the two 

species. Both are found living side by 

side in the north- 

ern seas. L. pernula is the Nucula oblonga of Brown, 

which is not uncommon in the Clyde beds ; 

and Stimp- 

son has enumerated it among the pleistocene fossils lately 

collected by Mri Drexler in Hudson's Bay. It may be 

identical with the A r . cuspidata of Philippi, from the

158 ARCID.E. 

Calabrian tertiaries. Miiller's description of Area mi- 

nuta is in every respect applicable to our shell ; and I 

do not see why the specific name given by him should 

be superseded by that of caudata, which Donovan long 

afterwards imposed on the same species. Fabricius 

appears to have found his original specimens of A. minuta 

in the crop of an eider duck, which may have picked 

up the shells on the coast of Norway before taking its 

return flight to Greenland. I have examined the type 

of Macgillivray's Nucula rostrata ; and it is merely the 

compressed form of the present species, being probably 

the L. intermedia of Orsted, and analogous to the L. 

complanata of M oiler. M. Weinkauff gives 

Area minuta 

of Fabricius as an Algerian shell ; but this appears to 

be a mistake, because one of the synonyms cited in his 

list is Nucula striata, Lamarck, a very different species, 

and an inhabitant of the Mediterranean. A. minuta of 

Brocchi (an Italian fossil) is another species, and Phi- 

lippi has distinguished it, in the Supplement 

on the Sicilian Testacea, by 

mutata. 

to his work 

the name of Nucula com- 

I dredged a young live specimen and a small single 

valve of L. pernula, in 80 fathoms, off the Shetland 

coast, in the same ground with the slender and longbeaked 

form of L. minuta. It is much more smooth 

and glossy than the last, proportionally longer from 

the beak to the front margin ; and the posterior slope is 

flatter, and has three instead of two ridges. Not having, 

however, obtained a full-grown specimen, I must post- 

pone a formal introduction of L. pernula into the catalogue 

of British shells. 

The Area rostrata of Montagu is a tropical shell. 

Nucula arctica of Gray (N. truncata of Brown, and N. 

Portlandica of Hitchcock) is a fossil of the Scotch gla-

LIMOPSIS. 159 

cial beck, but its habitation is now restricted to higher 

latitudes. Both of these species belong to the genus 

Leda. 

Genus III. LIMOFSIS % 

Sassi. PL IV. f. 3. 

Body longitudinally oval, or inclining to a circular shape : 

mantle open on all sides except the back : foot long, slender, 

and pointed at each end. 

Shell shaped like the body, nearly equal-sided, porcellanous 

: epidermis hairy or fibrous : beaks incurved and diverg- 

ing from each other in the course of growth : 

cartilage thick, 

contained in a shallow triangular cavity or depression, which 

is placed directly under the beaks and outside the hinge-plate : 

teeth tubercular, arranged in a continuous and curved line : 

pallial 

scar entire. 

This remarkable, and what some would call 

' ' 

critical," 

genus is related intrinsically to Leda, and extrinsically 

to Pectunculus. Like the former, it has a cartilage, 

with a cavity for its reception ; but this process is not 

placed, as in Leda, inside the shell, but on the hingeline 

and between the beaks and the hinge-plate. Pec- 

tunculus has no cartilage ; and its shell is kept closed 

behind by a ligament, which is wanting in Limopsis. 

The teeth are arranged in a single continuous row, as in 

Pectunculus, instead of in two separate 

rows in the same 

line, as in Leda, The shape of the teeth in the present 

is intermediate between that of Leda and Pectun- 

genus 

culus, being 

erect but blunt. The contour of the shell 

is much more like that of the last-mentioned genus, but 

it is somewhat longer in proportion to its breadth. 

Limopsis has scarcely any 

resemblance to Lima. Al- 

though the back of the shell in both these genera is furnished 

with a small wing or prolongation on the upper 

part of each side, and the cartilage-pit is similar, Lima 

* From its supposed resemblance to the genus Lima.

160 ARCIM. 

lias a differently constructed hinge-apparatus, and only 

one, nearly central, adductor muscle. 

The first to point out the difference between Limopsis 

and Pectunculus (although he retained both in the old 

Linnean genus Area) was the celebrated Italian palaeon- 

tologist Brocchi, who, in his 'Conchiologia 

fossile Suba- 

pennina/ described the species which I now propose to 

record as indigenous to the British seas. His description 

and remarks are (as usual) most excellent, and he 

especially noticed the similarity of his Area aurita to 

the Ostrea lima of Linne in respect of the triangular 

cavity in the hinge. The history of the present genus 

is involved in some obscurity, owing to the rarity of the 

work in which it was originally published. This was 

done by Sassi in the ' Giornale Ligustico di Scienze, 

Lettere, ed Arti ' 

(fascicolo quinto) for September 

1827. The British Museum library does not contain 

the work ; and it is only through the kindness of 

Prof. Lessona of Genoa that I have been enabled to 

refer to it. Nyst, in his f 

sils of Belgium ' 

Catalogue of the Tertiary Fos- 

(1843), professed to be ignorant of 

Sassi's publication or its date, although Bronn, in his 

f 

Lethsea Geognostica/ had given both these particulars 

twelve years before this statement was made by Nyst. 

The last-mentioned author, in conjunction with Gale- 

otti, had in 1835 renamed this genus Trigonoccelius. 

The late Pro- 

Nyst altered the name to Trigonocalia. 

fessor D'Orbigny, equally disregarding the rule of priority 

in scientific nomenclature, gave, in the c Paleonto- 

logie Francaise' (1844), another name, 

that of Pectun- 

culina. This has been lately adopted by Dr. Chenu in 

his very useful ' Manuel de Conchyliologie et de Pale- 

ontologie conchyliologique '; but he most unaccount- 

ably makes Limopsis and Trigonoccelia subgenera of Pec-

LIMOPSIS. 161 

tunculina. Gray added a fifth name (Limnopsis) in 

1840 ; and Herrmannsen, being apparently misled by 

Agassiz, considered Limopsis as a synonym of Brown's 

genus Crenella. The last two errors may be attribut- 

able, however, to lapsus calami, or to a too hasty attempt 

at classification. Only a very few species were until 

lately known in a recent state ; 

but Mr. A. Adams has 

given, in 

' 

the Proceedings ' 

of the Zoological Society 

for November 1862, a description of no less than nine 

additional species from different parts of the world. 

Many species flourished in the tertiary, 

the cretaceous period. 

1. Limopsis auri'ta**, Brocchi. 

and others in 

Area aurita, Brocchi, Conch, foss. Subap. ii. p. 485, tav. xi. f. 9. 

Body creamcolour : 

mantle thin and plain-edged, open in 

ft ont and at both sides : 

gills consisting of two pairs—the outer 

pair being the larger, and overlapping the other which is folded 

together, with the edges projecting outwards : foot narrow 

and worm-shaped, when fully extended longer than the shell, 

from the anterior 

bluntly pointed at each end ; it is protruded 

side ; foot-stalk or pedicle short and broad : hyssus filmy. 

Shell roundish- oval, with an oblique outline, compressed, 

numerous and fine 

solid, opaque, rather glossy : sculpture, 

longitudinal striae, which radiate from the beaks to the outer 

margins, besides equally numerous but irregular concentric 

ridges, some of which are larger than the rest, and all are 

more or less beaded or notched by the intersection of the 

striae ; at the posterior side, these markings are deeper and 

stronger, and the surface is slightly granulated: colour porcelain-white 

: epidermis yellowish-brown, forming in front and 

at the sides a long fringe, which projects beyond the edge 

of the shell : margins rounded on all sides except at the back 

or hinge-area, which is sometimes straight, giving that part 

the appearance of having an ear-like appendage on each side : 

beaks small, sharp, and prominent, regularly incurved : hinge- 

* Eared.

162 ARCID^l. 

area, or the cavity behind the beaks, narrow, striated transversely 

: cartilage small, but thick and strong, yellowish, contained 

in a shallow triangular pit or depression, which is 

placed immediately under the beaks, and lies between them 

and the hinge-plate : hinge-line nearly straight, interrupted 

by the cartilage-pit : hinge-plate very broad, occupying scarcely 

one-fourth of the circumference of the shell: teeth, about a 

dozen, strong, somewhat curved, and set obliquely : inside 

porcellanous and glossy, remotely and indistinctly striated 

lengthwise, bevelled off towards the margin, 

so as to form a 

broad and smooth edge : pallial and muscular scars very dis- 

tinct. L. 0-385. B. 0-385. 

Habitat : 

Off Unst, the most northerly of the Shet- 

land Isles, in 85 fathoms, sandy gravel. Altogether 

four living examples, a large and perfect dead one, 

and several single valves of different sizes have been 

found. Capt. Hoskyn obtained two small valves in a 

subfossil state from a sounding at 340 fathoms off the 

west coast of Ireland. It is not an uncommon shell in 

the Coralline Crag at Gedgrave ; and Mr. Searles Wood 

says his cabinet contains one specimen from the Red 

Crag, 

but it is much waterworn. I have also found it 

in upper miocene strata in the south of France ; and it 

has been recorded from the same formation in other 

parts of the Continent, as well as from the Subapennine 

tertiaries, where Brocchi first discovered the spe- 

cies. Michelotti must have been mistaken in citing 

it as still living in the Mediterranean. 

The animal is very shy, and perhaps feels uncomfort- 

able at being disturbed and removed from its native bed. 

No part of it was visible in the first specimen which I 

captured (in 1862), although I watched it for a long time. 

The shell is a lovely object when fresh and examined in 

water. The long and delicate but stiff hairs of its epidermis 

resembled a fringe of silken eyelashes surround- 

ing the lids of a sleeping beauty ; 

and it was exceedingly

tantalizing 

LIMOPSIS. 163 

not to see the enclosed treasure as a reward 

for my patience. I was more fortunate, however, in 

the specimens which I obtained the following year. 

One of them came out during the night and displayed 

itself. The foot was the only part visible outside. The 

mantle appeared to have no tube, although 

I saw dis- 

tinctly through its open folds the gills regularly napping. 

The alimentary and branchial orifice was in front. The 

excretal orifice was at the broader end, where faecal 

pellets were occasionally ejected. The Limopsis extended 

the foot beyond the narrower end of the shell, 

and after attaching the extremity to the side of the 

glass vessel, and contracting the foot above, it drew 

itself up to the further point, like warping a vessel to 

the anchor when moored; it then again 

the foot, using 

gated disk or sole, 

stretched out 

on each occasion the whole of the elon- 

in the same manner as a Planaria. 

Repeating this operation, it contrived by slow degrees 

to crawl up the side, and travelled four inches in two 

hours, being 

at the rate of a mile in little less than three 

years and eight months. On reaching the top it spun 

with its foot a very fine and almost transparent but tena- 

cious thread, the end of which it fixed to the inside rim 

of the vessel; and it remained for twelve hours thus 

with the beaks of its shell downwards. When 

suspended, 

I emptied the bottle, and put in fresh water, the byssal 

thread still continued fixed, and the Limopsis kept its 

former place. It only loosed its hold after having a slight 

degree of force used. In this respect the strength and 

duration of the attachment differed from that by which 

Sphcerium lacustre orKellia suborbicularis suspends itself. 

The process, however, is the same in all cases, whether 

it be the occasional secretion by the last-mentioned bi- 

valves of a slight gossamer filament or the production

164 ARCIDiE. 

by a Pinna of the comparatively stout cords or cables 

anchored to the sea-bottom. 

by which it is permanently 

Most of the Conchifera appear to be byssiferous. 

A species of Limopsis closely allied to the present 

has been taken by Mr. M fAndrew on the coast of Upper 

Norway, in from 70 to 100 fathoms, and was referred 

by him to the Pectunculus pygmaus of Philippi. Sars 

found the same species also on the Norwegian coast, but 

considered it to be the P. minutus of Philippi. Both 

species are fossil. The L. pygmaea 

of Searles Wood 

from our Coralline Crag is certainly different from Mr. 

f ' M Andrew's shell. In Adams's Genera of Recent Mol- 

lusca' the Norwegian species is called " L. borealis, 

Woodward." The inside margin of the shells found by 

M fAndrew and Sars is notched or crenulated, but in 

L. aurita it is plain or entire, and the contour of this 

last shell is rather less oblique. Whether the crenu- 

lated margin is a specific character in Limopsis may be 

open to doubt. Of two species of Astarte {A. sulcata 

and A. triangularis) usually having notched edges, a 

variety 

edges ; 

of each is not uncommon which has smooth 

and specimens are occasionally found possessing 

both characters, or having the inner margin partly 

notched. 

Genus IV. PECTUN'CULUS % Lamarck. 

PL IV. f. 4. 

Body nearly circular, or suborbicular : mantle open in front, 

as well as on the anterior side, and sometimes folded on the 

posterior side into a very short excretal duct ; the other part 

of the mantle on the posterior side has its margin furnished 

with numerous ocelli or eye-like points : foot large and thick, 

* A small scallop (Pliny).

PECTUNCULUS. 165 

shaped when at rest like an axe, bnt capable when in motion 

of being expanded into a discoidal form. 

Shell suborbicular, convex, nearly equal-sided, porcellanous 

: epidermis velvety : beaks slightly incurved, and be- 

coming separated from each other in the course of growth. 

ligament altogether external, very strong, occupying a vaulted 

cavity at the back of the shell, composed of several bundles of 

cylindrical fibres, which radiate from the beak to the hingeplate, 

to the outer edge of which they are united: teeth 

in a curved line but in two 

laminar and continuous, arranged 

distinct rows : pallial scar entire : muscular scars oval, symmetrical, 

and strongly marked. 

The rounded form of Pectunculus prevents its being 

mistaken for any other genus of the same family, except 

Limopsis ; and the substitution of a compound ligament 

for a simple cartilage, besides other specialties of the 

hinge-structure, offer sufficient marks by which these 

can be known one from the other. Moreover 

genera 

Pectunculus has never been observed to produce a byssus : 

but I do not consider this a distinguishing characteristic. 

The nature of their habitation is the same. 

The present genus has descended in an unbroken line 

from the Silurian epoch to the present time. The 

extent of its distribution in space is equally great. It 

is prolific in species ; 

but only one of them has yet been 

found as far north as the Loffoden Isles. This is the 

kind that inhabits our seas. 

Lister was the first naturalist, since Pliny, to use the 

word Pectunculus; but he applied it to most bivalve 

shells. His second division of Pectunculi had a fright- 

fully long adjective — Polyleptoginglymi —and comprised 

Area and Pectunculus. Eight years before Lamarck 

published the present genus, Poli proposed the name 

Axincea for the animal. This last name has been adopted 

by Oken and Gray ; but as it was founded solely on 

anatomical, and therefore insufficient characters, it does

166 arcidjE. 

not seem expedient to substitute it for the long-established 

name given by Lamarck. 

1. Pectuncultjs glycy'meris *, Linne. 

Area glycymeris, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1 143. P. glycimeris, F. & H. ii. p. 245, 

pi. xlvi. f. 4-7, and (animal) pi. P. f. 6. 

Body nearly round and compressed, yellowish-brown : 

mantle thick, covered with minute specks of brown and flakewhite 

; it is quite open on the anterior side, and but slightly 

contracted on the other side : the edges on the posterior side 

are studded with numerous, small, black, eye-like 

tubercles : 

foot very large, axe-shaped, deeply cloven or folded lengthwise 

when not in action. 

Shell slightly compressed, very thick and solid, of a dull 

hue : sculpture, numerous fine longitudinal striae, and more 

remote impressed lines, which are crossed by transverse or 

concentric striae, varying in number and strength, 

the surface 

being thus often reticulated : colour yellowish-white, irre- 

gularly mottled with zigzag streaks or blotches of purplish 

brown, or marked with spots or longitudinal lines of the same 

colour, sometimes of a beautiful pink or lighter tint, and even 

rows of 

milk-white : epidermis brown and thick, forming 

short bristles on the impressed lines in : young specimens mar- 

gins rounded on all sides except at the back, where they are 

interrupted by the beak and hinge -line : beaks small and prominent, 

incurved : ligament dark brown, consisting of eight or 

nine bundles, which are placed in a large triangular and grooved 

cavity below the beak these bundles are ; 

consequently longer 

at each end, the shortest being in the middle : hinge-line semi- 

circular : hinge-plate also curved, extremely broad and thick, 

occupying two-sevenths of the circumference: teeth set obliquely, 

six or seven in the adult (besides a few others of a 

smaller size) on the anterior side, and nearly as many on the 

posterior side, the intermediate space being smooth ; in younger 

shells the number of primary teeth is the same, but the middle 

area is furnished with four or five minute teeth : inside yel- 

lowish, with a purple tinge in some parts, freckled or closely 

pit-marked, bevelled towards the margin, which is broad and 

strongly notched at the edge : muscular scars very conspicuous. 

L. 2-25. B. 2-25. 

* A name given by Pliny to a kind of shell-fish.

PECTUNCULITS. 167 

Habitat : Sandy and shelly gravel and nullipore on 

every part 

of our coast from the Shetland to the Channel 

Isles, in 7-90 fathoms. It is gregarious, as well as gene- 

rally diffused ; and it occurs in all our upper tertiaries. 

Sars has recorded it from the Loffoden Isles, and Lilljeborg 

from Christiansund ; and it ranges southward on the 

east to the iEgean, and on the west to Madeira and the 

Canaries. Brocchi and Philippi have enumerated it as 

fossil in the Subapennine and Sicilian tertiaries. 

This is the " Dog-cockle " of Da Costa. The animal 

is sluggish and shy. I never saw it crawling. Mr. 

Clark observes that " the animal does not execute a 

direct progressive locomotion, but only turns the shell 

round on its disk or from side to side." The great 

thickness of its shell does not effectually protect this 

succulent mollusk from all its enemies. I was in- 

formed by Dr. Lukis that the dredge often brought up 

large empty shells, with the valves united, but having 

the work of 

pieces broken off. This has been probably 

the cat-fish, whose enormously strong jaws and teeth 

nothing but a solid stone can resist. Mr. Cleghorn 

attributed the imperfect state of all boulder- clay shells 

to this cause; but with respect to Cyprina Islandica, 

which is the most common shell in such deposits, I will 

in the proper place suggest another explanation. Spe- 

cimens of P. glycymeris vary considerably in the degree 

of convexity, as well as in the obliquity of their outline, 

and in colouring. The typical or usual form is more 

produced at the posterior side, especially 

in the adult 

state ; the variety pilosa is more orbicular ; in the va- 

riety decussata the longitudinal strise are deeper, but 

less numerous ; and small, round coloured spots distin- 

guish the pretty variety nummaria. The largest specimens 

I possess are about three inches in diameter. The

168 ARCIDiE. 

fry have a square shape, and are only sculptured by con- 

centric strise. Their inside margin is quite plain, and 

has no appearance of the crenulations which are deve- 

loped in a subsequent stage of growth. The impressions 

left by the ligament on the triangular space between the 

beaks in full-grown shells are very distinct. I do not 

find that the remarkable structure of the ligament, 

which is evident from these impressions, has ever been 

noticed. The hinge-process is liable to become abnormal 

or monstrous. A curious instance of it was exhibited 

in a specimen found by Mr. Bariee in the Shetlands. 

The hinge-plate had none of the ordinary cardinal teeth ; 

but, by way of substitute, each valve was provided with 

a rather strong laminar and horizontal tooth on each 

side, which locked into a corresponding groove in the 

opposite valve. The teeth occasionally decay and become 

carious in living specimens. Whether the animal 

suffers from tooth-ache would be a novel subject for dis- 

cussion by the Odontological Society. Aged individuals 

are often almost toothless, in consequence of the liga- 

ment pushing so far forward on the hinge-plate, as to 

obliterate all the central teeth : it reminds one of the 

hardened gums of an old man who has lost the greater 

part of this extremely useful apparatus. The shells are 

often seen in grotto-work; and Mr. M'Andrew says 

that at Algarve on the coast of Spain they are used, 

instead of lead, by the fishermen for sinking their lines. 

The anterior side of the shell, while the animal is alive, 

is frequently fringed with the tubes of a Hydroid polype 

(one of the Tubulariidce) , which seems to take advantage 

of the strong gyratory current produced by the mollusk 

for its own food-seeking purpose. This may be an 

analogous case to the supposed parasitic nature of Mon- 

tacuta substriata, which is always found attached to the

ARCA. 169 

ventral spines of certain Echinoderms. Living specimens 

of P. glycymeris, which I have dredged in 85 

fathoms, had their shells beautifully marked by varie- 

gated streaks of a bright reddish-brown. 

Mr. Searles Wood has taken a great deal of pains in 

making out the synonymy of this variable species 

in a 

recent and fossil state. He cites no less than eighteen 

different names. Among the best-known of these are 

Area pilosa (Linne), A. bimaculata (Poli), Pectuncidus 

stellatus (Lamarck), P. undatus, decussatus, and num- 

marius (Turton, but not Linnets species of Area bearing 

these names), and P. lineatus (Philippi). The Area 

minima of Turton' s ' 

mitted by him, 

in his ' 


Dithyra/ to be the fry 

was ad- 

of this 

referred it to A. 

species, although Leach subsequently 

Noes. Mr. Hanlev at first asserted that, from an exa- 

mination of Linnets own specimens, his A. glycymeris 

was the P." violascens" (violas cescens) of Lamarck ; but 

he afterwards corrected the mistake. The first localitv 

given by Linne (on the authority of Lister) for A. glycymeris 

was " Garnsey," where P. violascescens has never 

been found. The last-named species appears to be his 

A. nummaria, judging from the description 

tema Naturae/ 

in the ( 

Genus V. ARCA*, Linne. PL IV. f. 5. 

Sys- 

Body oblong and thick : mantle entirely open, except at the 

back, in some species fringed 

furnished (as in Pectuncidus) with ocelli : 

with tentacular filaments, or 

foot large and ex- 

tensile : byssus composed of glutinous threads, which sometimes 

form a compact mass, or plug of attachment. 

Shell oblong or rhomboidal, gibbous, inequilateral, and in 

a few species slightly inequivalve : epidermis fibrous : ligament 

* A chest ; 

or from the supposed resemblance of Noah's ark to this shell. 

I

170 arcidjE. 

as in the last genus ; but the bundles are not in all cases 

placed diagonally, being in some species across the space between 

the beaks : hinge-line straight : teeth laminar, and set at 

or a little more or less than a right angle to the hinge-line, con- 

tinuous in most species, but divided into two distinct rows in 

others : pallial scar entire : muscular scars oblong, symmetrical 

and strongly marked. 

Area rivals Pectunculus in its high descent, as well 

as in its fertility; and it far excels it in the number 

of species. It has, besides, a wider distribution, one 

species (A. pectunculoides) being found both on the coast 

of Greenland and in the iEgean. Its bathymetrical 

range is considerable, extending 

from low-water mark 

to between 300 and 400 fathoms. Unlike Pectunculus, 

it spins a byssus, and is by this means attached to sub- 

marine substances, from which it can disengage itself 

at pleasure ; or it takes permanent shelter and makes its 

abode in the cranny of a rock, the shell occasionally 

becoming distorted by 

tation. 

the narrow limits of its habi- 

The generic name is encumbered by a load of no less 

than thirty synonyms, which have been from time to 

time imposed by the fanciful ambition of systematists, 

or for the more laudable purpose of distinguishing particular 

groups of species. It will probably always remain 

a question whether subgenera are advisable, the settle- 

ment of it depending in a great measure on the defini- 

tion of a genus. The characters of all genera cannot be 

equivalent ; or perhaps we have not yet found the right 

key to Nature's lock. All are agreed as to the existence 

and they must be discriminated by certain 

of varieties ; 

names, in the same way as species, genera, and higher 

groups. One of Linnets botanical axioms may be cited 

in support of this method of identification :—'' Nomina 

si nescis, perit et cognitio rerum." Whether subgenera

ARCA. 171 

stand in the same relation to genera as varieties to spe- 

cies, is the point at issue. I am not in favour of this 

intermediate sort of classification, and believe it would 

lead to unnecessary confusion, and to a redundancy of 

names for the same object.. "Area (subg. Cucullaza) 

pectunculoides " is not easy to pronounce, or even to 

remember, on account of the parenthetical epithet. 

Such a mode of subgeneric nomenclature appears to me 

quite opposed to the spirit and simplicity 

of the bino- 

mial system ; and it may not be desirable to follow the 

example of some modern painters in reviving 

a state of 

things that has passed away and become obsolete, by 

now having a pre-Linnean school. The animal of Area 

constituted the genus Daphne of Poli. 

A. Shell slightly inequivalve : teeth few in number, set either 

obliquely or in the line of the hinge-plate, and arranged 

in two rows, one at each end of the plate, besides nume- 

rous crenulations in the middle across the plate. 

1. Arca pectunculoi'des *, Scacchi. 

A. pectunculoides, Scacchi, Ann. civ. d. due Sicil. vi. p. 82. A. raridera- 

tata, F. & H. ii. p. 241, pi. 

xlv. f. 8. 

Body reddish-brown : foot long and narrow, when in motion 

resembling that of a Gasteropod : byssus rather long, horny, 

and consisting of a single cylindrical thread. 

Shell obliquely rhomboidal, describing in its contour a segment 

equal to nearly two-thirds of a circle, tumid, thin, rather 

glossy ; 

the right valve (or that which has the anterior side to 

smaller than 

and en- 

the right hand of the observer) is unmistakeably 

the left valve, the margin of which slightly projects 

closes the opposite valve : sculpture, numerous fine and sharp 

longitudinal ribs, radiating from the beaks, and equally numerous 

but less raised transverse or concentric ribs, which cross 

the other striae and give the surface a regularly reticulated 

* Like Pectunculus. 

i2

172 arcid^:. 

aspect : colour yellowish-white, faintly tinged with brown : 

epidermis laminar, thicker towards the margins, and when 

fresh forming a line of short hairs on each of the longitudinal 

strise : margins rounded on all sides except 

the dorsal or 

hinge-line ; anterior margin only half the depth of the posterior 

one ; ventral margin slightly indented by the byssal 

chink : beaks not widely separated, small but prominent and a 

little recurved : ligament reddish-brown, slight and never perfect, 

composed of numerous line threads, which cross the de- 

pressed and narrow area at the back, and leave their impress 

in the shape of minute strise : 

liinge-line quite straight, and 

forming almost a right angle at each end, occupying nearly the 

whole breadth of the shell : 

hinge-plate narrow in the middle 

and widening towards each end, so as to afford a broad angular 

space for the reception of the teeth on either side : teeth 

3 or 4 on the anterior side, and 4 or 5 on the posterior side, 

indistinctly and irregularly notched on their outer edges, set 

more or less obliquely and sometimes nearly parallel with the 

hinge-line ; besides these teeth, and on that part of the hinge- 

plate which lies between the two rows, is a series of minute 

crenulations (like the ordinary teeth in A. lactea and allied 

species), which cross the hinge -plate and lie nearly at a right 

and somewhat 

angle with the side teeth : inside porcellanous 

nacreous, obscurely marked by remote longitudinal striae ; mar- 

gin often indistinctly notched, especially 

at the sides : 

pallial 

sear slightly nexuous : muscular scars very large and conspicuous. 

L. 0-175. B. 0-2. 

Habitat : The Hebrides and Shetland Isles, from 35 

to 90 fathoms, in muddy and sandy gravel. Mr. M fAn- 

drew has dredged it off Cape Clear in 60 fathoms, 

and Capt. Hoskyn off the west coast of Ireland in 100 

fathoms. It is an abundant fossil in the Coralline Crag 

at Sutton. According to Scacchi and Philippi 

it like- 

wise occurs in the upper tertiaries of the south of Italy ; 

and Nyst has recorded it from a similar formation in 

Belgium. In the Arctic seas it attains a remarkably 

large size. Dr. Wallich took, at a depth of 108 fathoms, 

on the east coast of Greenland, a specimen whose di- 

mensions nearly equal those of A. glacialis. Speci-

ARCA. 173 

mens obtained by Sars and MfAndrew on the coast of 

Finmark at depths of from 20 to 160 fathoms are smaller 

than the Greenland shells; bnt those from our own 

seas and more southern latitudes dwindle into insigni- 

ficant proportions compared with any of the above. 

M fAndrew has also dredged this species alive off Gib- 

raltar, in 45 fathoms, and Forbes in the iEgean, in 

200 fathoms. Two specimens which I procured from 

water off the north coast of Shetland were at- 

deep 

tached bv the bvssus to tubes of Pomatoceros arietinus, 

and I kept one of 

Muller [Ditrupa subulata, Berkeley) ; 

them alive for more than a day. Soon after it was put 

into a glass vessel and had a fresh supply of water, 

it left 

its plug of attachment on the Annelid case, and crawled 

away at a fair pace on its narrow foot, the valves of its 

shell spread out with the beaks uppermost. The action 

appeared 

to be similar to that of Galeomma Turtoni. 

The shell has all the characteristics of Lamarck's 

genus Cucullcsa, the side teeth being nearly parallel 

with the hinge-line, and consequently at almost a right 

angle 

angle 

to the central teeth or crenulations. But this 

varies in different individuals and at successive 

of the side teeth is 

periods of growth, and the position 

more frequently oblique than horizontal. The central 

teeth are often wanting. I therefore abstain from 

removing this species from Area, 

as well as from offer- 

ing any opinion as to the value of Lamarck's genus. 

Mr. G. B. Sowerby was the first to notice the inequality 

of the valves in Cucullcea. 

Dr. Torell called my attention to the probability that 

the present species might be identical with the A. 

glacialis of Gray. Professor Sars had previously ex- 

and in his Report on the so- 

pressed the same opinion ; 

called glacial formation in the Diocese of Christiania.

174 ARCID&. 

he referred to the latter species as " A. raridentata, var. 

major" Having carefully inspected and compared a 

great nmnber of specimens, recent and fossil, reputed 

to belong to both species, and having had the advantage 

of examining on the spot the grounds upon which Sars 

formed his opinion, I am not satisfied that these species 

ought to be united. At first sight, indeed, it might 

seem as if A. glacialis were only a large form of A. 

pectunculoides, and that the difference of size was explained 

by the former having a more northern habitat. 

But since A. pectunculoides has been found in Green- 

land, and A. glacialis is not uncommon in Iceland, while 

each constantly exhibits its own distinctive features, and 

attains nearly an equal size in the Arctic seas, we must 

inquire whether there is any intermediate link or variety 

connecting the two forms. I believe this question must 

be answered in the negative, so far as our present know- 

ledge extends. The shell of A. pectunculoides is roundish-oval 

or trapezoidal ; that of A. glacialis is obliquely 

oblong. The former is more gibbous or convex than 

the latter ; the length, or distance from the umbo to the 

front margin, is proportionally greater ; the beaks are 

more prominent and placed nearer the centre of the 

hinge-line ; the posterior margin is rounded, instead of 

wedge-shaped (as in A. glacialis) ; the sculpture is much 

finer, and the strise more numerous, even in specimens 

of a corresponding age and size ; and the teeth are fewer 

and set less diagonally than in the other species. The 

only description Which has been published 

of the ani- 

mal of A. glacialis is contained in Dr. Gray's Supplement 

to the Appendix to Parry's First Voyage, and is as 

follows :—" Animal : 

compressed, subquadrate, 

mantle lobes separate ; foot flat, 

front two cut with one or two 

fibres from the lower edge ; trachea none." For want

ARCA. 175 

of sufficient information on this point, it is at present 

impossible to make a complete comparison between the 

so-called species. All the fossil specimens which I have 

seen from the Christiania and Uddevalla districts be- 

long to A. glacialis, and they significantly indicate the 

climatal conditions which prevailed during the period 

immediately preceding the elevation of these sea-beds. 

A. pectunculoides, being found in the Coralline Crag, 

as well as in the upper tertiaries of Belgium and Sicily, 

would appear to be the older of the two. Although I 

am not aware of any intervening form having been dis- 

covered, such may have existed ; 

and supposing that to 

be the case, it would be fair to infer that A. pectunculoides 

was the ancestor of A. glacialis. Naturalists 

have been so much accustomed to regard species in an 

objective point of view, and not as abstract ideas, that 

it is difficult to bring their minds into the proper frame 

of thought for discussing speculative theories upon con- 

fessedly so difficult a question as the origin of species. 

The present species is the A. raridentata of Searles 

Wood, who has recognized, in his work on the Crag 

Mollusca, the priority of Scacchr's publication, and 

adopted the name which I have now given ; and it ap- 

pears to be also the A. pusilla of Nyst. 

B. Shell : equivalve teeth numerous and uniform, set across 

the hinge -plate, and either divided into two rows or 

arranged in a single 

and continuous row. 

2. A. obli'qua*, Philippi. 

A. obh'qua, Phil. Faun. Moll. Sic. ii. p. 43, t. xv. f. 2. 

Shell obliquely oval, with a rhomboidal outline, much narrower 

at the anterior side, and spreading out on the other side, 

* Oblique.

176 ARCID.E. 

compressed in the middle and indistinctly furrowed by a longitudinal 

groove, which runs from the beak to the front margin, 

convex, rather solid, scarcely glossy : 

sculpture, numerous fine 

and rounded ribs, radiating from the umbo, and equally numerous 

but laminar transverse striae which are raised or imbricated 

over the longitudinal ribs— a reticulated appearance resulting 

from their crossing each other : colour milk-white : epidermis 

thin and silky : margins rounded on all sides except behind, 

with a slight inflection in front, sloping abruptly on the 

anterior side, and wedge-shaped on the posterior side ; 

dorsal 

angle well developed : leaks small, blunt, and glossy, placed 

near the anterior margin and close to the hinge-line : ligament 

yellowish, slight, and narrow : hinge-line nearly straight, 

curved : 

occupying three-fourths of the shell's breadth, gently 

teeth arranged in two rows, that on the anterior side consist- 

ing of 4 or 5, and the other of 10 or 12, set nearly at a right 

angle to the hinge-line, but slightly diverging as they approach 

each end ; the intermediate space is smooth : inside 

porcellanous, marked with a few longitudinal striae, which 

only extend to the pallial scar ; margin thickened and broad, 

with the edges faintly crenulated : muscular sca?*s very large 

and conspicuous. L. 0*15. B. 0*2. 

Habitat: 80-85 fathoms, off Unst, in shell-sand. 

Two valves only (right and left) have been found, one 

by myself and the other by Mr. Waller ; 

both are fresh 

and perfect. It is a Scandinavian species, and has been 

taken by Danielssen in 60-80 fathoms at Vadso, by 

Sars in West Finmark, and by Malm in 100 fathoms 

on the Bohuslan coast. It was discovered by Philippi 

in newer tertiary strata at Lamato in Calabria; and 

Mr. M 'Andrew has shown me two recent valves which 

he received from the late Professor Forbes, probably 

iEgean. 

This interesting addition to the British mollusca is 

intermediate between A. pectunculoides and A. lactea. 

From the former it differs in being shorter in proportion 

to its breadth (the shape also being more oblique), and in 

having the beaks placed much nearer to the anterior side,

ARCA. 177 

and from the latter in its smaller size and coarser sculpture, 

and in having only half the number of teeth. The 

furrow or indentation in the middle is also 

longitudinal 

a peculiar character of the present species. Norwegian 

specimens are twice the size of ours, and these last are 

larger than Forbes' s specimens. 

It is the A. Korenii of Danielssen (' Beretning om en 

Zoologisk Reise/ 1859) 

and A. lactea of Malm. The 

A. obliqua of Reeve is a West-African shell, and a very 

different species. 

3. A. lac'tea *, Linne. 

A. lactea, Linn. Syst, Nat. p. 1141 F. & H. ; ii. p. 238, pi. 

xlvi. f. 1-3. 

Body white : mantle having its border finely notched, and 

pale-red towards the middle of the dorsal area ; the under 

surface of the ventral line is marked with irregular flake - 

brown blotches on a pale-yellow ground, and the upper surface 

is marked for some little depth with a sand-like rusty-brown 

belt and a darker interrupted line nearer the margin : 

gills 

symmetrical and equal in size, very thin and gradually taper- 

ing, pale yellow : foot extensile, fleshy, and pure white : bi/ssus 

short, horny, composed of several leaf-like threads. 

Shell varying in shape from rhomboidal to triangular, 

tumid, solid, of a dull hue : 

sculpture, numerous and fine longitudinal 

ribs, which become fewer and stronger at the sides, 

besides slighter and rather more numerous transverse ribs, 

which cross the other, making the front surface appear reticu- 

lated, and forming rows of minute tubercles at the point of intersection 

; sometimes a few smaller and intermediate longitudinal 

ribs are perceptible in front: colour yellowish-white: epidermis 

brown, laminar and downy, thicker and forming towards the 

front and sides longer threads, which occasionally resemble 

short bristles : margins rounded at the anterior side, straight 

or nearly so in front, obtusely wedge-shaped and somewhat 

truncate on the posterior side, with a blunt keel or ridge separating 

that side from the rest of the shell, and which is very 

distinct and sharp on the umbonal area: byssal sinus some- 

* Milk-white. 

i 5

178 akcidjE. 

times distinctly visible in front: beaks small, not very prominent, 

blunt and slightly recurved : ligament thin, and resembling 

that of A. pectunculoides in every respect, except 

that in the present species it is of a lozenge shape, corre- 

sponding with that of the ligamental cavity, which is deep ; 

the number of cords is between 40 and 50 : 

hinge-line quite 

straight, and forming an obtuse angle at each end, occupying 

about two-thirds of the entire breadth of the shell : hinge- 

plate as in the last species : teeth about 35, small and straight 

in the centre of the hinge, becoming larger and diverging 

obliquely and gradually towards each side, 

so as to form a 

gently curved row ; each tooth is finely striate on both sides : 

inside porcellanous, marked lengthwise with remote striae to 

within a short distance from the margin, which is usually 

the left valve is 

quite smooth and plain, although occasionally 

slightly crenulated, especially on the posterior side : pallia! 

scar entire : muscular scars very large and well defined, of a 

quadrangular shape. L. 0-45. B. 0*65. 

Habitat : 

Gravel, from 15 to 25 fathoms, on the 

English, Welsh, and Irish coasts, from Berwick Bay to 

Jersey, and also at Oban (Bedford), 

where it becomes 

rare. It is fossil in the Hed and Coralline Crag, as 

well as in the Subapennine and Sicilian tertiaries. 

M'Andrew has taken it at low water in Algarve, and 

Forbes at from 10 to 150 fathoms in the iEgean ; it is 

common in the Mediterranean, and ranges to the Canary 

Isles ; 

but it does not appear to have been found north 

of the British Isles. 

Lister first noticed this species as English ; and 

Dr. Pulteney called it the 

' ' 

hairy 

ark-shell." Mr. Clark 

has remarked that the foot is very like that of Galeomma 

Turtoni, showing the connexion between the latter and 

the present genus, in respect both of the animal and 

the shell. A. lactea is usually fixed by its byssus to the 

inside of old bivalve shells, or (in the south of Devon) 

wedged in crevices of loose fragments of New Red sandstone. 

The latter circumstance induced Turton at one

ARCA. 1 79 

time to suppose that the animal excavated rocks ; and 

he gave this shell the specific name of perforans, believ- 

ing 

that it was not the A. lactea of Linne. The shell 

varies considerably in the proportion of its different 

parts, as well as in the comparative tenuity of sculpture. 

It never grows to much greater dimensions than I have 

stated in the description. My largest specimen, which 

was evidently a veteran, and must have outlived most 

of its generation, is not much more than three-quarters 

of an inch in length. 

I should have been inclined to consider the present 

species the A. modiolus of Linne, if it were not for the 

expression that it is exactly the shape of Mytilus mo- 

diolus and the size of a large bean. The rest of his de- 

scription agrees with it in every particular. He even 

placed A. modiolus in one section as having a plain 

margin, and A. lactea in another as having a notched 

margin. He says both inhabit the Mediterranean, and 

that A. lactea is " diaphana" which is certainly not 

the case in our shell. In all probability his A. lactea is 

the A. imbricata of Poli, a thinner shell and having 

the inside margin strongly notched. Brocchi applied 

Muller's name of nodulosa to the present species, be- 

cause A, lactea was described by Linne as possessing 

and for the same reason 

the last-mentioned character ; 

Poli, Olivi, Chierighini, and Costa adopted the name of 

A. modiolus. But I will not venture to expunge the 

generally received name of lactea, and to substitute for 

it another which is referred by many conchologists to a 

common West-Indian shell— especially as so much ob- 

scurity still involves several of the Linnean species, 

notwithstanding 

the laborious research devoted to the 

subject by Mr. Hanley. What we call A. lactea may 

be the A. barbata of Muller's ' 

Prodromus/ although

180 ARCID/E. 

certainly not that of Linne. Pennant made the same 

mistake. It has had many other names, including 

Mytilus Garnseice (Petiver), A. crinita (Pulteney), A, 

Gaimardii and A. Quoyii (Payraudeau), A, striata 

(Reeve), and A. Pennantiana (Leach). 

I found a small single valve of A. nodulosa, Miiller, 

in some dredged sand from Shetland. This species in- 

habits the Swedish and Norwegian coasts, and occurs 

at depths varying from 15 to 150 fathoms. The shell 

is broader or more produced at each end, and thinner 

than that of A. lactea ; 

longitudinal 

of cross ribs ; 

the sculpture consists of several 

rows of vaulted or imbricated scales instead 

and the teeth are not half so many as in 

the other species, and they are placed more obliquely or 

diagonally. It is closely allied to A. imbricata, but in 

that species the inside margin is notched. A, aspera, 

Philippi, from the Sicilian tertiaries, appears 

same as Midler's species. 

4. A. tetrago'na *, Poli. 

to be the 

A. tetragona, Poli, Test. Sic. ii. p. 137, t.25. f. 12, 13; F.&H. ii. p. 234, 

pi. xlv. f. 9, 10, and (animal) pi. P. f. 1. 

Body white : mantle having its border plain, but the upper 

half of it on the posterior side is fringed with about 40 close- 

set and equidistant ocelli or dark dots, which vanish or are in- 

distinct towards the anterior side the ; margin is also mottled, 

both above and below, with flakes of : 

«pale yellow gills nearly 

coequal in size, and striated, of a brown colour : 

lips expanded, 

formed out of the extremities of the gills : foot white 

and subconical, tapering to a blunt point, 

a deep byssal groove : byssus dark-green, composed 

leaf-like plates. 

and furnished with 

of a few 

Shell forming an irregular parallelopipedon, and angular, 

sometimes twisted on the posterior side, very tumid, solid, of 

a dull hue : sculpture, the same as in the last : species colour 

* Quadrangular.

ARCA. 181 

yellowish, irregularly mottled with reddish-brown : epidermis 

light brown, filamentous, and forming rows of short leaf-like 

bristles in the interstices of the longitudinal ribs, becoming 

thicker towards the front and at the sides : margins 

rounded 

on the anterior side, which is very short, flexuous in front, 

wedge-shaped and pointed at the posterior side, where a sharp 

keel runs obliquely from the beak to an acute angle at the 

extremity of the posterior slope : byssal sinus long and wide : 

beaks small, slightly recurved, and widely separate from each 

other owing to the extent of the ligamental area : 

ligament 

thin, of a golden-brown tint, lozenge-shaped and composed of 

several strips or bands placed diagonally; ligamental cavity 

very large and deep, usually smooth, but occasionally striated 

by the impression of the ligament : hinge-line straight, forming 

nearly a right angle at each extremity, its length equalling 

the entire breadth of the shell : hinge-plate broad and strong, 

considerably wider at the posterior extremity : teeth 40-50, 

arched, perpendicularly striated on both sides and having their 

crests consequently notched those on the ; posterior side are 

of them are double : inside porcellanous, 

partly stained with reddish-brown and green blotches ; margin 

the longest, and many 

slightly crenulated, especially on the anterior side : pallia! 

scars flexuous : muscular scars oval, very large and conspicuous. 

L. 0-85. B. 1-5. 

Habitat : 

Rocky, stony, and shelly ground 

on all 

our coasts and at all depths. In Bantry Bay it is not 

uncommon at low water, closely wedged in the chinks 

of slate-rocks, the shape being 

distorted and the surface 

scraped in consequence of the confined position. 

The 

abrasion is perhaps caused by the uneasiness of the 

animal, through 

its continual endeavours to extricate 

itself or change its place. In deeper water (20-90 

fathoms) it occupies the crevices of large stones and the 

hinge-cavities of old bivalve shells. In all cases it is 

firmly attached by its byssus, and not a slight degree of 

force will suffice to dislodge it. It is a Red and Coral- 

line Crag fossil. The foreign distribution of this species 

extends from Finmark to the iEgean Sea on the east, 

and to the Azores and Canaries on the west. Asbjorn-

182 ARCID.E. 

sen has dredged it on the coast of Norway in 10-20 

fathoms, and Malm on the coast of Sweden in 80-100 

fathoms. * M 

fAndrew has taken it alive on the Spanish 

shore ; and Forbes has recorded its range of depth in 

the iEgean as 30-80 fathoms. 

The valves of this curious shell are so deep, that 

Lister mistook them for sessile Barnacles, and called 

them Balanus Bellonii. The animal is very shy and 

sensitive. According to Mr. Clark a glutinous fluid 

appears to exude from a special gland to supply the 

byssus, which is moulded by the foot. Capt. Brown 

says the shell " burrows in hard clay and limestone 

rocks " ; but this does not accord with my observation 

of its habits. 

In all probability this is the Norwegian shell men- 

tioned by Linne, 

in his i 

Systema Naturae/ 

as like A. 

tortuosa but of much smaller size. That species in- 

habits the Indian Ocean. Miiller applied the above 

name, 

in his ( 

present species, 

Prodromus/ to what appears 

and Pennant did the same in his ' 

to be the 

British 

Zoology/ Lamarck called it A. cardissa. Montagu 

and subsequent writers on British conchology considered 

it was the A. fusca of Solander's MS., although Bru- 

guiere's species of that name is different. Turton, in 

his s 

mistook it for A. Noce 

Conchological Dictionary/ 

of Linne, a well-known Mediterranean shell, which has 

never been authenticated as a native of the British seas. 

Philippi and Loven adopted Bruguiere's name, navi- 

cularis ; but that species is stated to inhabit the coast 

of St. Domingo, and is very unlike our shell. Mr. Reeve 

has added another name (Britannica) to this long list. 

Weinkauff has, on the other hand, proposed 

a reduc- 

tion of the catalogue, by uniting the present species 

with A. Noce. He says that he has found specimens at

ARC A. 

183 

Algiers showing the transition of one of these species 

from the other. 

The accentuation of the name tetragona has also 

perplexed many conchologists. There is no question 

that, if it were formed into a Latinized-English word, 

the accent would lie on the second syllable, as is the 

case in pentagonal and hexagonal, and Dr. Latham was 

quite right in saying that English quantities 

Latin quantities. 

are not 

But tetragona being a Latin word, it 

seems to me that the classical mode of accentuating 

words written in that language, according to their 

correct or accustomed quantity, ought to be used in 

pronouncing such names as the present. This name 

being derived from ycovla " an angle/' and having 

been adopted by the Romans, as well as the Greek 

combination of the same root with other numerals, the 

penultimate syllable is long, and I have therefore placed 

the accentuating mark over it. 

I have now before me the original specimen of Turton's 

A. reticulata, which he said was found in Lough Strangford 

by his son-in-law, Dr. Macgee. It is not the A. 

reticulata of Gmelin, but the A. barbata of Linne, and is 

a rather common Mediterranean shell. Mr. Dillwvn 

gave me two single valves, in a much worn state, received 

by him from Miss Hutchins, as having been collected by 

her in Bantry Bay, and which he sent to Montagu for 

his inspection. 

The paper in which they were wrapped 

still bears the name " A. barbata " in the handwriting of 

the latter naturalist. I do not consider this evidence 

sufficient to include the species among our indigenous 

mollusca. Collard des Cherres, however, has enumerated 

it in his list of shells living on the coast of Brittany, and 

it may therefore be looked for in the Channel Isles. 

The Turtonian collection also contains a specimen of

184 GALEOMMIM. 

A. imbricata, or an allied species from the West Indies, 

enclosing the dried remains of the animal, and marked 

in his handwriting " Area rostrata, Plymouth." Mr. 

Leckenby found a dead specimen and an odd valve of 

the same species in a mass of Filograna compleoca, which 

was brought to him by a fisherman from the Dogger 

bank. I merely notice the occurrence of these shells 

with a view to further inquiry. 

Family VII. GALEOM'MIDJE, Gray. 

Body oval, compressed, thick and fleshy: mantle closed, 

except in front for the passage of the foot, and at each end, 

where a tube is formed for alimentary and excretal purposes ; 

it has two lobes, one of which is folded externally over the 

shell, and the other is internal, and has its margin fringed 

two on 

with cirri or filaments and is studded with ocelli : 

each side : 

foot large 

gills and flexible : byssus strong. 

Shell oblong, equivalve, nearly equilateral, pearly and 

reticulated, gaping widely 

toothless. 

in front : 

cartilage internal : hinge 

This curious and anomalous family consists of only 

one genus and one species, so far as concerns the British 

mollusca ; 

and neither the family nor that genus is well 

represented abroad. It is related to the last family 

through Area, and to the next family (Kelliida:) through 

Lepton; but it cannot be placed in either, consistently 

with the ordinary principles of classification. The ani- 

mal of Galeomma has ocelli, like some species of Area ; 

and the shell of each has a straight hinge-line, and a 

large opening on the opposite side— for the passage of 

the foot in the one case, and of the byssus in the other. 

But the shell of Galeomma is covered by a fold of the 

mantle, instead of by an epidermis, and for the external 

ligament of Area is substituted an internal cartilage ;

and, moreover, 

GALEOMMA. 185 

it wants the characteristic feature of the 

last-mentioned genus, viz. the numerous cardinal teeth : 

the hinge of Galeomma has no tooth of any kind. Its 

habit of active locomotion, the structure of its shell, and 

its internal cartilage connect it with Lepton; but in 

that genus the shell is capable of being completely 

closed, and it is furnished with both cardinal and lateral 

teeth. Forbes and Hanley united the present family 

with KelliidcB ; 

and Clark placed it, as well as the genus 

Lepton, in the Area family. Gray proposed to make 

one family of Galeomma, and another of Lepton; but 

the latter does not form an isolated or aberrant group, 

like the former ; and if every genus is to be raised to 

the rank of a family, the organization of natural history 

may be compared to an army consisting of officers only. 

The members of this family, although by no means 

numerous, are widely distributed over the globe, except 

towards the north pole. Our single European species 

does not seem to have travelled to a higher latitude than 

the southern coasts of Great Britain. 

Genus GALEOM'MA*, Turton. PI. IV. f. 6. 

Characters described above, as belonging to the 

family. 

The singular shell which represents this genus in the 

European fauna was discovered by Dr. Turton nearly 

forty years ago ; and its no less remarkable animal was 

first noticed by Scacchi, a Neapolitan conchologist. 

In 1834? Quoy and Gaimard published an account of 

another species, which they referred provisionally to 

Psammobia, and which constitutes one of the numerous 

additions to science made in the course of their cele- 

* Cat's eye.

186 GALEOMMIDiE. 

brated voyage in the ( 

Astrolabe/ France, Russia, Austria, 

and even the comparatively poor kingdom of Sweden, 

as well as the United States, have excelled us in such 

enterprises ; and all that our own wealthy nation has 

undertaken in this way of late years has been more 

owing to a spirit of commercial enterprise 

than to a 

desire of promoting philosophical knowledge. Surely 

some of our numerous smaller ships of war and their 

hardy crews might be advantageously employed 

in sci- 

entific expeditions to various parts of the world, instead 

of the vessels rotting in harbour, and our seamen be- 

coming discontented by an irksome and monotonous 

routine of discipline. The stale question of cui bono 

might be easily answered by pointing to such men as 

Sabine, Fitzroy, Darwin, Joseph Hooker, Busk, Hux- 

ley, Jukes and others, who were formerly educated in 

similar voyages of research. The influence of their 

works on the mind and character of the people has been 

eminently and notoriously beneficial ; 

and we should all 

have deep cause for regret, were this race of great 

masters to become extinct and be superseded by a class 

of political economists who could only teach us where 

cotton might be best obtained, or what effect a gold 

instead of a paper currency may have on the material 

prosperity of the next generation. No thinking person 

will deny that science ought to be an important branch 

of national education. If any part of the public money 

is to be so applied, teachers of natural history must be 

instructed—not as at present by skimming books of 

doubtful authority and superficial information, but by a 

course of sound and practical lessons, such as would be 

acquired by means of voyages of discovery. The notion 

that science can take care of itself, and that its votaries 

can provide their own amusement, is only another

GALEOMMA. 187 

form of the dangerous maxim laissez faire. 

The great 

masses are like children, and ought to be educated as 

well as protected ; and if proper tuition is not afforded, 

their minds may be occupied with other and less inno- 

cent thoughts, and deplorable consequences may result 

to their short-sighted governors from a want of timely 

precaution. As Montaigne aptly says, " Fame descharge 

ses passions sur les objets faux quand les vrais luy de- 

faillent." 

Let us, however, return from politics to Galeomma. 

Its nearest ally is Area. Both have the same shape, 

the ventral gape is similar, the hinge-line is nearly as 

straight, and the mantle is equally 

furnished with ocelli. 

But here the analogical resemblance ends. The animal 

of Area has no tube, and the shell is of a different tex- 

ture. That of the present genus has an internal carti- 

lage instead of an external ligament, and it entirely 

wants the peculiar teeth of the Area family. Mr. Clark 

must have been mistaken in supposing he saw " oblique, 

though nearly obsolete teeth on the ligamental line in 

to the thinness and trans- 

Galeomma Turtoni" Owing 

parency of its shell, the oblique 

striae which ornament 

the external surface are indistinctly perceptible through 

the hinge-plate of its outer edge; and I believe this 

appearance may have misled my usually 

most accurate 

friend : I have carefully and closely examined, with dif- 

ferent powers of a first-rate microscope, the hinge-appa- 

ratus of many fresh specimens, 

and never could detect 

the slightest vestige of any tooth. In the ' 

ings ' 

Proceed- 

of the Zoological Society for 1855 is contained an 

excellent paper by M. Deshayes on this genus. 

He has 

there described no less than twelve new species, in addi- 

tion to G. Turtoni and (provisionally) the Psammobia 

vitrea of Quoy. Eleven of these new species, however,

188 GALEOMMIDJE. 

are said to be provided with teeth ; so that either the 

generic character in that respect requires alteration, or 

the species in question may belong to Lepton or an 

allied genus. 

The Galeommata inhabit rocky ground, and are found 

at various depths, from low- water mark to the coralline 

zone. An account of their habits, so far as they are 

known, will be given presently, among other particulars 

of our unique species. 

Galeomma Turto'ni *J Editors of the c 

Journal/ 

Zoological 

G. Turtoni, Turton in Zool. Journ. ii. p. 361, tab. xiii. f. 1 ; F. & H. ii. 

p. 105, pi. xxsv. f. 11, and (animal) pi. O. f. 5. 

Body pure white : mantle partly closed in front, with an 

opening for the foot, of a thin texture, except at the edge, 

which is muscular and forms a tumid cord extending beyond 

the shell ; from this cord is thrown off a double wavy margin, 

one flake of which is stretched like an extremely thin skin 

and covers the shell, and the other or inner margin is marked 

with equidistant frosty-white tubercles or ocelli, 8 or 9 on 

each side, with fine white intermediate filaments : incurrent 

tube at the anterior side, wide, irregularly sinuous, and not 

always present: excuvrent tithe at the posterior side, small, 

with a plain orifice : 

size : 

gills of equal lips 2 on each side, 

more coarsely pectinated than the gills, of which they appa- 

rently 

form a continuation : 

foot worm-like, cylindrically 

close to 

tapering to a point ; the byssal groove is at its heel, 

the body. 

Shell transversely oblong, much compressed towards each 

end, thin, opaque except when held up to the light, of a glistening 

aspect : sculpture, numerous and delicate ribs, which 

radiate from the beak to the margins, curling round towards 

the back or hinge-area, and branching off (especially in front) 

at irregular intervals ; these ribs are crossed by still more 

numerous and fine transverse or concentric striae, and by their 

* Named in honour of Dr. Turton, the well-known author of several 

works on British Conchology.

GALLOMMA. 189 

intersection the angles are slightly nodulous : colour snowwhite 

: epidermis not visible and apparently replaced by the 

pallial membrane : margins obliquely truncate and wedgeshaped 

at the anterior side, the end of which is rounded, gently 

curved in front for the entire breadth of the shell, with an 

extremely long and wide ventral gape, more decidedly truncate 

and somewhat longer at the posterior side, which is also 

wedge-shaped and has a rounded end : heals slightly prominent, 

and appearing like small nipples, placed nearer the 

anterior side : hinge-line nearly straight, occupying more than 

half the breadth of the shell : 

cartilage oval, yellowish-brown, 

lying close to the beaks on the posterior side : hinge-plate in- 

curved, somewhat thickened, terminating 

on the anterior side 

in an obtuse angle, and merging in the slope on the other side : 

inside pearl-white and glossy, with the edges finely crenulated 

by the projection of the longitudinal ribs, and slightly grooved 

on each side below the hinge-plate : muscular scars oval. 

L. 0-2. B. 0-4. 

from low-water 

Habitat : Rocky and stony ground, 

mark to 20 fathoms, on some of our southern shores ; 

but it is very local. It is not uncommon in the little 

island of Herm, where it was probably discovered by 

Dr. Turton ; single valves are not unfrequently dredged 

off Guernsey ; Mr. Clark obtained it alive in the same 

way off Exmouth ; 

and Mr. W. Thompson has taken it 

in Eschara foliacea, thrown up on the beach at Weymouth 

after a storm. The single valve mentioned by 

Turton in his original description, on the authority of 

Dr. Goodall, was formerly in the collection of Mr. George 

Humphreys, and is said to have come from Ireland. It 

is now in my cabinet. Cailliaud has found it on the 

coast of Brittany, D'Orbigny at Noirmoutiers in La 

f 

Vendee, M Andrew in Vigo Bay and several others have 

j 

noticed it as inhabiting the Mediterranean, from the 

Gulf of Lyons to Sicily, as well as the Adriatic. The 

only occurrence of it in a fossil state was observed by 

me at Biot near Antibes, where I found a single valve

190 GALEOMMID.E. 

in a raised beach, at the distance of about a league from 

the sea, with other shells belonging to species that are 

still living in that part of the Mediterranean. 

Mr. Clark informed me that he gave his dredger, 

taken at 

Branscombe, a guinea for the first specimen 

Exmouth. Branscombe's account was that he captured 

the same day a second specimen, and laid it on one of 

the thwarts of his boat, until the jar which contained its 

intended companion in captivity could be got ready, 

but that in the mean time the free specimen crawled 

away and escaped 

overboard. This is like Mr. Stutch- 

bury's story of the once rare Trigonia pectinata, several 

specimens of which he unaccountably lost, before he was 

aware of its habit of taking a long leap, and he wrongly 

accused his dredger of secreting them. As, however, it 

was not Branscombe's interest to keep back any shell 

from his liberal employer, who paid him much better 

than any one else, the disappearance of the Galeomma 

in the mode above related seems very probable. Scacchi, 

Philippi, Deshayes, Mittre, and Clark have severally 

described the animal. The last-named author says, 

" A fasciculus of fine filaments issues from the byssal 

fissure in the foot, which fix the animal so firmly to 

whatever it is placed on, as to require some force to dis- 

turb it ; in fact the byssus is discarded, by being alto- 

gether withdrawn from a slit in the foot, whenever an 

attempt is made to remove the animal by force ; but 

though we repeated the operation several times, the 

little creature did not appear to be injured or less lively, 

but, as soon as it had crawled to some distance, we had 

the good fortune to witness the formation of a new 

byssus, which was effected by the discharge of a lightgreen 

gelatinous opake matter from the fissure at the 

heel of the foot, which by its ponderosity resolved itself

GALEOMMA. 191 

into delicate fibrous filaments that instantly adhered to 

the saucer : we 

detached the animal several times ; the 

byssus was always left, and a new one formed. On 

we found 

leaving it for the night, in a marked position, 

in the morning that it had detached itself by abandon- 

ing the byssus, and had formed another at a considerable 

distance. The animal marches with great rapidity, 

by flatting the valves into the form of a circular disk ; 

it then, by the foot, aided by the muscular margins of 

the mantle, makes rapid progression. It marched across 

the saucer before ten could scarcely be counted." Mr. 

Alder noticed a peculiar expansion of the mantle, which 

invests the shell like a membrane. Philippi had previously 

remarked that this membrane resembles the 

true skin of vertebrate animals ; but Alder has given a 

farther explanation of its structure. He says " it is a 

continuation of the true skin, and consists of two layers ; 

the lower of which is slightly muscular, and under the 

microscope the muscles may be seen interlacing each 

other in all directions. The outer layer is granular, and 

is covered with tubercles, which possibly, when the ani- 

mal is alive, may rise into papillse. The want of an 

epidermis appears to be thus supplied." The interesting 

particulars above given of its organization make us 

anxious to know more about this wonderful mollusk ; 

and it is to be hoped that the investigation will be con- 

tinued by Mr. Alder, or prosecuted by some other ob- 

servant naturalist. The animal is hardy, and could be 

safely sent by post, packed in Chondrus crispus or some 

stiff sea-weed, to any place within reach of the sea. The 

number, position, and nature of the siphonal tubes have 

not yet been satisfactorily made out. Philippi describes 

one only, Mittre two (besides an anomalous organ re- 

sembling the large tentacle of Lepton squamosum), while

192 kelliid^:. 

Clark does not mention any. 

Nor do we know what it 

to Mittre it lives on the roots and 

feeds on. According 

leaves of fuci; but at Herm these seaweeds are not 

found in the spots frequented by the Galeomma. He 

observes that they look like beautiful pearls, when seen 

beneath the water at a depth of from three to four 

fathoms. Mr. Dennis remarks, 

in a note with which he 

has kindly favoured me, " How surprisingly tough the 

animal of Galeomma Turtoni is— quite like a limpet ! 

They occurred at Herm in little colonies, invariably 

where a large loose piece of granite rested against the 

solid rock, and never under stones which lay flat." The 

shell resembles that of Lima in its composition and 

structure. Mr. Norman's cabinet contains a specimen 

having a longitudinal fold in the middle of the front 

margin, and resembling in that respect a monstrosity of 

Pisidium fontinale, which I noticed in page 26 of the first 

volume of the present work. 

This species is the Hiatella Poliana of Costa, H. striata 

of Delle Chiaje, and Parthenope formosa of Scacchi. 

Nardo states that it is the Tellina aperta of Renier. 

Family VIII. KELLI'IME, {Kelliadce) Forbes 

and Hanley. 

Body oval or suborbicular, gelatinous : mantle open in front, 

as well as in most genera on the posterior side to form an ex- 

cretal tube it has ; only a single lobe, the margin 

fringed with cirri : 

gills 2 on each side : foot long 

sile : 

of which is 

and exten- 

byssus slight. 

Shell triangular, oval, oblong or subglobose, equivalve, 

more or less inequilateral, thin, variously sculptured, com- 

pletely closed : epidermis slight : beaks calyciform : 

cartilage 

internal: 

with both. 

hinge furnished with cardinal or lateral teeth, or

LEPTON. 193 

All the KelliidcB are of small size. They 

are also 

upstarts in a conchological point of view, none having 

been known to Linne, or described by any writer until 

near the close of the first decade of the present century. 

But the family came into this country long before the 

Conqueror. Many of our recent species flourished in 

and the history of their 

the time of the Coralline Crag ; 

existence in these dark and remote ages has been duly 

one 

chronicled. They now inhabit both hemispheres : 

kind of Montacuta is found in the Arctic seas, and 

are diffused over all the 

species of that and other genera 

vast tract of sea which lies between Cape Horn and 

" The gulfy coast of Norway ironbound." 

A peculiarity of this family consists in some of them 

being viviparous. This is certainly the case with Montacuta 

substriata, Lasaa rubra, and Kellia suborbicu- 

laris. The Sphariida? resemble these members of the 

present family in the above-mentioned peculiarity, as 

well as in shape. 

Genus I. LEPTON * Turton. PI. IV. f. 7. 

Eodt voluminous : mantle protruded, and furnished with 

long tentacular cirri : foot capable of being expanded 

disk -like form. 

into a 

Shell roundish-oval or triangular : cartilage small : hinge 

furnished with a single cardinal tooth and two strong lateral 

teeth in each valve. 

This genus closely resembles Galeomma ; but the 

animal has no ocelli, the shell does not gape in front, 

and the hinge exhibits a goodly array of cardinal and 

lateral teeth. Mr. Clark has, by his careful observations, 

completely dispelled the commonly received idea 

* Tliin as a scale.

194 KELLIID.E. 

that the shell gapes. It can be completely closed on all 

sides at the will of the animal. A species (L. loripes), 

half an inch long, found on the coast of Florida has 

a singular habitat. According to Mr, Stimpson, the 

discoverer, " it lives in sand or mud, on the flats, near 

low-water mark, at the depth of a foot below the surface, 

and generally occupies the holes of marine worais and 

fossorial Crustacea."" This might warrant a supposition 

that the animal of Lepton is predacious. 

Three species of Lepton are enumerated in Dr. Philip 

list of mollusca from the west coast of 

Carpenter's 

North America. The genus Scintilla of Deshayes ap- 

pears to be closely allied to the present genus. 

A. Shell pit-marked. 

1. Lepton squamosum *, Montagu. 

Solen sqvarao&is, Mont. Test. Brit. i. p. 565. L. squamosum, ~F. & H. ii. 

p. 98. pi. xxxvi. f. S, 9, and (animal) pi. O. f. 6. 

Body clear white : mantle very large, having its margins 

flexuous and often puckered into two or three folds ; the 

margins extend considerably beyond the shell, and from them 

springs, on each side of the ventral range in the middle, a row 

of 25 rather long, slender and pointed milk-white tentacular 

filaments : the pallial margin has also at its sides 40 long, 

strong, close-set, blunt, frosty-white cirri of different lengths, 

one of these last filaments being much larger and longer than 

the others, and resembling one of the tentacles of a Gastero- 

: pod excurrent tube short : 

foot bluish-white, and transparent, 

with a broad streak of intense snow-white running down the 

middle, and a still more conspicuous Hake at the anterior end : 

it is fixed to the centre of the body by a moderately long- 

pedicle. (Clark.) 

Shell roundish-oval, with a tendency to a square outline 

in consequence of the front margin being nearly straight and 

of the hinge-line being unusually broad ; it is very much 

* Scaly.

LEPTON. 195 

compressed and almost flat, thin, seniitransparent and glossy : 

sculpture, numerous and minute circular pit-marks, 

which are 

caused by the intersection of a close network of fine longitudinal 

and transverse ribs, the former radiating from the beaks 

and curved towards the back and sides ; there are also distinct 

lines of growth, which vary in their distance from each other : 

colour snow-white : epidermis exceedingly thin, and only 

shown by an iridescent hue in : young specimens margins 

obliquely 

truncate on both sides, with the angles rounded, somewhat 

incurved in front, and slightly curved outwards at the 

•back : beaks small, somewhat prominent, placed a little nearer 

to the anterior than to the posterior side : 

hinge-line gently 

curved, occupying nearly one-third of the circumference of the 

close to the beaks 

shell : cartilage triangular, yellowish-brown, 

on the posterior side : hinge-plate broad, incurved, excavated 

in the middle for the reception of the : cartilage teeth, one 

small and slight but upright cardinal, lying directly under the 

beak and close to the cartilage, and a long laminar lateral on 

each side of the cavity containing the cartilage ; the lateral 

teeth are placed at a little distance within the hinge -line : 

side iridescent, striated lengthwise but irregularly ; margin 

plain : pallial and muscular scars usually indistinct, owing to 

the thin texture of the shell. L. 0-575. B. 0-45. 

Habitat : 

in- 

Shelly gravel and sand, in 8-20 fathoms, 

on the coasts of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset, 

as well as 

at Guernsey, and in the south and west of Ireland. It 

is recorded in the ' 


as having been 

found bv Lvons and Hanley at Tenbv, bv M fAndrew at 

Anglesea, and by Barlee at Oban ; but another locality 

there given on my authority (" off Skye ") must have 

originated in a mistake. Searles "Wood found a single 

specimen in the Coralline Crag at Sutton. Its foreign 

range appears to be limited or little noticed. Lilljeborg 

has taken it at Christiansund in Norway, Malm 

and Loven on the coast of Bohuslan in Sweden (the 

former in 12-20 fathoms), I found it at Etretat in Nor- 

mandy, Cailliaud in the Departement of Loire-inferieure, 

and M fAndrew dredged it at 8 fathoms in Vigo Bay. 

It may be decidedly considered a local species. 

k2


This curious shell was discovered by Montagu, and 

described by him from a single valve. Although quite 

aware that it did not belong to any of the Linnean 

genera, 

he was much more averse than naturalists of the 

present day to travel out of the beaten path, 

and he 

therefore provisionally placed it in Solen. Its shape is 

not very dissimilar from that of a Solenicurtus. Its 

nearest comparison, however, would be to a fish-scale ; 

and its sculpture is equally beautiful, and resembles the 

finest Jace laid out on cambric. The pit-marks which 

cover the surface of the shell are like those which ladies 

so often see on the top of their thimbles, but without 

admiring or noticing the ornamentation, their thoughts 

perhaps being occupied with something 

else. The re- 

fraction of light through the punctures makes the silver- 

white shell appear under a microscope to be studded 

with glittering dew-drops. Nor is the animal less 

curious or lovelv than the shell. Two excellent ob- 

servers, Alder and Clark, have published some interesting 

details of its peculiarities and habits. Mr. Alder says 

that the single filament noticed in my description is 

waved to and fro like a tentacle when the animal is 

crawling, and apparently enables it to feel its way 

as it 

goes. The other filaments are comparatively motionless, 

floating loosely in the water, though capable of being 

thrown out or withdrawn at pleasure. The edges of its 

large foot can be either closed or expanded so as to 

form a disk, as in Nucula. As may be imagined from 

the size of the foot, the Lepton crawls about very freely ; 

and sometimes it swims in an inverted position on the 

under surface of the water, 

teropods, the hinder part of the foot being 

in the manner of some Gas- 

then unfolded 

and disk-shape ; but its favourite posture is that of 

repose, suspended perpendicularly, 

with the beaks of its

LEPTON. 197 

shell downward, by three or four threads, which are so 

fine that they cannot be seen by the naked eye ; and 

even by the aid of a magnifier they can only be observed 

when the light falls upon them at certain angles. When 

the animal withdraws into its shell, the latter can be 

completely closed; but usually the valves are kept a 

little open, and the mantle protruded beyond them. 

Mr. Clark kept a specimen alive for thirty-four days in 

a glass of sea- water, changed daily, and it was seemingly 

as vigorous all that time as when first placed in captivity. 

He states that when it was in motion and had made a 

step, the long tentacular filament curled inwards, like 

the fore-finger of an open hand bent down to the palm, 

but immediately afterwards it resumed a straight posi- 

all the other filaments were 

tion to await another step ; 

either retractile or contractile, separately or together. 

The foot can form a disk at each end. According to his 

account, a glutinous red filamentous matter is copiously 

poured out by the byssal gland. But I would venture 

to surmise that this phenomenon may be connected 

with the reproductive functions. Mr. Clark goes on to 

sav, " The animal is vivacious, and allowed itself to be 

examined many times daily; it marched with quick- 

ness, but I only once saw it progressing in a vertical 

of the shell is to rest on one 

position ; the usual posture 

of the disks, which is frequently changed for the other ; 

the adductors did not appear to allow of a greater open- 

ing of the valves than the ordinary extent. The animal, 

when placed at the bottom of a glass, always crawled 

up and moored itself by a filament at the side ; some- 

times, however, it slipped its moorings 

and floated free 

on the surface of the water with the umbones down- 

wards, and after an interval refixed itself by spinning a 

byssal thread." He subsequently 

succeeded in obtain-

198 KELLIIDiE. 

ing another lively specimen, which, he 

" 

adds, on being 

placed in water, at once unfurled its ]ong and beautiful 

fringes, and exserted the ample niveous mantle and foot. 

This is certainly the prince of British bivalves; the 

snow-white colour of both animal and shell sheds over 

this interesting creature the inexpressible charms of 

purity and elegance. " 

I can fully sympathize with the 

enthusiasm of my old friend, although I have not been 

equally fortunate in seeing the paragon he has so well 

described. But I hope some of my readers will endeavour 

to realize the truth of his description by their own 

experience ; 

best of poets says, 

and it will be more satisfactory, for, 

" Beauty itself does of itself persuade 

The eyes of men without an orator." 

as our 

Dr. Leach has named this species Eupoleme cancellata. 

2. L. ni'tidum *j Turton. 

L. nitidum, Turt. Conch. Dith. p. 63. Kellia nitida, F. & H. ii. p. 92. 

pi. xxxvi. f. 3, 4, and (L. nitidum) App. iv. p. 255. 

Body clear white and gelatinous : mantle having its edges 

protruded beyond the shell as far in proportion as in L. squa- 

it is closely fringed with cirrous filaments, which are 

mosum ; 

more developed in front than behind, each of them bein^ 

studded at the point with four or five white cilia, so sharp and 

minute as to require a high power to see them, and that only 

in certain : lights tube formed by a fold or 

projection of the 

mantle at the anterior end, being contrary to the position of this 

organ in the last species : foot pale azure, marked with intense, 

but irregular flake-white minute blotches ; each end from the 

pedicle or stalk is of equal length and finely pointed. (Clark.) 

Shell subrhomboid-oval, somewhat compressed, not very 

thin, semitransparent, and glossy: sculpture, a few minute pitmarks 

near the beaks, which are only perceptible by the aid 

of a high magnifying power, besides faint and irregular con- 

centric striae which traverse the whole surface, and are visible 

* Shining.

LEPTON. 199 

with an ordinary lens : colour varying from pale yellowish to 

clear white : epidermis slight, bnt brilliant and prismatic : 

margins rounded at each end, much broader at the side 

furthest from the beak, very slightly curved in front, and 

somewhat angular at the back : beaks prominent and projecting 

beyond the dorsal margin, placed nearly in the middle, but a 

little towards the narrower end of the shell : hinge-line curved, 

occupying about one-fourth of the circumference : cartilage 

small and slight, light horncolour, placed close to the beaks on 

the narrower or posterior side : hinge-plate narrow, incurved 

or excavated in the middle : teeth as in L. squamosum, but they 

are more developed and lie more compactly, the cardinals are 

more oblique, and the laterals are smaller, and placed nearer 

the hinge-line in consequence of the groove which contains 

these teeth being narrower and deeper in proportion to the 

size of the shell : inside highly iridescent, and microscopically 

striated lengthwise; margin plain: scars distinct. L. 0*1. 

B. 0-125. 

Var. 1. convexa. Shell rather more convex, and coarsely 

Cat. Moll. ISorth. 

pit-marked throughout. L. convexum, Alder, 

k Durh. p. 93 ; F. & H. ii. p. 102, pi. 

xxxvi. f. 10. 

Var. 2. lineolata. Shell rather natter than usual, and marked 

with minute longitudinal lines. 

Yar. 3. ^>?s*Y?z'«7?s. 

Shell triangular and convex, resembling 

in shape Pisidium pusillum (var. obtusalis), marked with exceedingly 

minute wavy ribs, which are formed by the confluence 

of the pit-marks. 

Habitat : 

Gravelly sand on most parts of our coast 

from the Shetland to the Channel Isles, in from 10 to 

90 fathoms : although local, 

it is not uncommon. It is 

a Coralline Crag fossil. Var. 1. Equally diffused in a 

recent state. Var. 2. Loch Fyne (M'Nab) ; Exmouth 

(Clark) ; Guernsey (J. G. J.). Var. 3. Torbay (Web- 

ster). The typical form has been found by Malm on the 

Swedish coast in 20-50 fathoms, and by myself in the 

Gulf of Spezzia in 18 fathoms. Sars has noticed its oc- 

currence in postglacial beds in the Christiania district. 

According to Mr. Clark the anterior part of the animal


occupies the broader side of the shell, contrary 

to what 

is the usual rule in bivalves and even in this genus, taking 

L. squamosum as the type. His remark seems to be 

confirmed by the position of the cartilage in the present 

species being different from that in L. squamosum. The 

characteristic sculptmie of L. nitidum is extremely varia- 

ble, but never absent. In apparently the smoothest and 

most glossy specimens the pit-marks may always be 

discerned near the beaks oculo bene armato. In all 

probability Dr. Turton had not used a microscope when 

he described the shell to be without punctures. From 

this state to that of the variety convexa the gradations 

of sculpture are almost endless. The pit-marks usually 

are circular, but sometimes they are oval, elliptical, 

or polygonal, and occasionally they are confluent and 

form undulating wrinkles towards the front margin. 

Not unfrequently one half only, or a greater or less por- 

tion, of the surface is thus marked, the other part being 

quite smooth. Perhaps the most elegant 

kind of orna- 

mentation is that which combines the impressions exhi- 

bited by the first variety with the radiating lines of the 

second. The shell may readily be distinguished from 

the young of the last species by being much less com- 

pressed and comparatively more solid, by 

hinge-line being more prominent, 

its beaks and 

and the teeth in- 

finitely stronger and more compact. Mr. Clark says 

that it is a far more active creature than L. squamosum, 

the shell 

creeping up a glass as easily as a Gasteropod ; 

is generally carried on one side, with the foot in the 

same position, but is sometimes held upright when the 

animal is on the march. This little gelatinous mol- 

lusk, enclosed in its pellucid valves, 

" A liquid prisoner, pent in walls of glass," 

and having the borders of its cloak fringed with tufted

LEPTON. 201 

hairs, which are so delicate as to be almost invisible, is 

not less worthy of admiration than its larger and more 

showy congener. 

B. Shell concentrically grooved, or marked with fine longitudinal 

lines. 

3. L. sulca'tulum *, Jeffreys. 

L. suleatulum, Jeffr. in Ann. Nat. Hist. 3rd ser. Jan. 1859, p. 34, pi. '1. 

f. 2 a-g. 

Body of a light yellowish -brown colour. 

Shell nearly circular, the contour being interrupted only 

by the prominence of the beaks, somewhat compressed, thin, 

semitransparent and glossy: sculpture, broad, numerous and 

regular concentric ribs, which are equally strong and distinct 

throughout the surface, and still more numerous and line lon- 

gitudinal lines, which are not perceptible by the naked : eye 

colour clear white : epidermis filmy : margins rounded at the 

sides and in front, with a gentle fall from the beak to each 

end : beaks projecting a little beyond the dorsal margin, slightly 

inclined towards the narrower and shorter side : hinge-liae 

obtusely triangular, occupying scarcely one-fourth of the cir- 

close to the beak on the 

cumference : cartilage small, placed 

shorter side : hinge-plate broad and thick, not much excavated 

for the reception of the cartilage : teeth, one strong and erect 

cardinal in the left valve, and a much smaller one in the right 

valve, besides a remarkably strong and triangular lateral on 

that on the broader side 

each side of the beak in both valves ; 

the grooves into which these lateral 

is longer than the other ; 

teeth lock are : correspondingly deep inside nacreous and 

glossy, with a plain margin 

B. 0-06. 

: sears rather distinct. L. 0-055. 

Habitat : Rather plentiful among corallines in the 

laminarian zone at Guernsey. I also found it at 

Etretat on the coast of Normandy, as well as among 

some small shells from Sardinia which I received from 

M. Hupe for examination j and I noticed specimens in 

* Slightly furrowed. 

K 5


Mr. M 'Andrew's collection, dredged by 

and Lancerote in the Canary Isles. 

him off Orotava 

This is certainly not the young of any other shell, as 

might be hastily imagined 

on account of its minute size. 

I have a series of all ages from the fry to the adult. 

Nor does it resemble any other British shell. In some 

respects it is even abnormal as a Lepton. The regular 

concentric ribs and the inclination of the beaks to one 

side do not occur in any of the above-described species. 

The dentition, too, is peculiar. The cardinal tooth in 

the left valve is united by a ledge with the lateral tooth 

on the longer and broader side of the shell, so as to make 

1)oth appear in, one point of view like the same tooth. 

The cardinal tooth in the other valve is not discernible 

unless in fresh specimens, and by means of a Coddington 

lens or an equally strong microscopical power. Even 

this pigmy shell, barely exceeding half a line in length, 

is sometimes found to have been drilled by one of the 

smaller Muricida. 

4. L. Clar'kijs *, Clark. 

L. Clarkia, Clark, in Ann. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. March 1852 ; 

p. 255, pi. 

cxxxii. f. 7. 

F. & H. iv. 

Shell triangularly oval, with an oblique outline, much com- 

pressed, not very thin, semitransparent and rather glossy: 

sculpture, slight and numerous but irregular concentric stria?, 

which are stronger and more crowded in front and at the sides, 

and usually a few snow-white lines or streaks, radiating from 

the beak towards the margins and more or less interrupted ; 

the surface is also slightly scabrous or rough in fresh speci- 

mens : 

colour yellowish-white : epidermis extremely 

margins abruptly 

with an oblique slope to the ventral margin, 

thin : 

truncate but rounded at the smaller end, 

which is likewise 

rounded, very broad, and wedge-like at the larger end, and 

forms a blunt angle behind : beaks small, projecting beyond 

* Named out of compliment to Mrs. Clark, the wife of the distin- 

guished British conchologist.

LEPTON. 203 

the dorsal margin, placed considerably nearer to the posterior 

or narrower side, which is not half the size or breadth of the 

anterior side : 

hinge-line obtusely triangular, occupying about 

one-third of the circumference : 

cartilage rather large, situate 

close to the beaks on the narrower side: hinge-plate rather 

narrow but thick, deeply excavated in the middle : teeth, in the 

left valve a strong and oblique cardinal, and a long laminar 

pointed lateral on each side of the beak ; in the right valve a 

very minute cardinal, with strong lateral teeth as in the other 

valve ; all the laterals are nearly of equal size, and diverge a 

little inwards from the : hinge-line inside nacreous and 

glossy, with a plain margin : scars not very 

B. 0-1. 

Habitat : Gravelly sand, at depths 

distinct. L. 0*085. 

of from 18 to 80 

fathoms, on various parts of our coast, but not everywhere. 

The localities being few, I will enumerate 

them. Shetland, Arran Isle, co. Gal way, Fowey (Bar- 

lee) ; 

Exmouth (Clark) • 

Plymouth (Rouse) • 

Skye, Bar- 

mouth, Lulworth, Torbay, Guernsey (J. G. J.). Al- 

though this appears at present 

to be rather a scarce 

species, it is hoped that something will be sooner or 

later known of its distribution in other parts of the 

European seas, as well as of the animal. The probabilities 

are much against any of the marine inverte- 

brata being exclusively confined to the line of soundings 

round our own sea-girt coasts. 

The shell differs from that of any of its congeners in 

the obliquely rounded outline, and especially in the 

sculpture, which consists of fine and irregular con- 

centric striae, instead of pit-marks or regular transverse 

and parallel ribs. It is also marked with longitudinally 

radiating lines, and the beaks are much nearer one end. 

The structure of the hinge agrees better with that of 

L. sulcatulum.

204 KELLIIDÊ. 

Genus II. MONTACU'TA * Turton. PL V. f. 1. 

Body oval, rather thick : mantle protruded, and fringed with 

short cirri : eoccurrent tube sessile : foot large, tongue -shaped. 

Shell triangularly oval or oblong : cartilage proportionally 

large, placed 

underneath the beak on the smaller and narrower 

or posterior side : hinge furnished with two strong 

in each valve. 

Montagu preeminently 

lateral teeth 

deserves to have his name 

commemorated in the present genus, because all the 

known British species were discovered and admirably 

described by him. Two out of the three are dwellers 

in mud : the other has a singular habitat, being inva- 

riably found attached to the spines on the under side 

of Spatangus purpureus and other Echinoderms of the 

same kind. 

The founder of this genus, Turton, says 

hinge 

that the 

is furnished with cardinal teeth but with no lateral 

ones. This appears to be a mistake ; at least I con- 

sider the scheme of dentition to be exactly the reverse 

of the above. The entire space under the beak in the 

hinge of each valve is occupied by the cartilage ; and 

this is the only place where cardinal teeth must be 

looked for. The teeth in all the British species of Mon- 

tacuta are long and laminar, one on each side of the 

cardinal area, and diverging obliquely inwards. A deep 

cavity or indentation is thus formed in the hinge, resem- 

bling the letter V reversed, and enclosing the cartilage. 

The sides of this letter represent the usual shape and 

position of lateral teeth. Cardinal or hinge 

teeth lie 

immediately under the beak, and are either tubercular 

or short. The cartilage is in some species calcined at 

its point of attachment, and in consequence of its com- 

* Dedicated to the memory of Colonel Montagu, 

logists. 

one of our best zoo

position not being homogeneous, 

MONTACUTA. 205 

the base becomes 

hardened to such an extent, that a cup -shaped process 

or "ossicle" is formed, which can be separated from 

the shell. It can only be detected in fresh specimens 

before the cartilage has dried up; and the latter is 

seldom preserved, owing to its elastic nature and slight 

attachment to the pit, which is fixed and forms part of 

the shell. The genus Thracia has nearly the same kind 

of process. 

Gould was of opinion that the present genus and 

Kellia ought to be united, or else that the one might 

merge in Ungulina of Daudin, and the other in Erycina 

of Lamarck. Nyst referred Montacuta to the lastmentioned 

genus. But although Lamarck states that 

the ligament in Erycina is internal, the hinge is de- 

scribed as having cardinal as well as lateral teeth. The 

structure of the hinge in Ungulina is very different from 

that in Kellia. 

Several species are noticed by Dr. Philip Carpenter 

as inhabiting the Gulf of California. 

1. Montacuta substria'ta *J Montagu. 

Ligula mbstriata, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 25. M. sv.bstriata, F. & H. 

ii. p. 77, pi. xviii. f. 8, 8 a, and (animal) pi. O. f. 2. 

Body whitish and nearly transparent: mantle having its 

margin simple, and largely open in front for the passage 

foot : 

of the 

gills large and conspicuous : foot muscular, transparent, 

very much longer than the shell, issuing from the broader end, 

tapering to a disk-like point, and furnished at the heel with a 

byssal groove. 

Shell varying in shape from a long to a short oval, with an 

oblique outline, rather convex, not very thin, semitransparent, 

usually of a dull aspect, but sometimes glossy : 

about a dozen very slight 

sculpture, 

and indistinct ribs, which radiate 

from the beak but do not quite extend to the front margin ; 

there are also a few white longitudinal streaks, and concentric 

* Slightly striated.

206 KELLIIDJE. 

lines of growth : colour yellowish -white : epidermis extremely 

thin : margins abruptly 

truncate but rounded at the smaller or 

posterior end, with an oblique slope to the ventral margin, 

which is also curved and rather deeply indented for the 

and rounded at the anterioi 

byssus, very broad, wedge-shaped, 

end, and forming an obtuse angle 

behind : 

beaks 

small, blunt, 

and nearly straight, protruded beyond the dorsal margin ; they 

are placed very much nearer to the posterior side, which is 

not one-fourth the size of the other : hinge-line slightly curved, 

occupying about one-fifth of the circumference : cartilage 

yellowish-brown and semicylindrical, clasping the hinge-line 

short and 

on the posterior side of the beaks : hinge-plate 

narrow, but strong, not deeply excavated in the middle : 

triangular and pointed, 

teeth 

that on the anterior side in each valve 

the teeth in one 

being longer and rather larger than the other ; 

valve lock into sockets in the other, but not in the corresponding 

valve of every specimen — it apparently being indifferent 

whether the right or left valve contains the more prominent 

teeth or the sockets : inside nacreous and glossy, with a plain 

margin : 

pallial and muscular scars indistinct, the former being 

more perceptible than the latter. L. 0*115. B. 0*125. 

Var. Icevis. Shell smooth and destitute of the radiating 

striae. 

Habitat : On 

the ventral spines of Spatangus pur- 

pureus, and occasionally of Amphidetus ovatus (A. roseus, 

Forbes), in sandy ground, at depths ranging from 8 to 

90 fathoms, on every part of our coasts. Capt. Beechey 

took it alive on the Spatanyus in 110-140 fathoms off 

the Mull of Galloway. The variety is from deep Avater 

in Shetland. It is a Coralline Crag species. Loven, 

Sars, Asbjornsen, M'Andrew, and Malm have recorded 

it as inhabiting the Scandinavian seas from Finmark 

southwards, Petit as found in the north of France, and 

Recluz, Verany, and Mace as Mediterranean. The last- 

named conchologist informs me that it occurs in the 

Gulf of Lyons on Cidaris hy stria;. Sars mentions that 

at Naples it attaches itself to Spatangus meridionalis ; 

and Malm says that on the coast of Bohuslan not only 

S. purpureus and A. ovatus, but also Brissits lyrifer, are


favoured with its company. An ally, if not a variety, 

of the present species of Montacuta was described by 

Recluz in the ( Revue de Zoologie' for 1844 under the 

name of Erycina seminulum, and stated to have been 

discovered by M. Caron in the Mediterranean on the 

spines of different kinds of sea-urchins, principally 

Echinus esculentus. I mention these cases to show that 

it is not confined to S. purpureus, or the " purple-heart 

urchin," as is commonly supposed. 

The byssal threads by which this curious mollusk 

attaches itself are exceedingly strong and coarse. Mr. 

Clark observed it in active motion after he had sepa- 

rated it, still adhering to the spines, from a Spatangus. 

He savs, "When the animal marches, its foot is ex- 

tended, and its rounded termination is instantly fixed 

to the vase in which it is deposited ; then by the re- 

tractor muscle it is drawn forward, making such rapid 

progression as to cross a watch-glass in a minute, and on 

the passage turns itself several times by a twist of the 

foot from side to side/' In another description which 

he has given of this operation, he uses the appropriate 

to show the toil- 

expression " iterumque, iterumque/' 

some march of the little creature, which evidently would 

have preferred remaining on the sea-egg from which it 

was so unceremoniously dislodged to taking a long 

walk across and round Mr. Clark's watch-glass, in a 

vain search for fresh quarters of the accustomed sort. 

The gills and green liver are visible through the shell 

in some specimens which are more transparent than 

others, the former crossing it diagonally. The shape 

and position of the cartilage is very remarkable. Some- 

times the shell is partly incrusted with a ferruginous 

deposit. The number of fry, with their shells com- 

pletely formed, which are found in some individuals, is


astonishing. Many hundreds of them, packed 

close to- 

gether, and glittering like microscopic pearls, might be 

counted. They occupy at least two-thirds of the space 

enclosed within the valves of their parent ; and its own 

body seems to be atrophied 

and dwindled to a mere 

skeleton. The shell is in fact turned into a crowded 

nursery. Perhaps the parent dies, like some insects, 

immediately after all its progeny have been developed. 

I do not concur in the general belief that M. substriata 

is parasitic. 

In one sense only can it be said to live on 

Echinoderms. The food of Spatangus purpureus, on 

which it is usually found, appears 

to consist of ani- 

malcula ; and for that purpose it swallows large quan- 

tities of shell-sand, causing thereby a strong and fre- 

quent current in the neighbourhood 

of its mouth. The 

Montacuta probably avails itself of this indraught, and 

partakes of the sustenance intended for the Spatangus, 

tube or 

placing itself in the way, with its alimentary 

opening turned in the right direction. No exudation 

and its excretions 

from the Spatangus has been noticed ; 

would scarcely be produced in sufficient quantity for 

the support of the Montacuta, or perhaps be suitable to 

it. The latter has no suctorial organ, such as is pos- 

sessed by all animal parasites : it never attaches itself 

to the pedicellarise or any other soft part of the echino- 

derm; nor has it once been detected on the back or 

sides, or elsewhere than in the ventral region, 

of its 

associate. It is only found on the spines close to their 

points. 

2. M. bidenta'ta *, Montagu. 

Mya bidentata, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 44, tab. 26. f. 5. Montacuta bidentata, 

F. & H. ii. 

p. 75, pi. 

xviii. f. 6 & 6 a. 

Bout clear white : mantle having a bluish tinge ; its margins 

* Two-toothed.


protruded considerably beyond the shell and fringed with brilliant 

silvery, close-set, symmetrical, blunt, short but distinct 

indented points, which extend on both sides to near the beaks : 

tube scarcely perceptible, lying within the posterior margin of 

the shell : foot very large, long, broad, subtriangular, hyaline, 

sprinkled with flake-white spots ; 

it is slightly bent or genicu- 

late, and has a conspicuous byssal groove. 

Shell triangularly oval, or of a somewhat rhomboidal 

figure, compressed, rather solid and opaque, of a more or less 

dull aspect : sculpture, irregular lines of growth, and (occa- 

sionally) white longitudinal 

lines or streaks as in the last 

species : colour milk-white : epidermis not very thin, prismatic, 

and marked with numerous minute concentric striae 

which impart to it a silky appearance under the microscope : 

margins abruptly truncate at the smaller or posterior end, 

nearly straight or slightly curved in front, expanding and 

rounded at the anterior end, and very gently sloping behind 

from the beak to that side : beaks small and blunt, prominent, 

somewhat incurved, with an indentation below ; they 

are placed very much nearer the posterior side, which is not 

one-third the size of the other : hinge-line nearly rectan- 

gular, occupying 

about one-third of the circumference : car- 

tilage yellowish, smooth, thick and globular, contained in a 

triangular pit lying directly under the beak in the left valve, 

and forming a cup-shaped process or ossicle at its base : hinge- 

plate narrow but strong, deeply 

excavated in the middle for 

the reception of the cartilage, which sometimes encroaches on 

the beak to such an extent as to make the latter appear broken 

or eroded : teeth, in the right valve rather short, leaf- like, and 

in the left valve longer, and parallel with 

diverging inwards ; 

the hinge-line ; those on the anterior side are the largest in 

both valves : inside nacreous and glossy, with a : 

plain margin 

scars obscure. L. 0-125, B. 0*14. 

Habitat : Muddy 

gravel and in the crevices of old 

bivalve shells, from 10 to 70 fathoms, everywhere from 

Unst to Guernsey. As an upper tertiary fossil it is 

James Smith from 

recorded by Grainger from Belfast, by 

Bridlington, and by Searles Wood from the Red and 

Coralline Crag. Its foreign range extends from Norway 

to Sicily. Malm has dredged it on the Swedish coast in 

10-25 fathoms, M fAndrew at Vigo in % and. off Sicily

210 KELLIIDÊ. 

in 8 fathoms, and I have taken it at Spezzia in 18 

fathoms. According to Sars it is found in the post- 

beds of Christiania. 

glacial 

Clark's account of the animal is that it is "lively, 

marches with rapidity, and in its course turns from side 

to side, sometimes resting the shell on the ventral range 

in an upright posture." Montagu, having found it 

apparently burrowing in old and thick oyster- shells, be- 

lieved that it was partly the cause of the small round 

holes so frequently seen on those shells. Such perfora- 

tions, however, are attributable to a sponge (Cliona 

celata), that fills the cylindrical 

tubes of which the holes 

are the outlet, and branches off in every direction— a 

course never known to be taken by any mollusk. The 

relative proportions of length and breadth in the shell 

of M. bidentata are very variable. The young are more 

triangular than the adult, and somewhat resemble in 

shape the fry of Nucula nucleus. My largest specimen 

is a line and a half long, and a third more in breadth. 

This small shell has been bandied about by different 

conchologists from one genus to another, and received 

various names. Montagu referred it provisionally to 

My a. Brown in 1827 placed it in the genus Anatina 

of Lamarck, and Clark did the same in 1855. Gray 

and Hanley called it a Petricola. It is the Erycina 

faba of Nyst, E. nucleoid of Recluz, and Mesodesma 

eociguum of Loven. The Montacuta elevata of Stimpson, 

which Gould supposed was our shell, differs in the posi- 

tion of the beaks and in other particulars. 

3. M. ferrugino'sa *, Montagu. 

Mya ferruginosa, Mont. Test. Brit, p. 44, tab. 26. f. 5. Montacuta ferruginosa, 

F. & H. ii. p. 72, pi. xviii. f. 5, 5 a & 5 b (as M. ferruginea). 

Body clear white : mantle having its margins on the ante- 

* Covered with iron -rust.


rior side produced considerably beyond the shell, and forming 

a kind of frill, which becomes gradually smaller and more 

even as it passes along the front of the shell towards the posterior 

side ; it is fringed with very delicate, rather short, and 

blunt filaments, which extend completely round the edges of 

the valves, with the exception of a small space at the umbones : 

tube consisting of a small inconspicuous excretory orifice : foot 

very large and muscular, slightly bent in the middle, tapering 

to a blunt point in front and abruptly truncate behind ; its 

base or sole is somewhat wavy and grooved through its entire 

length. 

Shell oblong, convex, thin, rather opaque, glossy : sculp- 

ture, irregular lines of growth and occasionally 

a few exceed- 

ingly slight longitudinal scratches : colour greyish-white : 

epidermis as in the last species, but it is usually obscured by 

a thick ferruginous crust : margins somewhat truncate but 

rounded at the smaller or posterior end, thence obliquely 

slanting and slightly curved in front, expanding and rounded 

at the anterior end, and very gently sloping behind from 

the beak to that side, with a short ledge on the other side 

which forms an obtuse angle at the : posterior extremity beaks 

small, blunt, and rather tumid, not very prominent, and nearly 

straight; they are placed at about one-third the distance 

from the posterior end : hinge-line almost straight, occupying 

about one-third of the circumference : cartilage large and 

solid, light yellowish- brown or horn colour, obliquely twisted 

and clasping the hinge-plate on each side, lying close to the 

beaks at the posterior side ; the pit or groove containing it 

slants abruptly and obliquely down towards the posterior side, 

and has its walls and base much thickened : hinge-plate narrow 

but thick : teeth, in the right valve one on the anterior 

side, which runs from the cartilage at nearly a right angle to 

the hinge-line and so far resembles a cardinal tooth, but it 

then takes a sharp twist in the direction of the hinge -line, 

where it becomes laminar and is gradually attenuated to a 

sharp point ; the other tooth in the same valve on the posterior 

side is shorter, triangular and pointed, placed on a lower level 

and parallel with the posterior slope ; 

in the left valve the 

tooth on the anterior side is pointed near its commencement 

and forms a rather long laminar ridge in a parallel line with 

the hinge, the other tooth being of the same shape as the corre- 

sponding one in the right valve and taking a similar direction : 

inside partly nacreous but mostly of a dull hue, with a plain


and somewhat thickened margin, sometimes marked with faint 

lines which radiate from the beak : scars remarkably distinct, 

the muscular impression on the anterior side being larger and 

much longer than the other. L. 0-2. B. 0-3. 

Var. oblonga. Shell narrower, and having the front and 

dorsal margins nearly straight. M. oblonga, Turt. Conch. 

Dith. p. 61, tab. 11. f. 11, 12. 


ground, from 7 to 85 fathoms, on 

all our coasts. It is, however, a local species, and is 

seldom found in a perfect state. The variety is not un- 

common, and occurs with the typical form, as well as 

with intermediate gradations. Grainger has recorded 

this shell from the Belfast deposit, and Searles Wood 

from the Coralline Crag. Loven and Malm have de- 

scribed it as Swedish, the latter giving a depth 

fathoms ; 

of 18-50 

Recluz found a single valve in the stomach of 

a turbot on the French side of the English Channel ; 

Lamarck mentions Cherbourg as the locality for his 

Amphidesma purpar asc ens, which is probably our species 

; and I noticed it in M. Martin's collection of 

shells from the Gulf of Lyons. 

Professor Loven published, in the ' 

Proceedings * 

the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for 1848, some 

important information as to the production and development 

of the fry of this species (as well as of M. biden- 

for March 

tata) and in the ; c 

' 

Annals of Natural History 

1850 (2nd ser. v. p. 210) is contained an excellent paper 

by Mr. Alder on the same subject, and also with respect 

to the habits of the adult. My description of the ani~ 

mal is taken from Mr. Alder's notes. He mentions that 

the specimen which he observed was taken from " the 

stomach of a haddock— a very unpromising locality cer- 

tainly for meeting with anything in a living state ; but 

the little creature on being placed in sea-water appeared 

quite lively, and not visibly the worse for the uncom- 

of


fortable quarters from which it had been extracted. In 

a short time it protruded the mantle beyond the shell, 

extended its large foot, and began to crawl about." And 

as to the fry he says, " After having kept my specimen 

for some days in sea-water, I found one morning that 

the bottom of the glass was covered with a minute 

white dust, which I immediately concluded would be 

the spawn, and on placing a small portion under the 

microscope 

I found that such was the case. I sub- 

with a 

sequently had it removed into a separate glass 

fresh supply of water, in order to observe its develop- 

ment. Though nearly round at first, 

the ova soon 

assumed a subtriangular shape, and about the third day 

strong cilia were observed on one of the sides, and they 

began to rotate very quickly. One after another assumed 

the rotatory state, till nearly the whole were in motion. 

After rotating for about a day, they apparently burst 

the envelope, and swam freely about in all directions 

by means of their vibratile cilia, and at the same time 

assumed more or less of a bell-shape — a slender style 

or thread projecting from the centre of the ciliated base. 

This organ, which has been observed in the embryos of 

other species, has been described as a kind of byssus, by 

which the little creature can fix itself securelv to other 

bodies. This, however, 

I did not observe to be the 

case in the present instance. It soon appeared to be 

absorbed ; the animal became gradually elongated, and 

the cilia were withdrawn into the shell, which then 

began to appear; but at what time it was actually formed 

I could not make out, as, from its extreme transparency 

and similarity of colour to the rest of the animal, it was 

very 

vibrating 

difficult of detection. The cilia could be seen 

within the shell for some time after the ani- 

mal became quiescent — a few isolated cilia at one of the


extremities, not observed before, being the only ones 

that remained to perform their functions externally. 

These produced a partial current without propelling the 

animal through the water, as at this stage it gave up its 

natatory habits and took to a quiet 

life. The internal 

portion, the parts of which conld not be very distinctly 

made out, appeared to be nndergoing a process of deve- 

The mass was continually changing its form, 

lopment. 

the separate parts being extended alternately in different 

directions, and a portion, probably the incipient foot, 

was occasionally pushed beyond the margin of the shell. 

At this point of development further observations were 

unfortunately arrested by the death of the whole colony 

in consequence of the water beeoming impure, and my 

situation at a distance from the sea preventing my get- 

ting an immediate fresh supply. The whole period that 

I had kept them was not above five or six days ; 

so that 

their development had been pretty rapid. After the 

death of the animals the shells remained at the bottom 

of the glass. They were of an elliptical form, straight 

at the upper margin, where they were attached, though 

the hinge did not appear to be yet formed ; the whole, 

excepting in the elongated form, had very little resemblance 

to the adult shell " 

I am sure my readers will not regret my having 

reproduced such a faithful and striking picture by one of 

our great masters of British zoology. It agrees on the 

whole with the account furnished by Loven, and especially 

with his observations as to the development of 

the embryo of Modiolaria marmorata and Lascea rubra. 

The metamorphosis in Modiolaria is stated to have 

commenced about the third day after the spawn was 

deposited, being the same period 

as that which Alder 

noticed in Montacuta ferruginosa. The shell is apt to


become coated with a thick but irregular layer of hard 

ochreous dirt, like iron-rust. I suspect that this in- 

crustation is caused by a continual deposit and accumu- 

lation of faecal matter from the animal, which is not 

carried off in consequence of its sedentary habits and of 

the water in which it lives being free from currents. 

The same remark applies to species of Pisidium and 

other freshwater shells, as well as to many of the ma- 

rine bivalves. Forbes and Hanley observe that M.fer- 

ruginosa is " a scarce shell." This of course is only 

in comparison with other species; but the common 

notion of rarity is not quite correct. I consider that 

" local" would be a more appropriate word than "scarce" 

with regard to the occurrence of marine testacea. The 

difficulty of procuring some particular kinds may enhance 

their value to collectors ; but probably all kinds 

are prolific, and differ in that respect from many of the 

larger land mammals. There certainly cannot exist a 

" 

unique" specimen of any shell in nature. In the 

present case single valves may 

be found in tolerable 

plenty on several of our sandy beaches, and perfect specimens 

may be got by dredging in the sheltered lochs of 

the west of Scotland and in rather deep water off our 

southern coasts. The beaks are often fissured or notched 

from their being squeezed close together by the strong 

and elastic cartilage, the shell being too fragile to resist 

such pressure. 

The proportions of length and breadth vary greatly 

in specimens, which may account for the diversity of 

names which this species has from time to time re- 

ceived. As I have already incidentally noticed, it ap- 

pears to be the Amphidesma purpurascens of Lamarck ; 

Brown called it Tellimya elliptica and T. glabra, 

S. Wood T. ovata, Leach Amphidesma Goodalliana,


Recluz Erycina Franciscana, and Loven Montacuta 

tenella. 

Mr. Robert 

Among some small shells sent to me by 

Dawson, and collected by him on the Aberdeenshire 

coast, is a minute single valve, which I cannot identify 

with any known species, whether recent or fossil. Its 

shape is obliquely triangular, with rounded margins ; 

is compressed, rather solid, glossy, 

only by the lines of growth ; 

it 

and smooth or marked 

the beaks are blunt and 

not prominent; the hinge-line is small and straight; 

the teeth somewhat resemble those in the right valve of 

Montacuta bidentata, but they are much shorter and 

nearly on a level with the hinge -line, the tooth on the 

broader side being considerably larger and stronger than 

the other; the inside is nacreous, with a plain margin. 

The shell appears to be full-grown ; but its size is barely 

one-fifteenth of an inch in length, and rather less in 

breadth. If more specimens are found, I would propose 

for this species the name of Dawsoni, as a fit compliment 

to its discoverer, a zealous and intelligent con- 

chologist. 

When dredging at Falmouth in 1839 I obtained a 

recent single valve of the species, which Searles Wood 

described and figured in his Monograph of the Crag 

Mollusca (Palaeont. Soc. Trans. 1850, p. 131, 

tab. xi. 

f. 3 a-c) as Montacuta donacina, from the Coralline 

Crag at Sutton. I am, no less than Mr. Wood, quite 

unable to say in what genus this curious shell should be 

placed. My specimen is a right valve, and it has a 

minute tubercular tooth on the longer side of a small 

cartilage-pit. In shape it is a miniature Zenatia (a 

genus founded by Dr. Gray), but having 

ligament. 

an external

LASJEA. 217 

Genus III. LASÊ'A*, Leach. PL V. f. 2. 

Body oval : mantle folded on the anterior side (being the 

longer and larger end of the shell), so as to form a wide, but 

short and 

incomplete, incurrent tube : the excurrent tube is very 

inconspicuous, placed on the opposite side : foot long, tongue- 

shaped, protruding when in motion through 

current tube at its base. 

Shell roundish-oval : beaks straight : 

a slit in the ex- 

cartilage long and 

cylindrical, divided or split lengthwise, and clasping the 

hinge-plate, in each valve, on the smaller and narrower side 

of the shell, being the posterior end : hinge containing in the 

left valve a minute thorn-like cardinal tooth, and in each 

valve two remarkably strong lateral teeth. 

The late Captain Brown proposed this genus in 1827, 

on the authority of Dr. Leach, for the Cardium rubrum 

and although he says nothing about the 

of Montagu ; 

animal, and not much more about the shell, I think the 

genus is a good one, and I therefore adopt the name 

above given to it. M. Recluz, apparently unaware of 

his having been anticipated, gave in 1843 another name 

(Poronia) to the same genus; but his description is 

positively incorrect. He says of the animal, that it has 

on the posterior side two lobes, and two tubes which are 

disunited ; 

and of the shell, that the hinge has two cardi- 

nal teeth in each valve, besides lateral teeth, and that 

the cartilage is placed in an oblique groove. It will be 

seen that my description of the generic 

characters is 

very different from that of M. Recluz : and were it not 

for the certainty that we both mean not only the same 

genus, but also the same species, I could not believe 

that our respective descriptions had been drawn from 

the same object. The present genus is intermediate 

between Montacuta and Kellia, and partakes of the 

* A meaningless name ; 

little shield. 

possibly a corrupt derivation from Xaiai)iov, s

218 kelliidjE. 

leading 

characteristics of each. With the former it 

agrees in having the cartilage placed 

at the shorter end 

of the shell, a position contrary to that in Kellia, and 

with the latter in the mantle being folded on the ante- 

rior side, though not so completely as in that genus. 

The position of the cartilage or ligament is by no means 

unimportant, because it indicates the posterior side ; 

and 

the empty shell thus serves to determine the place, and 

often the nature, of the organs which had composed the 

frame of its late occupant. 

It is very probable that the shell which Adanson 

called " Le Poron " belongs to this genus ; but his 

notice of it is unusually brief and obscure. He says that 

it has two small triangular teeth in each valve, which 

form the hinge, that it is at most only two lines in dia- 

meter, and that it is whitish and sometimes of a violet 

colour, chiefly towards the hinge. He evidently did not 

know the animal, for he included the Poron among the 

species of his genus Chama, which he described as having 

three openings in the mantle, two of which take the form 

of a rather long tube. It would be a waste of etymological 

researchwere we to endeavour to trace the derivation 

of the word " Poron." Adanson tells us, in the preface 

to his most admirable work on the Mollusca of Senegal, 

that he preferred inventing such chance names as had 

the least meaning, and had no relation to other names 

or known objects. Perhaps Dr. Leach had the same 

idea in selecting some of his generic names. However 

that may be, in his posthumous work on the Mollusca 

of Great Britain he seems to have changed Lascea for 

the more classically correct name of Autonoe, placing it 

in the family Veneridce, although calling the species (after 

" 33 

describing it) Lasea rubra. 

The Lascea are of a minute size, and usually inhabit

LASyEA. 219 

the littoral zone, where they congregate in vast num- 

bers, at the roots of small seaweeds, as well as in the 

crevices of rocks and in the empty shells of Balani. On 

some coasts they live as much out of the sea as in it, 

a sufficient supply of water being retained within the 

close-fitting valves to keep the gills 

moist until the 

return of the tide ; and in many cases they must fast for 

a long time, because they are found in places which are 

covered by the sea at high springs only. 

A little fresh- 

water bivalve (Pisidium pusillum) is also occasionally 

amphibious. We have but one species of Lascea, and 

that is viviparous. Other species, however, have been 

noticed in various parts of the world : 

" 

Prythee, think 

There's livers out of Britain." 

1. Lasîa rtj'bra*, Montagu. 

Cardium rubrum, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 83, tab. 27. f. 4. 

F. & H. ii. p. 94, pi. 

Kellia rubra, 

xxxvi. f. 5-7 (as Poronia rubra), and (animal) 

O. f. 3. 

pi. 

Body white : mantle having its margin apparently plain and 

without tentacles : excurrent tube sessile and concealed within 

the mantle : foot broad at the base, the extremity being rather 

rounded than pointed ; its bluish-white and transparent hue 

is variegated by a line of dull but intense flake-white, which 

runs from one end to the other. 

Shell oval, with often a circular or triangular and rather 

oblique outline, ventricose, not very thin or glossy : sculpture, 

distant lines of growth and close-set wavy concentric striae, 

besides more numerous but much finer longitudinal striae, 

which are so excessively minute as only to be seen with a 

powerful lens : colour milk-white, tinged more or less deeply 

with purplish-red, especially towards the hinge : epidermis 

yellowish, rather thick : margins somewhat truncate and 

rounded at the smaller or posterior end, slightly curved in 

front, with sometimes a byssal sinus or indentation in the 

* Eed.

220 kelliid.i:. 

middle, produced or wedge-like 

and rounded at the anterior 

end : beaks broad, blunt, prominent, and contiguous ; they are 

placed about two-fifths nearer to the posterior end : hinge-Vine 

curved, occupying 

rather more than one-fourth of the circum- 

ference : cartilage large, yellowish -horn colour, attached to the 

shell below the hinge-plate and lodged on an oblique shelf: 

hinge-plate very broad, thick, and strong: teeth, in the right 

valve two triangular laterals with sharp points, the anterior of 

which is a little more raised than the other ; in the left valve 

similar laterals, besides a minute cardinal and erect tooth 

directly below the beak ; the laterals in each valve lock into 

corresponding grooves in the other : inside partially nacreous, 

but otherwise of a dull hue ; margin plain : pallia! scar scarcely 

visible, but evidently existing on account of the adhesion of 

the mantle inside the front margin : muscular scars oval and 

distinct. L. 0-85. B. 0-1. 

Var. pallida. Shell yellowish -white and nearly trans- 

parent, without any tinge of purple 

or red. 

Habitat : Everywhere in crevices of rocks, 

empty cups of Bcdani and among 

pygmcea, near high-water mark, 

inside the 

the tufts of Lichina 

and at the roots or 

footstalks of CoralYina officinalis and other seaweeds, 

sometimes it 

and on mussel-beds, between tide-marks ; 

is found at depths varying from 3 to 20 fathoms. The 

is a Coralline 

variety is not uncommon. This species 

Crag shell. Steenstrup has found it in Iceland, and 

Lilljeborg at Grip in Upper Norway ; but I am not 

aware of anv other northern locality. It is widely 

diffused southwards from the north of France to the 

Canary Isles, and throughout the Mediterranean. Specimens 

for which I am indebted to the kindness of 

Mr; Cuming (so 

renowned for his unrivalled collection 

of shells, as well as for the extent of his conchological 

experience), and taken by him on the south-western coast 

of America, cannot be distinguished from the European 

species ; and Dr. Philip Carpenter is of opinion that a 

species 

from the Gulf of California is the same as ours.

LAS.EA. 221 

L. rubra has been recorded by Sars among arctic shells 

occurring in newer tertiary strata in the diocese of 

Christiania. 

Dr. Turton was the first who noticed the curious fact 

that this minute mollusk is viviparous. It does not 

appear to be prolific, as seldom more than twenty young 

ones are to be seen at any one time in the shell of the 

parent. They are fully formed while in this stage of 

growth, and their shells have even a tinge of purplishred 

on each side of the beaks. Mr. Clark says the 

ovary contained no young in specimens which he procured 

in the winter. The same may perhaps be said of 

most mollusca, whether viviparous or oviparous, as well 

as of other animals the season of whose loves in a state 

of nature does not commence until 

" 

species patefactast verna diei, 

Et reserata viget genitabilis aura favoni." 

A discussion took place some years ago, between 

Mr. Clark on the one side, and Messrs. Alder and Han- 

cock on the other, 

as to the use of the anterior tube in 

this species and in Kellia sub orbicularis, both of which are 

Mr. Clark contended that it was an organ 

viviparous. 

of reproduction, in consequence of his having observed 

the fry ejected through it. His opponents disputed this 

uterine function, and showed that the tube serves to 

own observations induce 

convey water to the gills. My 

me to believe that it has various uses— one for obtaining 

food, another for aerating the gills, 

and a third for the 

expulsion of the fry. The tube seems to be expanded 

or contracted at the will of the animal, being formed 

merely by an overlapping 

of the folds of the mantle. Its 

sides are never united. The present species is rather 

active in its habits. According to Mr. Clark, it imme-

222 KELLIID^. 

diately fixes itself, when placed in a basin of sea- water, 

by its threadlike byssus. The foot protruded, but not 

in action, occupies a central position : it is usually pushed 

through 

the slit at the base of the tube on the anterior 

side when the animal wishes to move forwards, and, fixing 

itself by a kind of suction, rapidly draws the shell after 

it ; and it can also execute a similar movement backwards, 

but more slowly. 

out forming a byssal attachment ; 

The animal never remains long with- 

but when inclined to 

move, it seems to have no difficulty in slipping its cable, 

which is always discarded and left in situ. The surface 

of the shell is sometimes coated with confervoid spores, 

giving it a greenish appearance. My largest specimens 

are from Shetland. 

Walker first noticed and figured this species in his 

account of minute and rare shells from Sandwich; but 

his description was excessively meagre, and no specific 

name was added. It is in all probability the Amphi- 

desma nucleoid of Lamarck, Erycina violacea of Scacchi, 

Cycladina Adansonii of Cantraine, Erycina Fontenayi of 

Mittre, and Bornia seminulum of Philippi. Stimpson 

remarks that the Kellia rubra of Gould is not our spe- 

form and much smaller 

cies, having a more compressed 

beaks. He therefore gave the name of planulata to the 

North-American species. Gould's figure seems to re- 

present 

Montacuta bidentata. 

Genus TV. KEL'LIA*, Turton. PI. V. f. 3. 

Body globular : mantle folded on the anterior side (being the 

shorter and smaller end of the shell), so as to form a bag-shaped 

incurrent tube, and folded on the opposite side into an excur- 

rent tube, which is more prominent but shorter : 

gills two, sym- 

* Named after the Rev. J. M. O'Kelly of Dublin, a conchological asso- 

ciate of Dr. Turton.

KELLIA. 223 

metrical, and nearly triangular : lips two, of a similar shape : 

foot long, tongue-shaped and bent, placed in the middle of the 

front margin. 

Shell globular : beaks incurved : cartilage cylindrical, placed 

on the hinge-plate at the posterior side (being the broader and 

larger end of the shell) : hinge containing 

in the left valve a 

thick, erect cardinal tooth, and in each valve two remarkably 

strong laminar teeth which are partly cardinal and partly 

lateral. 

This genus diners from Lascea in the incurrent tube 

being more complete and the excurrent tube conspicuous, 

in the foot being placed in the middle of the 

ventral margin (instead of on the anterior side and pro- 

truding through a slit at the base of the larger tube), 

but especially in the position of the cartilage, which 

lies on the broader and larger side of the shell, sup- 

porting the hinge-plate, and outside of the lateral teeth, 

and not (as in the last genus) placed on the narrower 

and smaller side of the shell, nor clasping the hingeplate 

inside and below those teeth. The habits of the 

are also different from those of Lascea. 

present genus 

This is not amphibious, and probably cannot exist if 

constantly left high and dry by the receding 

tide. It 

usually inhabits comparatively deep water, and prefers a 

muddy ground. Both are viviparous : but at least one 

species of Montacuta has the same mode of reproduc- 

tion. In the shape of its shell Kellia resembles Sphcerium; 

but that genus has an external ligament and 

differs from this in the number and arrangement of the 

teeth. The position of the tubes is also very dissimilar 

in these genera. In Kellia, as well as in Lasted, it is 

somewhat anomalous, the larger and incurrent tube 

being placed at one end, and the smaller and excurrent 

tube at the other. In Sphmrium and most other genera 

which have two tubes, both are placed on the same side ;

224 kelliidtE. 

and the Sphariidce possess the peculiarity of their tube 

or tubes being situate at the shorter and smaller side of 

the shell, which may therefore be considered the posterior 

end, the ligament being situate at the other end. 

Philippi described the present genus 

under the name 

of Bornia, though not without some suspicion of its being 

identical with Kellia. He remarks that he had no 

means of seeing Turton's work on the British bivalves. 

One character of his genus he conceives to be of very 

great importance; and that is the absence of any mark 

of a fold of the mantle—" sinus palliaris nullus." There 

must be some mistake in this. The character exists in 

Mediterranean as well as in British examples of the 

typical species. Perhaps Philippi meant to say that the 

pallial scar in Kellia is not sinuated as in the Veneriche 

and allied families. 

It may be well here to say that, in describing the right 

and left valves, I have followed the rule laid down in 

Dr. Gray's " Conchological Observations" (Zool. Journ. 

i. p. 208), viz., "When a bivalve shell is placed on its 

basal margin, with the ligament towards the observer, 

the right and left valve will correspond with his own 

sides." Some rule of this kind is indispensable, in 

order to ensure a uniform method of description \ 

but it 

appears of late years to have been left to the caprice of 

every author. 

Many species 

of Kellia are known in a recent and 

fossil state. During the formation of the Crag strata, 

within the area which is bounded on the west by the 

counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and the adjacent comer of 

Essex, several kinds flourished ; 

but of these one only is 

known to have survived, and still exists in the British 

seas.

KELLIA. 225 

1. Kellia suborbicula'ris #, Montagu. 

My a saborbieularis, Mont. Test, Brit. p. 39, tab. 26. f. 6. K. suborbicularis, 

F. & H. ii. p. 87, pi. xviii. f. 9, 9 a & 9 b, and (animal) pi. O. f. 4. 

Body white and nearly transparent : mantle protruding be- 

yond the shell in front, and having its margin fringed with a 

few thornlike or triangular tentacles : incwrent tube varying 

in length and diameter even in the same individual ; 

its oriiice 

gills pale yellow and 

plain, but uneven : excurrent tube short : 

striated : 

lips thick, strong, and coarsely striated : foot com- 

pressed, flexible, and hyaline. 

Shell usually globular, but sometimes inclined to an oval or 

triangular outline, ventricose, rather thin, and more or less 

glossy: sculpture, distant lines of growth, and close-set and 

irregular concentric striae, besides some slight longitudinal 

lines : colour milk-white, with a faint tint of yellow : epidermis 

thin and beautifully iridescent: margins somewhat truncate 

but obliquely rounded at the larger or posterior end, a con- 

tinuous curve being formed by the ventral and anterior sides : 

beaks circular and calvciform, incurved and twisted towards 

the anterior or smaller end, close together, but not contiguous ; 

they are placed nearly in the centre of the dorsal margin, and 

there is a depression or incomplete lunule formed below them : 

hinge-line curved, occupying nearly 

ference : 

cartilage triangular, yellowish-brown, 

one-third of the circum- 

attached to the 

hinge-plate close to the inner margin of the dorsal side, and 

doubled on itself : hinge-plate narrow, but strong : teeth, in the 

right valve two strong laterals, the one on the anterior side 

being at first erect and resembling a cardinal tooth, and then 

(as in Montacutaferruginosa) becoming laminar and attenuated, 

that on the posterior side being obliquely triangular ; in the left 

valve a recurved cardinal tooth, and two laterals similar to 

those in the other valve, the cardinal and anterior lateral form- 

ing a double tooth for the reception of the corresponding lateral 

in the right valve ; dental sockets deep : inside like frosted 

silver, with a slight prismatic lustre : pallial 

scar indistinct : 

muscular scars large and conspicuous. L. 0*4. B. 0-45. 

Var. lactea. Shell somewhat compressed and oval, of a 

thinner texture and rather more glossy ; 

front margin nearly 

straight, and dorsal margin raised more to a level with the 

* Nearly globular. 

L O

226 kelliidjE. 

beak, Tellimya lactea, Brown, 111. Rec. Conch, p. 106, pi. xlii. 

f. 10, 11. 

Habitat : Fine mud in the cavities of dead bivalves 

from deep water, and occasionally under stones at the 

lowest verge of spring tides, sometimes occupying the 

excavations made by other animals in hard rocks. Its 

bathymetrical range extends to the line of soundings 

round our coasts. The is 

variety not so common : it is 

the K. Cailliaudi of Recluz. The typical form occurs in 

the Clyde beds (Smith), and in the Red and Coralline 

Crag (S. Wood). It is found in the Scandinavian seas, 

as far north as Finmark, in 10-50 fathoms, and also 

throughout the Atlantic and Mediterranean, the Canary 

Isles and Sicily being its southernmost known limits. 

The Rev. P. Carpenter has enumerated it as a Califor- 

nian species. 

Montagu discovered this pretty shell in hard lime- 

and he remarked that the opening of the excava- 

stone ; 

tions which it inhabited was smaller than the shell, so 

that it must have entered in a younger state, and never 

could have got out. It is, however, not a borer. I 

have often found it in the tortuous and deserted galleries 

made by Annelids; and its shape is sometimes 

altered or even distorted in consequence of its confined 

position. The shells of such specimens are thicker 

than usual, and the epidermis is in a great measure 

abraded. Both Alder and Clark have published some 

excellent observations as to the habits of the animal. 

The former says it moves freely by means of its strap - 

shaped foot, which is frequently protruded 

in all direc- 

tions. Its progress is usually forward ; but sometimes 

it crawls backwards or sideways, especially when it is 

ascending a perpendicular surface, which it frequently 

does for the purpose of suspending itself by its byssus.

, KELLIA. 227 

The byssal sinus is about halfway up the foot on the 

posterior side ; and from it the animal produces a very 

delicate thread, and suspends itself freely (with the beaks 

of its shell downward) by a single almost inconspicuous 

fibre, which is strengthened by a double attachment at the 

top. In this posture it appears to rest for some time, with 

both tubes open, and the foot partly withdrawn! into the 

shell. According to Mr. Clark, the byssus spun by the 

kind which is found in rocks consists not merely of 

delicate filaments such as free individuals of the ordi- 

nary 

form throwr 

out when placed in a saucer, but of a 

membranous plate which cannot be detached without 

some force. He also says that the larger tube in free 

specimens (having a thinner shell) is marked with flakewhite 

longitudinal lines, which do not appear in the 

rock specimens. He found in the ovary of one indi- 

vidual ova in an advanced state, together with fullyformed 

testaceous fry. M. Recluz has lately announced 

the same fact with regard to the variety lactea. The 

ova mentioned by Mr. Clark, and which through his 

kindness I have had an opportunity of examining, are 

bean-shaped, and closely 

resemble a minute form of 

Cythere. They are very different from the fry, which 

are perfectly spherical. Dr. Gordon has remarked that 

K. suborbicularis is occasionally seen as part of the food 

of the haddock. Sometimes the shell is extremely thin, 

and so transparent that the gills are distinctly visible 

through it, causing the surface to appear obliquely 

striated. The cartilage is always ruptured and divided 

when the shell is fully opened, one half being left in 

each valve. The teeth vary somewhat in shape and 

relative position. 

This species is the Erycina pisum of Scacchi, Bornia 

inflata of Philippi, and Oronthea Montaguana of Leach,


who placed it in the Mya family. The Tellimya tenuis 

of Brown seems to have been constituted from a specimen 

which had lost one of its cardinal or front teeth. 

It must have been knocked out after death. Any one 

but a conchologist may well 

cesses are called 

ask why these hinge-pro- 

" teeth," seeing that they are not 

homologous to the teeth of Vertebrate animals, and 

that they are always placed at the back, instead of in 

front, of a headless creature. But the word, whether 

rightly or wrongly used, has now become " household " 

and unchangeable. I hope those out of the scientific 

pale will accept this explanation : if they are not satisfied, 

the Hudibrastic distich may serve their purpose— 

" To them we leave it to expound 

That deal in sciences profound." 

To the present genus must be referred provisionally 

the K. cycladia of Searles Wood, a rare Coralline Crag 

shell. To this species I am now inclined to refer a 

shell which I found in the Shetlands and named Po- 

romya subtrigona. A description and figure of it will 

be found in the ' 

Annals and Magazine of Natural 

History/ 3rd series, January 1858, p. 42, pi. 

ii. f. 1. 

I had then only a single (the left) valve, which I sent 

to my friend Mr. Barlee for his inspection; 

fortunately the box containing 

but un- 

it was crushed on 

being returned to me through the post, and a few fragments 

are all that remain of the original specimen. 

Since that time I have fortunately discovered another 

(the right) valve in my dredgings on the same ground, 

and I have no doubt that more specimens will hereafter 

be found. However, I do not at present 

consider the 

species, or even its generic position, sufficiently established 

to warrant its . redescription The cartilage is in- 

ternal, and lies on the narrower and smaller side of the

LUCINIILE. 229 

shell, as in Lascea. The right valve has a small tubercular 

cardinal tooth, a strong lateral tooth on the ante- 

rior side, and a very indistinct one on the posterior side. 

The hinge of Poromya is differently constructed ; 

and I 

was wrong in placing the Shetland shell in that genus. 

The form is peculiarly oblique ; but otherwise it has 

somewhat the appearance of Axinus flexuosus. Searles 

Wood thought his species might be the Scacchia ovata 

of Philippi ; 

but I cannot agree with him that there is 

even any resemblance between them. 

Family IX. LUCI'NIDjE, D'Orbigny. 

Body nearly globular : mantle closed, except in front, where 

there is a large opening for the egress of the foot and to admit 

water to the gills, and also at the posterior side, where there 

are usually one or two tubes or orifices for alimentary and 

excretal purposes ; 

its edges are thickened and adhere closely 

but Asemus 

to the inside of the shell : 

gills (in all the genera 

and Diplodonta) one only on each side : 

lips (or 

labial palps) 

short, and (except in those genera) two in number : foot ex- 

tremely long, tubular and extensile. 

Shell more or less circular, equivalve in all cases but an 

exceptional one, nearly equilateral, of different degrees of 

solidity, in some instances almost smooth and in others curiously 

sculptured, completely closed : epidermis thin : beaks incurved : 

lunule usually distinct : ligament (except in Loripes) more or 

furnished with cardinal and lateral teeth 

less external : hinge 

or with some of them, but occasionally toothless : pallial scar 

entire : muscular scars very conspicuous, that on the anterior 

side unusually elongated and extending far within the shell in 

a parallel line with the front margin. 

Poli, Valenciennes, Clark, and Deshayes devoted 

much labour to the elucidation of this familv as a 

natural group, and have published some important ob- 

servations on the animal. But we still need further 

information, especially as to the branchial apparatus.

230 LUCINIM. 

According to Valenciennes, the animal of Lucina has but 

a single gill-leaflet on each side. Forbes and Hanley 

state that there can be little doubt that two lamellse 

on the same side are so united as to appear like a single 

gill. Deshayes has shown that the two gills when 

divided contain four rows of vessels, and that they 

occupy as much space as all the gills in other Conchiferous 

mollusks. As I do not pretend to be, like 

Sidrophel, " old dog at physiology," I can say no more 

than that I hope the question may be sooner or later 

set at rest. The foot is a remarkable and peculiar 

it looks like a 

organ. When at rest and contracted, 

shrivelled worm, and is doubled up within the shell ; 

but 

when the period for action has arrived, the wrinkles 

disappear, and in a marvellously 

short time the foot 

expands and is drawn out to three times the length of 

the whole body. It is thus rendered firm and more 

capable 

of muscular exertion. This distention is effected 

by means of aquiferous ducts or canals, which permeate 

the tissue of the foot, the water being introduced at its 

base through a wide funnel opening directly into the 

visceral cavity. A similar organization of the foot has 

been noticed in the Cephalophorous mollusks, especially 

in some of the Muricidce, Naticida, and Bullidae, which 

have the same habit of burrowing as the Lucinidce. 

Another peculiarity which characterizes the present 

family is the elongation of the anterior adductor muscle ; 

and it is easy to recognize the fossil species by the nature 

of the scar or mark inside the shell. The ligament is 

more or less external in all the genera but Loripes, 

which has an internal cartilage concealed within the 

hinge-line and occupying an oblique groove, as in Kellia. 

The Lucinida inhabit sandy mud and gravel, in which 

they shelter themselves. Very many recent species of

LUCIN1D.E. 231 

different genera have been described from various parts 

of the world ; 

and fossil species are still more abundant. 

The " family likeness " is unmistakeable, and this 

constitutes part of the value of the Luciniclce as a 

natural group. After much consideration and study of 

the question, and with great respect for the opinion of 

the authors of the ' British Mollusca' and of M. Des- 

hayes, I cannot agree with them that the long-established 

genera of Loripes and Axinus ought to be 

merged in Lucina. The great French conchologist has 

lately made a strong protest against the dismemberment 

of the last-mentioned genus; and he wishes it to be 

retained, like the once glorious republic 

of his own 

country, " une et indivisible." To use his own words, 

it forms " une grande unite." It may, however, be 

questionable if the characters on which he lays so 

much stress do not apply not only to the genus, but to 

the family which has sprung from it, and whether there 

are not other characters, although perhaps of inferior 

value, that may serve to distinguish several genera. I 

believe that such characters exist, and I will endeavour 

to point them out in the proper place. 

It can hardly 

be disputed that each group of natural objects, whether 

we call it a kingdom, class, order, family, genus, species, 

or variety, has some peculiar feature of its own, although 

we may not be able to detect it. The imperfection of 

our knowledge has hitherto combined with the limited 

capacity of our intellect in keeping us but partly en- 

lightened ; and this must ever continue to be the case, 

until the whole scheme of Nature, past and present, has 

been unfolded to our view. Perhaps, even to the greatest 

philosopher of modern days, 

" Science appears but what in truth she is, 

Not as our glory and our absolute boast, 

But as a succedaneum, and a prop 

To our infirmity."

232 lucixid^. 

Genus I. LO'RIPES * Poli. PL V. f. 4. 

Body somewhat compressed : mantle having the margin 

notched : incurrent tube rather long and wrinkled : excurrent 

tube sessile : foot awl-shaped. 

Shell almost equilateral, irregularly cancellated, or sculp- 

rather the 

tured by nexuous striae : lunule short : ligament (or 

cartilage) quite internal : teeth, one cardinal in the right, and 

two in the left valve ; laterals remote and sometimes indistinct. 

The celebrated Neapolitan eonchologist, Poli,, who 

founded this genus, described the shell under another 

name— that of Loripoderma — a hybrid compound, or 

" Babylonish dialect/' which fortunately we are not 

obliged to use. It may be known from Lucina by the 

different position of the ligament or cartilage, which is 

external in that and internal in this genus. Deshayes 

is of opinion that the structure of the ligament is of 

more consequence than its position; but the structure 

or composition of every kind of ligament or cartilage is 

the same, and it appears to me that the position of this 

apparatus deserves to be considered in any 

classification. Any one character, 

scheme of 

if certain and not 

liable to vary in the same genus, is as good as another 

for this purpose. 

Searles Wood says that " this is a recent genus, and 

its age, as far as it is known to me, does not extend 

bevond the middle tertiaries." It is difficult to distin- 

guish the genus Ungulina of Daudin from Loripes. Ac- 

cording to Chenu, the ligament in Ungulina is external ; 

but its exact position is in a groove on the hinge-plate, 

within the dorsal margin. 

* So named from the thong-shaped foot.

LORIPES. 233 

A. Shell concentrically ribbed and slightly decussated by lon- 

gitudinal striae ; 

lateral teeth indistinct. 

1. Loripes lac'teus *, Linne. 

Tellina lactea, Linn. Syst. jSat. p. 1119. Lucina leucoma, F. & H. ii. 

p. 57, pi. xxxv. f. 2 (as L. lactea). 

part. 

Body whitish : 

foot cylindrical, and swollen in the upper 

Shell usually of a somewhat globular form, but varying in 

comparative length and breadth, rather solid and opaque, not 

glossy: sculpture, distant lines of growth and fine, irregular 

and close-set concentric striae, as well as equally fine and irregular 

but less numerous longitudinal striae or scratches, which 

radiate from the direction of the beak, and cause the surface to 

be partly decussated : colour white, with a tinge of : yellow 

epidermis forming a mere film, and slightly iridescent : margins 

rounded and sometimes indented or sinuous on the anterior 

side, curved in front, and slightly truncate although rounded on 

the posterior side : beaks small, rather prominent, much incurved 

and close together ; they are placed very nearly in the 

middle of the dorsal margin : lunule deep and heart-shaped : 

hinge-line flexuous, occupying 

about one-fourth of the circum- 

ference : cartilage yellowish-brown, shaped like a lance -head, 

divided into two semicylindrical portions, each of which fills a 

groove on the hinge-plate in either valve, sloping obliquely 

downwards from the beak within the line of the posterior 

lateral tooth, and terminating abruptly in the interior of the 

shell : hinge-plate broad and strong : teeth, in the right valve 

one triangular cardinal, and occasionally a small denticle, besides 

two indistinct laterals (one on each side), which are more 

or less raised and pointed at the end ; in the left valve a 

double cardinal, which receives that of the opposite valve in 

an intermediate socket, and two laterals as in the other valve ; 

the posterior lateral is much the longer : inside somewhat 

nacreous, but of a dull hue ; margin smooth and plain : scars 

large and remarkably 

distinct. L. 0*7. B. 07. 

Yar. Desmarestii. Shell flatter and thinner. Lucina Des- 

marestii, Payraudeau, Cat. Moll. Corse, p. 44, pi. i. f. 19, 20. 

Habitat : 

Muddy 

gravel 

* Milk-white. 

and sand on the coasts of

234 LUCINIDiE. 

our southern, south- western, and south-eastern counties, 

and in the south and west of Ireland ; Llyn, Carnarvon- 

shire (Pennant) ; Scarborough (Bean) ; Seaton, Durham 

(Hogg, fide Alder) ; 

and Mr. Dawson has dredged 

a single valve off Buchan in Aberdeenshire at some 

distance from land. In the Channel Isles it lives in the 

sand at low tides ; and it is usually found elsewhere at a 

depth of only a few fathoms. The locality " Scalloway/' 

given in the ( British Mollusca ' 

on my authority, is 

incorrect ; and Mr. M fAndrew informs me that a similar 

mistake must have occurred in quoting him as having 

taken this species in Zetland. The variety is from 

Southampton and Bantry Bay. I am not aware that 

this species has ever been found in the north of Europe. 

South of Great Britain it is widely distributed through 

the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and iEgean seas \ its fur- 

thest limit appears to be the Canary Isles. 

The shell varies considerably in the degree of globose- 

ness, and in the proportions of length and breadth, as 

well as in the development of the teeth. Very young 

specimens have an oblique contour and are much broader 

than long. 

Philippi was of opinion that this species is not the 

Tellina lactea of Linne, because the latter is described 

as " gibba." Believing, moreover, that the present spe- 

cies is that which Lamarck designated lactea, he pro- 

posed the name of fragHis for Linnets species. Forbes 

and Hanley subscribed to Philippics view, but changed 

the specific name of our shell to leucoma. I do not 

see any necessity for this shifting nomenclature. The 

Lucina leucoma of Turton, if we may trust his description 

and typical specimens, is scarcely a variety of the 

shell commonly called L. lacteus. Lamarck appears not 

only to have made two species out of the old one, but

LORIPES. 235 

to have placed them in different genera, one in Lucina 

as L.lactea, and the other in Amphidesma as A. lucinalis. 

B. Shell marked by flexuous striae ; lateral teeth distinct. 

2. L. divarica'tus * } Linne. 

Tellina divaricata, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1120. Lucina divaricata, F. k H. 

ii. p. 52, pi. 

xxxv. f. 3. 

Shell resembling that of L. lacteus in shape, bnt more 

tumid and having an oblique outline, thick and opaque, rather 

glossy : sculpture, numerous imbricated and flexuous striae, 

which bend from the middle of the shell to each side with a 

gentle curve, the highest point or centre of the curve being in 

the direction of the beak the striae are ; 

irregularly concentric 

in the umbonal area, and become flexuous in the subsequent 

stage of growth the surface is also marked ; by minute closeset 

longitudinal striae or lines as in the last : species colour 

white with a slight tinge of : yellow epidermis so thin as to 

be scarcely visible : margins rounded on all sides, except where 

the beak projects ; the posterior is the highest and forms a 

kind of shoulder : beaks very prominent, gibbous, close toge- 

ther, and twisted towards the anterior side : lunide deep, 

heart-shaped, and defined on each side by a strong ridge : 

hinge-line curved, occupying not quite 

one-fourth of the cir- 

cumference : cartilage light horncolour, narrower than in L. 

lacteus, but similar in shape and position : hinge-plate rather 

broad and strong : teeth, in the right valve one strong blunt 

cardinal, and a long, sharp and raised lateral on each side ; in 

the left valve two cardinals, one of which is strong and blunt, 

and the other very much smaller and on a lower level, besides 

two laminar laterals on each side, receiving between them the 

single lateral on the corresponding side of the other valve ; 

the posterior laterals are the : longest inside slightly nacreous 

but of a dull hue ; margin finely crenulated : scars large and 

distinct, that left by the anterior adductor muscle being not 

much longer 1 X & than the other. L. 04. B. 0-4. 

Habitat : 

Sonth coast of England, but exceedingly 

* Spread out, with reference to the different directions exhibited by 

the markings on the shell.

236 LUCINID^. 

rare. Montagu obtained a single valve from dredged 

sand at Falmouth; Turton records it from the Land's 

End and Teignmouth, although the only specimen in 

his collection appears to be from the first of those locali- 

ties; and I fortunately obtained in 1839 two valves 

(right and left, but not a pair) by dredging in muddy 

off St. Mawe's 

sand, at a depth of about 15 fathoms, 

Creek near Falmouth, some miles outside the harbour, 

and where no ballast had ever been deposited. Mytilus 

Adriaticus occurred on the same ground ; and a living 

specimen of Tellina balaustina has since been got there 

by trawling. Another locality is, according 

to Dr. 

Leach (on the authority of Dr. Knox), " southern seas 

of Scotland, between Arran and Bute and the Mull of 

Cantire f* but the length and height of a specimen said 

to have come from that quarter are suspicious, "one 

inch and threequarters." It must have been the common 

West-Indian shell generally known as the Lucina 

divaricata of Lamarck and L. quadripartita of D'Or- 

bigny. Searles Wood has described the present species 

from the Mammalian and Red Crag. Collard des 

Cherres states that it has been found alive at Quelern 

in Brittany ; 

and it unquestionably inhabits all the seas 

of Southern Europe, as well as the coasts of Madeira 

and the Canaries. Dr. Gould included it in his list ; 

but Stimpson considers the Massachusetts shell to be a 

distinct species, and has called it Lucina strigilla. 

This is the Lucina digitaria of Poli, Cardium discors 

of Montagu, 

Lucina undularia of Searles Wood's Cata- 

logue, and L. commutata of Philippi. 

A valve of a much smaller species, which is fre- 

quently seen in parcels of West-Indian shells, was sent 

between forty and fifty years ago by Mr. Dillwyn to 

Col. Montagu for his opinion. It was marked " foreign,"

LORIPES. 23: 

and returned by the latter with a note in pencil, " not 

C. discoid" The specimen and memorandum are close 

beside me while I am writing. 

I mention this because 

there seems to have been some confusion as to what 

species Montagu intended by 

Nearly the whole of his priceless 

his Cardium discors. 

collection of British 

shells, which he presented to the National Museum, has 

unluckily been lost to science : and even some of the 

few specimens that are still preserved were many years 

ago removed from the original tablets, no care having 

apparently been taken in the course of rearrangement to 

retain the names affixed by the donor to his types. 

No 

similar neglect, however, has happened of late years; 

and all that can now be desired by the public to ensure 

proper care being 

taken of our unrivalled store of scien- 

tific wealth, and its being made available for the instruc- 

tion and amusement of the people, are more space and 

a larger staff. 

Dr. Pulteney, Mr. Bryer, and Dr. Maton are reported 

to have found the Venus tigerina of Linne (a species of 

Loripes) on several parts 

of the Dorset coast. There 

is no likelihood, much less satisfactory evidence, that 

it is indigenous. It inhabits tropical seas. 

Another species, the Venus orbiculata of Montagu, 

said to have been found by Laskey at Dunbar, is also 

spurious. It is the Lucina squamosa of Lamarck, and 

West Indian. 

I was assured by Dr. Lukis that the Tellina carnaria 

of Linne had been taken alive at Guernsey ; 

and I have 

noticed it on the Continent in collections of Mediter- 

ranean shells. Most writers on British and European 

conchology have given it a place in their lists ; 

and Mid- 

dendorff asserts that it is a native of the Caspian Sea. 

But although I may be over-sceptical, 

I must hesitate

238 lucinidjE. 

before I can recognize its claim to be admitted into the 

British fauna. It is so common a West-Indian shell that 

the circumstance of its appearing on any of our shores 

(particularly those which are much frequented) 

is no 

proof of its inhabiting the adjacent sea. Shipwrecks, 

ballast, sailors returning home from foreign voyages, or 

children playing on the sands, might account for any 

exotic shells being found in such places. One thing, 

however, ought to be noticed with regard to the spe- 

cies in question, viz. that the Tellina Balthica (or soli- 

some of the old writers. 

dula) was mistaken for it by 

After describing that species, Lister gives the following 

locality, " In brevibus Lancastriensibus." Linne cites 

Lister, and uses the same word " brevibus " (shallows) 

coupled with " oceani ff in denoting the habitat of his 

T. camaria. Gmelin tried to improve this, and says, as 

to the last-named species, u Habitat copiosissima in An- 

gliee sinubus et insularum oceani Americani littore." 

Da Costa and Donovan followed suit, the former making 

a further emendation by altering the name to " Cardium 

carneosum." Whether the Tellina camaria of Linne 

belongs to the present genus has not yet been satisfactorily 

determined. 

The Tellina pisiformis of Linne may possibly be Bri- 

tish. Montagu described it as Cardium arcuatum, and 

in Falmouth Harbour 

said that it had been dredged up 

with sand for manure. I have a single valve that was 

found in Cornish shell-sand. It is a well-known Medi- 

terranean species ; and De Gerville records it, by the 

name of C. discors, from Querqueville on the coast of 

Brittany. Gmelin called it Tellina digitaria, and Lamarck 

Lucina digitalis. The is sculpture very different 

from that oihoripes divaricatus. In that species the 

stride are arched in the line of growth and thence diverge

LUCINA. 239 

to each side. In the present species the striae run ob- 

liquely from one side to the other, curling upwards at 

each end. L. divaricatus is very convex, white with a 

tinge of pale yellow, and rather glossy, while L. pisi- 

and dull hue. 

The markings on the latter shell are such as may be seen 

formis is compressed, and has a rosy tinge 

on the tip of a finger, and from these the names digitaria 

and digitalis have been derived. It occurs in the Red and 

Coralline Crag. In consequence of the anterior mus- 

cular impression being simple, Searles Wood placed this 

shell provisionally in Astarte ; and Deshayes has lately 

formed out of this and other allied fossil species the 

genus Woodia, a just compliment to our distinguished 

palaeontologist. 

Genus II. LUCI'NA* Bruguiere. PL V. f. 5. 

Body somewhat compressed: mantle having the margin 

waved : incurrent as well as excurrent tube sessile : foot tongue- 

shaped. 

Shell rather inequilateral, concentrically ridged: lunule 

long and well denned : ligament for the most part 

external : 

teeth, one or two cardinals in the right, and always two in the 

left valve, one of which latter is often cloven ; laterals long 

and laminar : inside chalky and pit-marked. 

Although this genus has been divided, it must be 

borne in mind that very nearly three-fourths of a century 

have elapsed since it was first instituted. The 

progress of conchological discovery has been unusually 

rapid during the last twenty years, owing in a great 

measure to the impulse and encouragement given to the 

study of the Mollusca by publications specially devoted 

to it, as the ' Zeitschrift fur Malakozoologie/ f 

Malako- 

zoologische Blatter/ and ' 

* An epithet of Juno. 

Journal de Conchyliologie/

240 lucinice. 

and not less to the continual and successful labours of 

Deshayes, Dunker, PfeifFer, Hanley, Reeve, H. & A. 

Adams, Morch, Fischer, and other writers on the subject. 

New forms are every day being brought to light, and re- 

quire the former system of classification to be modified. 

The old tree has put forth a greater number of new 

shoots than the branches which have been severed from 

it, and it is not less vigorous for the pruning ; even the 

loppings, that have been planted and carefully tended, 

are flourishing, and bid fair to rival their parent stem. 

Species of Lucina abound in tropical seas, and Dr. Philip 

Carpenter has enumerated no less than seventeen as 

inhabiting the west coast of North America. Lamarck 

asserted that in certain species the teeth become obli- 

terated by age and disappear, which statement has been 

repeated by subsequent writers. The British species 

present no such anomaly ; on the contrary, their teeth 

are developed in the course of growth, and become 

stronger and more conspicuous 

young. 

in the adult than in the 

1. Lucina spini'fera*, Montagu. 

Venus spinifera, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 577, pi. 17. f. 1 . L. spinifera, 

ii. p. 49, pi. 

xxxv. f. 1. 

Body clear white : foot very slender, and not swollen. 

F. & H. 

Shell obtusely triangular, with a somewhat oblique out- 

line, compressed, solid and opaque, not glossy. Sculpture, 

about 30 fine, plate-like concentric ridges, which are slightly 

imbricated, their edges forming sharp spines on the dorsal 

these ridges are more regular and equidistant in the 

margin ; 

young than at a later stage of growth ; between them are 

extremely numerous and fine, but irregular concentric striae ; 

and there are here and there a few longitudinal lines which 

are not visible to the naked eye : colour pale yellowish-white : 

epidermis fibrous and not very thin : margins slightly incurved 

* Prickly.

LUCINA. 241 

on the anterior side, which joins the ventral margin at almost a 

right angle, rounded in front, somewhat truncate on the posterior 

side, and sometimes indented by a slight furrow running 

nearly parallel with the margin to the ligamental area, which 

is very gently curved : beaks small and pointed, not projecting, 

slightly recurved, placed so close together as to touch, and 

considerably nearer to the anterior side : lunule deep, abruptly 

denned by the edges of the anterior : margin corselet, or ligamental 

area, also deep and well denned : ligament very long 

and straight, horncolour, sunk within the dorsal margin, but 

visible outside, with the exception of a small portion on the 

sides, which is overlapped by a thin layer of shell : hinge-live 

representing an obtuse angle, and occupying much more than 


hinge-plate rather broad and 

strong : teeth, in the right valve one triangular and pointed 

cardinal, and on each side of it a ridge-like lateral which is 

raised at the end in the left valve two ; 

cardinals, one of which 

is much smaller than the other, the laterals being less distinct 

than in the other valve : inside nacreous and partly iridescent, 

salmoncoloured in the centre ; margin bevelled off and plain : 

scars large and distinct. L. 0-85. B. 1. 

Yar. minor. Shell smaller and flatter, with stronger and 

more regular ridges. 

Habitat : 

A 

muddy and gravelly bottom, from 8 to 

90 fathoms, on nearly all our coasts, but locally distri- 

buted. It is much more common in the west of Scot- 

land and Ireland than it is on the southern coasts of 

England. Captain Beechey dredged 

it in 145 fathoms 

off the Mull of Galloway. The variety occurs in deep 

water off Shetland ; and there is a remarkable coinci- 

dence in size between it and the southern specimens. 

The geographical range of L. spinifera extends from 

Nordland to the iEgean and Canary Isles. It occurs in 

the upper miocene tertiaries of the South of France. 

Scotch and Irish specimens are far larger than those 

from the south of England and the Mediterranean. 

Young shells are exquisite objects, with their snowwhite 

complexion, occasionally suffused with 

M 

a pale

242 LUCINID^. 

orange tint, and their delicate flounces almost equalling 

the ornamentation of the once-prized Venus Dione. The 

fry are quite smooth and glossy. 

This constituted the type of Turton's genus Myrtea, 

and of Leach's genus Cyrachcea. It is the Venus hia- 

telloides of Delle Chiaje; and Philippi at first adopted 

that specific name, not being aware that the species had 

been long previously described by Montagu. Macgilli- 

vray considered it to be only the young of L. borealis ; 

but it may be readily distinguished from that shell by 

its shape, which is triangular instead of circular, by its 

beaks being much less prominent, and by the row of sharp 

spines on the dorsal margin. 

2. L. borea'lis *, Linne. 

Venus borealis, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1134. L. borealis, F. & H. ii. p. 46, 

pi. xxxv. f. 5, and (animal) pi. M. f. 6. 

Body clear white : 

mantle open from the anterior adductor 

to near the posterior muscle, where it is contracted and nearly 

closed : labial palps one on each side of the mouth, short, coarse, 

thick, nearly cylindrical, and striated : foot placed in the middle 

of the ventral area, very narrow, and lancet-shaped at the ex- 

tremity. 

Shell roundish, more or less tumid, solid and opaque, of a 

sculpture, numerous concentric ridges or 

dull chalky hue : 

ribs, which are not much raised although tolerably sharp ; they 

become closer, irregular, and even confluent towards the front 

margin in adult specimens, and are somewhat laminar towards 

the only other markings appear to be a 

the posterior margin ; 

few slight and minute concentric fines between the : ridges 

colour white : epidermis rather thick, fibrous, puckered, and 

: fight yellowish-brown margins obliquely truncate on the anterior 

side, and forming nearly a right angle with the dorsal 

margin in consequence of the line from the beaks along the 

lunule being almost straight, rounded in front, with a slight 

tendency to obliquity, and somewhat truncate on the poste- 

* Northern.

LIJCINA. 243 

rior side, which is indented by an indistinct furrow running 

nearly parallel with the ligamental area : beaks very 

small and 

pointed, rather prominent, much recurved, almost contiguous, 

and ex- 

considerably nearer to the anterior side : lunule deep 

cavated : corselet level : ligament very long and straight, yel- 

lowish-brown, seniicylindrical, slightly projecting outside ; its 

sides are covered by a shelly strip, which is usually found 

broken in small pieces by the action of closing the valves : 

hinge-line curved, occupying not quite 

one-third of the circum- 

ference : hinge-plate broad and thick : teeth, in the right valve 

two strong cardinals, the anterior one being double, and the 

posterior much smaller and set more obliquely, 

and on each 

side of the beak a plate-like lateral, the anterior one being 

slightly raised at the end, and the posterior much longer than 

the other in ; the left valve two similar cardinals, but nearly 

of equal height, and corresponding laterals : inside chalkywhite, 

but in places irregularly tubercular from an internal 

deposit of nacre : margins bevelled off and plain, sometimes 

grooved longitudinally : sears remarkably large and distinct. 

L. 1-4. B. 1-5. 

Yar. 1. depressa. Shell natter and thinner, with fewer ribs 

and the beaks less prominent. 

Yar. 2. gibba. Shell much smaller, with a more oblique 

outline, the valves protuberant, ribs closer together, epidermis 

iridescent, and the beaks more prominent. L. 0-45. 

B.05. 

Habitat : 

On 

all our coasts, in muddy gravel and sand, 

from the low-water mark of spring tides to 82 fathoms. 

Captain Beechey has dredged 

it off the Mull of Gallo- 

way in 110-145 fathoms. The late Wm. Thompson and 

II . Ball found it in lakes of brackish water at Arran. 

Dr. Lukis informed me that this species was comparatively 

rare in the Channel Isles, and that the numerical 

proportion which it bore there to Loripes 

lacteus was as 

1 to 50. He added, " Lucina borealis was wrongly stated 

by Forbes and Hanley (vol. ii. p. 48) 

to occur ' 

abun- 

dantly near St. Peter's Port in Guernsey/ We do not 

meet with it excepting at Herm. I have never found a 

single specimen on the Guernsey coast, although 

m 2 

I have

244 lucinidjE. 

digged much in nearly every bay." 

He suspected that 

Loripes lacteus (single valves of which are exceedingly 

must have been 

plentiful near St. Peter's Port, Guernsey) 

mistaken for the present species. Var. 1. Many places, 

in deep water. Var. 2. In shallow water, Guernsey and 

Scalloway (J. G. J.) ; Bantry Bay (Norman). This 

species occurs in the tertiary beds of the Clyde (Geikie), 

Belfast (Hyndman and Grainger), Sussex ( Godwin - 

Austen), and the Mammalian, Red, and Coralline Crag 

(S.Wood). Abroad it ranges from Iceland (Steenstrup) 

to Messina (Sars). Brocchi and Philippi enumerate it 

as an Italian fossil. I have found it in the upper mio- 

cene tertiaries of the South of France, 

as well as in the 

Uddevalla and Christiania beds. Gould describes it as 

a Massachusetts shell, and Stimpson from the Boston 

coast ; but the latter now denies that it is our species, 

and distinguishes it by the greater size, by 

the ribs 

being more distant and regular, and by the colour, which 

Gould says is white : Stimpson has therefore named it 

filosa. However, if the claim to distinction rests only on 

these comparative characters, I do not see any reason 

for separating the Atlantic and Transatlantic species. 

Montagu states that this shell is "particularly abundant 

at Falmouth, amongst the sand dredged from the 

harbour for the purpose of manure; by 

which means 

it is common in the arable fields about that place." 

hope geologists may not be misled, and consider it 

fossil, if they find it in such situations. They 

I 

need as 

much caution as antiquaries in the exercise of their 

pursuit, although they are not so liable to be wilfully 

deceived. It may be worth while to fabricate coins, 

flint knives, and similar relics of historic and prehistoric 

times but ; fossil shells have no such marketable value, 

they are not so easily forged or imitated, nor would even

AxiNtrs. 245 

Palissy's workmanship impose on a palaeontologist of any 

experience. The shell of L. borealis has a considerable 

tendency to vary in respect of the remoteness or proximity 

of the striae. In some Guernsey specimens the ribs 

nearly disappear towards the front. A specimen from 

Exmouth has a minute pearl lodged between the pallial 

impression and the inner margin. The young are ob- 

liquely triangular, and marked with a few irregular 

white streaks which radiate from the beaks. The frv are 

almost globular, perfectly smooth, and glossy. Specimens 

of an extraordinary size are got at Tenby. My son 

picked up a single valve on the sands there, measuring 

two inches in breadth and nearly as much in length. 

Petiver first noticed this species as British, and called 

it the " thread- girdled white Cockle." Donovan recognized 

it as the Venus borealis of Linne. It is also the 

V. spuria of Gmelin (from the figures of Lister and 

Chemnitz), Tellina radula of Montagu, 

and Venus cir- 

cinnata of Brocchi. The type of Turton's Lucina alba 

is composed of two odd and much-worn valves of 

L. borealis. The L. lactea and L. leucoma of Macgilli- 

vray also belong to the present species. 

Genus III. AXI'NUS * J. Sowerby. PL V. f. 6. 

Body convex : mantle having the margin thickened, with- 

out tubes : 

gills two on each side, an outer and inner pair : 

foot nearly cylindrical and very slender. 

Shell globular, with somewhat of a triangular outline, 

smooth ; posterior side longitudinally furrowed, or angulated : 

heaks much recurved : lunule short and sometimes indistinct : 

ligament usually and to a certain extent external, placed 

in a 

groove or excavation on the hinge-line, and outside the hingeplate 

: teeth altogether wanting. 

* Hati-het-shaped.

246 LUCINID.E. 

If Lucina has been properly made the type of a sepa- 

rate family, and is no longer to be regarded as a genus 

containing many sections or subgenera, the validity of 

the present genus can hardly be questioned. A com- 

parison of the characters above given 

with those of 

Lucina, as now sought to be restricted, will, I think, 

suffice to convince most conchologists that Axinus is a 

good genus. Those who are of opinion that the family 

has no substantial or natural basis are of course at 

liberty to adopt the old genus Lucina in its original in- 

tegrity. I do not propose any new genus. Axinus has 

already attained the respectable age of forty years. 

is at present in some danger of being set aside as obso- 

lete or unfashionable ; 

but 

Multa renascentur quae jam cedidere, cadentque 

Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus, 

Queni penes arbitrium est et jus et norma loquendi. 

These mollusks are of small size, and dwellers in mud 

and sand at various depths of water. The species are 

by 

no means numerous. Three of them are British and 

European, 

and another is Cuban. Mr. Searles Wood 

says, " Species strictly belonging to this genus 

been described from any formation of an older date 

It 

have not 

than the tertiaries : the shell called Axinus obscurus, 

from the Magnesian limestone, belongs to a different 

group, and has already been made a genus of by Pro- 

fessor King, under the name of Schizodus." The shell 

of Axinus has no tooth. What has been taken for such 

is merely the point of the hinge-plate, near the beak, 

which becomes thickened, and even projects a little, in 

full-grown specimens. This process is unlike the tooth 

of any bivalve. The connexion of the valves depends 

wholly on the ligament, and is therefore slight. Sowerby, 

in proposing the present genus, instanced A. anyulatus

axinus. 247 

This exhibits all the 

of the London Clay as the type. 

essential generic characters, except in respect of the 

of the matrix 

hinge, which is not visible in consequence 

in which the shell is imbedded being too hard and com- 

pact to be removed. It is remarkable, however, that 

Sowerby added to his description of Axinus, " I suspect 

it has no teeth." 

Several names for this genus have been attributed to 

Leach, viz. Thyasira, Thiatira, Thiatisa, and Bequania. 

The first only is classically correct. Turton called it 

Cryptodon, Philippi Ptychina, and I gave another generic 

name (Clausina) to one of the species. All these are 

mere synonyms and superfluous. 

I would recommend those of my readers who are 

acquainted with the Danish language to read a very 

interesting account by Professor Sars of the animal of 

A. Sarsii, contained in his Report of a zoological ex- 

cursion to the Loffoden Isles and Fimnark in 1849. 

He observes that Axinus differs from all other Con- 

chifera in the position of its generative organs, which 

lie outside the stomach, and not within it ; 

and he com- 

pares this genus to the Brachiopoda in that respect. 

He found by a microscopical examination that some 

individuals were male and others female. 

1. Axinus flexuo'sus *, Montagu. 

Tellina flexuosa, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 72. Lucina flexuosa, F. & H. ii. 

p. 54, 

xxxv. f. 4. 

pi. 

Body clear white : mantle somewhat contracted on the pos- 

terior side, so as to form a round hole : 

brown colour : foot placed in the middle of the ventral area. 

gills thick, of a red- 

Shell roundish-oval, tumid, thin, usually opaque but some- 

times more or less transparent, scarcely glossy : 

* Flexuous. 

sculpture, irre-

248 LUCINID^. 

gular lines of growth and microscopical frost-like markings : 

colour white : epidermis filmy and inconspicuous : margins ob- 

liquely truncate on the anterior side, and forming nearly a 

right angle with the dorsal margin, which is almost straight or 

slightly incurved, rounded in front, and flexuous on the posterior 

side, which is deeply indented by a wide furrow or 

groove running from the beaks at an angle of about 30 degrees 

and gradually enlarging outwards, as well as by another smaller 

and parallel furrow close to the ligamental area : beaks small 

and pointed, but not prominent, much recurved, almost con- 

tiguous, a little nearer to the anterior side : lumde rather deep 

and heartshaped : corselet prominent, well defined by the upper 

furrow, and forming two sharp and pouting lips : ligament 

rather long, yellowish-brown or light horncolour, not projecting 

beyond the lips of the corselet, but distinctly visible 

outside ; ligamental groove narrow and shallow : hinge-line 

obtusely angular, occupying 

not one-fourth of the circumfe- 

rence : hinge-plate rather broad and thick, nearly flat, almost 

below the 

all of it lying on the posterior side ; immediately 

beaks it is indented in the right valve and slightly reflected in 

the left, which gives that valve the appearance of having an 

indistinct or obscure cardinal tooth : inside highly glossy and 

iridescent, sometimes slightly striated lengthwise ; margin thin 

and plain: pallial scar broken in a zigzag line, in conse- 

quence probably of a corresponding structure in the edge of 

the mantle: muscular scars large. L. 0375. B. 0*35. 

Var. polygons,. Rather longer in proportion to the breadth, 

marked by three or four longitudinal ridges, giving the shell 

an angular form, the grooves on the posterior side being much 

deeper 

than usual. 

Monstr. Having a longitudinal groove down the middle, 

which is longer and deeper in the left valve than in the right. 

Habitat : 

Gregarious 

in soft mud and sand on all 

the British coasts, from Shetland to the Channel Isles, 

in 3-87 fathoms. The variety is from the deepest water 

on the " outer haf/' about forty miles east of the 

Whalsey Skerries, and the monstrosity from Falmouth 

and Tenby. This species is rather plentiful in the 

" alluvial" deposits at Belfast (Hyndman and Grainger); 

Clyde beds (Smith); Coralline Crag, Sutton (S. Wood).

axinus. 249 

It is widely distributed through the North Atlantic 

from Spitzbergen (Torell) to the Canary Isles (M'Andrew), 

and likewise through the Mediterranean and 

JEgean. The greatest bathymetrical limit recorded is 

that by Danielssen, viz. 180 fathoms, at Vadso in Fin- 

mark. "Postglacial" 

beds in the Christiania diocese 

(Sars). Gould has described it as a Massachusetts 

shell ; but in a review of his work by Philippi, in the 

' 

Zeitschrift ' 

for 1846, the North-American species is 

stated to differ in several respects from ours, and the 

name Lucina Gouldii was therefore given to it. Morch 

refers the Greenland shell to this last species, and says 

it is the Tyatira hyalina of Beck. I confess that I have 

not been able to make out anything more than a varietal 

difference between the Greenland specimens and those 

of A. flexnosus from our own seas. 

Young shells are globular, and the principal fold on 

the posterior side is visible in every stage of growth. 

The liver is of a beautiful purple colour. The attachment 

of the ligament to the hinge is slight, which 

accounts for single valves being so frequently thrown 

up on the shore, or taken by the dredge in sandy bays. 

Lamarck described this species in his ( 

Histoire na- 

turelle des Animaux sans Vertebres/ both as Amphidesma 

fleoniosa and Lucina sinuata. It is the Crypt odon 

bisinuatum of S. Wood's Catalogue, and the Pty china 

biplicata (afterwards changed to Axinus sinuatus) of 

Philippi. The Venus sinuosa of Pennant and Donovan 

(thus characterized, "Thin, convex, a deep 

obtuse sinus 

or bending in the front") appears to be Thracia distorta, 

which is often contracted in this way ; and Donovan's 

figure confirms that idea. S. Wood, however, considered 

The A. Sarsii of 

it identical with the present species. 

Philippi, described by Loven in his admirable ' 

m 5 

Index

250 LVQimi)m> 

Molluscorum litora Scandinavian occidentalia habitan- 

tium/ is not uncommon on the coasts of Norway and 

Sweden; but it has not been found in our seas. I 

venture to regard it as a large variety of A. flexuosus. 

Some remarks will be found on the subject when I come 

to treat of the next species. 

2. A. Croulinensis $, Jeffreys. 

Clattsina Crov.linensis, Jeffr. in Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. p. 19; 

p. 122, pi. v. f. 2, a-c (young). 

ser. 3. ii. 

Shell obliquely oval, tumid, of a moderate thickness, 

opaque except in the young state, rather glossy : sculpture, 

numerous and fine but irregular concentric strise : colour white : 

epidermis slight : margins rounded on the anterior side, as 

well as in front, and slightly angular on the posterior side, 

which is indented by a double but short furrow : beaks small 

and prominent, much more recurved than in the last species, 

. almost contiguous and central : lunule indistinct : corselet 

narrow but well defined by the upper furrow : ligament slight, 

not visible outside ; ligamental groove sloping inwards : 

liingel',ie 

obtusely curved, occupying not one-fifth of the circum- 

ference : hinge-plate rather narrow but thick, almost all of 

it lying on the posterior side ; the tooth-like folds are as in 

A. flexuosus, but very much stronger and more conspicuous : 

inside highly glossy, iridescent, and smooth ; margin thin and 

plain: pallial 

B. 0-135. 

Habitat : 

45 to 85 fathoms ; 

Skye 

scar indistinct : muscular scars oval. L. 0*15. 

and Shetland, in muddy sand, from 

rare. 

This shell, compared with specimens of A. flexuosus 

of a similar size and age, is longer and more oblique, as 

well as proportionally more solid ; the margin of the 

anterior side is curved, instead of being nearly straight 

and truncate; the furrows on the posterior side are 

scarcelv visible when viewed in front : the beaks are 

* From its having been first found near Croulin Island, in the He- 

brides.

AXIXUS. 251 

much more recurved; and the tooth-like folds are 

stronger and more prominent. I at one time thought 

it might be the young of A. Sarsii ; but having been 

favoured bv mv kind friends in the North with a series 

of specimens from several localities, I am enabled to 

express a positive conviction that my shells are not the 

The shell of A. Sarsii 

young of that species or variety. 

in all states of growth is even more globular than A. 

flexuosus, the furrows are equally strong (except in 

large specimens, when they are less conspicuous), and 

the tooth-like folds are wanting or indistinct. A. Sarsii 

is usually found in deeper water than A. flexuosus, and 

I am not aware that both forms have ever been taken 

together. Asbjornsen gives different localities for each 

on the coast of Norway ; and Malm informs me that 

on the Swedish coast he always finds A. flexuosus on 

softer ground and in shallower water than the other. 

A. Sarsii attains a much larger size ; and Lilljeborg 

showed me a comparatively gigantic specimen, which 

was upwards of an inch long. It occurs in the Udde- 

valla beds. The authors of the ' 


advertently placed A. Croulinensis with A.ferruginosus. 

The outline of each will be sufficient to distinguish 

them, independently 

in- 

of other characters. The shell of 

the former is obliquely oval, and that of the latter 

almost globular. 

3. A. ferrugixo'sus*, Forbes. 

Kellia ferruginosa, Forbes, iEgean Invert., Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1843, p. 192. 

Lucina ferruginosa, F. & H. ii. p. 60, pi. xxxiv. f. 1 . 

Shell nearly globular, but more tumid towards the beaks, 

covered with a thick ferruginous crust or coating like the rust 

of old iron, beneath which it is thin, opaque, and rather glossy : 

* Covered with iron-rust.

252 LUCINID/E. 

soalpture, irregular lines of growth and intermediate microscopical 

striae: colour reddish-brown outside, and milk-white 

inside the crust: epidermis thin and obscured by the outer 

covering : margins rounded on the anterior side and in front, 

obliquely truncate or sloping on the posterior side, which is 

slightly nexuous and marked by 

a broad but shallow furrow 

radiating from the beak, as in the last species 

and tubercular, rather prominent, much recurved, not so close 

together as in A. flexuosus, and nearer to the anterior side: 

: beaks small 

lunule imperfectly defined : corselet indistinct : ligament short, 

reddish-brown, sunk within the lips of the corselet and hardly 

visible outside ; ligamental groove very slight and narrow : 

hinge-line obtusely angular, deeply excavated in the centre 

on the posterior side of the beak, and occupying about one- 

third of the circumference : hinge-plate narrow and sharp, 

reflected and projecting below the beak on the anterior side, so 

that the edge appears like a blunt cardinal tooth ; by far the 

greater part of the hinge-plate lies on the posterior side : inside 

rather : glossy ; margin plain pallial scar slight, entire : mus- 

cular scars conspicuous and round. L. 0'125. B. 0*125. 

Habitat : 

Muddy 

ground and sand in 30-50 fathoms, 

Sound of Skye; 20-100 fathoms, Loch Fyne ; 

80 fathoms, 

and 70- 

off the west coast of Shetland. Close to 

Crouiin Island, in the first of these localities, it is 

remarkably plentiful. Captain Hoskyn has lately taken 

specimens off the west coast of Ireland at a depth of 

210 fathoms. Glacial beds, Aberdeenshire (Jamieson); 

Coralline Crag, Sutton (S.Wood). Torell has dredged it 

in 250 fathoms off the coast of Greenland ; 

Loven and 

other writers have mentioned it in their lists as Scan- 

dinavian, from Finmark to Bohuslan ; and Forbes first 

described it, as inhabiting the Êgean at a depth of 119 

fathoms. 

The young are oval and transparent. Some specimens 

of a larger size than usual have a snout-like 

process which projects from the angle of the posterior 

side, and is caused by an excessive accumulation of the 

ferruginous crust in that part. This induces me to

DIPLODOXTA. 253 

think that the coating arises from a deposit of faecal 

matter in still and deep water, and not from any peculiar 

secretion of the animal, or from a mineral or che- 

mical deposit. 

It is the Cryptodon rotundatiim of Searles Wood's 

' 

Catalogue of the Crag Mollusca/ Judging from an 

examination of a single valve so named by Forbes, his 

Kellia abyssicola from the iEgean appears to be only 

the decorticated state of the present species. 

Genus IV. DIPLODON'TA *, Brown. PI. V. f. 7. 

Body nearly globular, but : compressed mantle thick, having 

a : plain margin tubes none : gills two on each side : labial 

palps the same : foot lancet-shaped. 

Shell squarish, convex, and smooth: beaks not much recurved: 

h.mule inconspicuous : ligament quite external : teeth, 

two cardinals in each valve, the anterior of which in the right 

valve is simple, and the other bifid or cloven, the contrary being 

the case in the left valve ; 

laterals laminar and indistinct. 

The peculiarity of this genus consists in there being 

two separate gills and as many labial palps on each side, 

instead of a single gill and palp as in all the other genera 

of the same family, and also of the ligament being alto- 

gether external, and the cardinal teeth more numerous 

and symmetrical. In adult specimens the anterior 

muscular impression is elongated, like that of Lucina. 

The Diplodonta inhabit every part of the marine 

world ; and many fossil species have been described. 

Torell has lately dredged at Spitzbergen a new species, 

which is nearly allied to the only one we have in the 

British seas. 

It is the genus Mysia of Leach, and (according to 

AYoodward) Spharella 

of Conrad. 

* Double-tooth.

254 LUCINID.E. 

Diplodonta rotunda'ta*, Montagu. 

Tellina rotundata, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 71, tab. 2. f. 3. D. rotundata, 

F. & H. ii. p. 66, pi. xxxv. f. 6, and (animal) pi. M. f. 7. 

Body clear white : 

gills laminar, somewhat elongated and 

angular, folded or puckered at the edges, pectinated, and fixed 

as usual to the dorsal range, the upper plate being little more 

than half the depth of the lower one : palps short, pointed, 

pectinated, and somewhat triangular : 

end very small and : inconspicuous foot central, rather long, 

and conical, minutely perforated at the point. 

orifice at the posterior 

Shell obliquely quadrilateral, gibbous, not very thin, opaque, 

moderately glossy: sculpture, strongly marked and irregular 

lines of growth, and (under the microscope) exceedingly fine 

and close-set, regular longitudinal lines on the umbonal area, 

which radiate from the beak and are only perceptible in fresh 

specimens, as well as equally fine and numerous, but irre- 

gular and often wavy or confluent, transverse lines on the 

rest of the surface : colour milk-white : epidermis 

fibrous and 

yellowish, usually rubbed off except in front : margins obtusely 

angular on the anterior side, where the slope to the beak and 

front is nearly equal, obliquely rounded in front, somewhat 

produced and very much broader on the posterior side, which 

is also rounded at the end, and straight behind : beaks small, 

scarcely projecting beyond the dorsal line, and not contiguous : 

lunule very small, but deep, not well defined, and hidden by the 

beaks : ligament short, semicylindrical, yellowish-brown 

or of 

a golden hue, projecting beyond the dorsal margin ; ligamental 

groove rather deeply cut : hinge-line slightly curved, occupying 

nearly one-third of the circumference : hinge-plate broad 

in the middle and tapering gradually to each end the ; posterior 

side is the longer: teeth, in the right valve two erect 

cardinals, the posterior of which is double and placed more 

lateral on each 

obliquely than the other, as well as a plate-like 

side, the anterior of which is distinct ; in the left valve the 

same number and kind of cardinals and laterals, but the posi- 

tion of the former is reversed : inside marked by slight longitudinal 

lines, frost-like in the centre and at the back, but 

glossy towards the margin, which is plain : pallial scar distinct, 

broad, and entire : muscular scars large and well marked, the 

anterior one irregularly elliptical, and the posterior oval. 

L. 0-9. B. 1. 

* Rounded.

Habitat : 

Not 

DIPLODONTA. 255 

uncommon on the southern coasts of 

England and in the Channel Isles, and also in the 

south and west of Ireland, in 12-20 fathoms, sandy 

mud. Being elsewhere local, I may mention that it has 

been taken by Forbes and M 'Andrew in 7-25 fathoms 

off Lundy Island, by Lyons at Tenby, by myself in 20 

fathoms at Fishguard, and by M'Andrew in 12 fathoms 

off Anglesea. Sir W. C. Trevelyan and the Rev. G. C. 

Abbes are reported to have found it at Seaton and 

Whitburn; but Alder suspects these specimens were 

256 CARBIT1D.E. 

Family X. CARDITDXE, Gray. 

Body oblong or roundish -oval : mantle thin, open in front, 

and folded behind into a short excretal tube : foot tongue- 

shaped and extensile, byssiferous. 

Shell shaped like the animal, equivalve, inequilateral : 

ligament external: hinge strong, furnished with one or two 

cardinal teeth, which are set more or less obliquely, and with 

scar in 

a laminar posterior lateral tooth in each valve : pallial 

nearly every case entire : muscular scars large, round, and 

deep. 

I give this family provisionally as British, not know- 

ing where else to place the abnormal genus Cyamiwn, 

as well as a species of Cypricardia, which at present I 

am not sure is indigenous. The present members of this 

family are dispersed over the ocean, but chiefly confined 

to the southern zone : their ancestors flourished in the 

northern hemisphere, and multiplied exceedingly during 

the tertiary epoch. 

With respect to the shape of the pallial scar, being 

the impression produced by the adhesion of the mantle 

to the inside of the shell near the front margin, I think 

an undue importance has been attached to this cha- 

racter. When it is sinuous or indented, it certainly 

shows that the animal has two distinct tubes springing 

but when 

from a common sheath, at the posterior side ; 

it is simple, or even flexuous, we cannot learn from it 

whether there are two such tubes, or only one, nor 

what their length may be, nor even whether there is 

any 

tube at all. Cardium and Venus have each a double 

tube on the posterior side ; but the pallial scar in the 

former is simple or entire, and in the latter sinuous.

Genus CYA'MIUM *< Philippi. 

CYAMIUM. 257 

PI. V. f. 8. 

Body somewhat compressed : ecccurrent tube scarcely pro- 

jecting beyond the posterior 

slender. 

side of the shell : 

gills large : 

foot 

Shell oblong, very inequilateral : teeth, in the right valve 

one strong and large double cardinal (appearing like two single 

teeth in immature specimens), and in the left valve two cardi- 

nals ; 

rior side. 

each valve has an indistinct lateral tooth on the poste- 

The type of this genus is a small shell from the Falk- 

land Isles, which Philippi described in 1845 as Cyamium 

antarcticum. This is the only species known, unless 

the British shell which I am about to mention belongs 

to the same genus. The ligament in both species is 

external. Loven adopted Philippics genus for our shell, 

but he did so with 

which has a wide European range ; 

some doubt, because it was supposed that the ligament 

in Cyamium was internal. Forbes and Hanley seem 

also to have entertained the latter idea : and thev con- 

sequently proposed a new genus, Turtonia, 

for the re- 

ception of the northern species. Messrs. H. and A. 

Adams, in their most useful and elaborate work, ' The 

Genera of recent Mollusca/ at first united Turtonia with 

Cyamium ; but in the appendix they expressed a different 

opinion, and separated them, on the ground that " the 

shell of the former is closed at both ends, the ligament 

is more exposed than in Cyamium, and it is also provided 

with slightly prominent elongated lateral teeth 

which are absent in Cyamium" Having several times 

examined minutely a series of specimens of C. antarcticum 

in the British and Stockholm Museums, I have 

arrived at a different conclusion; and, after carefully 

weighing the reasons stated by the able systematists 

* A little bean.

258 CARDITIDyE. 

above-named, I feel satisfied that the two species from 

the extremities of the Atlantic Ocean ought to be in- 

cluded in the same genus. Perfect specimens of C. ant- 

arcticum are closed at both ends ; and the ligament is as 

much exposed, and the lateral teeth are as fully deve- 

loped, in that species 

as in the other. 

There is, however, a much greater difficulty as to the 

position and relations of this anomalous genus, in consequence 

of the following description of Turtonia in the 

'British Mollusca' ii. 

(vol. : p. 80) "Animal with the 

mantle widely open anteriorly, a single very slender 

siphonal tube at the shorter end, and an ample and 

strong foot angulated at its posterior base proceeding 

from the longer." The authors also state in the description 

of the species, t( all we know of the animal is con- 

tained in the generic character, due to the observations 

of Mr. Alder." The representation of the animal, given 

with the above 

in pi. O. f. 1. of that work, corresponds 

description. In the ( 

Supplementary 

Notes on the 

Acephala' (vol. ii. p. 375), and in the description 

plates (vol. i. p. 480), 

the engraving, viz. in the ic 

short, instead of the long, 

of the 

a material error is noticed as to 

siphon projecting from the 

end of the shell." The de- 

scription remains uncorrected. Mr. J. de C. Sowerby 

assured me that he accurately made the engraving from 

a sketch furnished by the late Professor Forbes, whose 

name as the draughtsman appears on the plate. I 

thereupon wrote to Mr. Alder for further information ; 

and in reply he says, " I am quite certain of Turtonia 

minuta (the species in question) having a small slender 

siphonal tube, which is occasionally exserted, but at the 

longer end. I have hunted out my sketches of the 

animal, which after some search I have found in an old 

memorandum-book of 1838, and herewith send you a

CYAMIUM. 259 

tracing of them. You will see that in two of the figures 

the tube is exserted : but the animal is rather shy in 

extending it, and it can only be seen by watching the 

opportunity. It is probably the anal siphon, as is supposed 

to be the case in Lucina [Loripes], — the branchial 

siphon being either very short or only formed by a fold 

in the open mantle, as in some other genera." I have 

myself failed to detect any slender tube such as Mr. 

Alder has described, although during the last two years 

I have examined a great number of living and active 

individuals on the spot and under extremely favourable 

circumstances. Subjoined is the result of my observa- 

tions, which were noted at the time of their being made, 

with respect to the shape and position of the tube and 

foot. The excretal or anal tube is small, button- shaped, 

and almost sessile. It is situate on the upper part of 

the posterior or broader side of the shell. This process 

is formed out of a fold or contraction of the mantle, and 

slightly separated by a raised edge from the long ventral 

opening. It is occasionally protruded, but never to a 

greater extent than the one-hundredth part 

of an inch. 

When this takes place the lower side is higher than the 

upper, and appears, when viewed sideways, 

like an ex- 

ceedingly minute tooth or conical point. Being nearly 

transparent, the raised edges cannot be seen, unless the 

The mouth 

object is placed in relief on a black ground. 

or orifice of the tube is roundish-oval and plain. I 

from it. No 

repeatedly observed excretal pellets ejected 

other tube or orifice was perceptible on the same side. 

The ventral gape, occupying the middle of the open 

and wide. It serves for the ad- 

valves, is very large 

mission of food, as well as of water to aerate the gills. 

There was always a current passing into it, charged 

with animalcula. The edges of the mantle towards the

260 CARDITIDÊ. 

posterior side project or " pout " a little. The foot is 

slender, remarkably flexible, and extensile. It often 

assumes a cylindrical shape, especially when the animal 

is creeping, being dilated with water through an open- 

ing at the base or heel. It is nearly as long 

as the shell 

is broad, and is sometimes thrust out on the anterior 

side, so as to resemble a tube or siphon, as represented 

in Forbes and Hanley's plate. The figures given in the 

present volume were taken from the life by Dr. Saxby, 

and are perfectly accurate in every particular. 

The European species of Cyamium lives between 

tide-marks, and literally swarms in some places. It 

attaches itself to seaweeds and other objects by means 

of a fine but tenacious byssus. Although it is minute 

(barely a tenth of an inch from one end to the other) it 

did not escape the keen eye of the great Otho Fabricius, 

who described it with his wonted accuracy upwards of 

eighty years ago. No species has been recognized in a 

fossil state. The Cyamium ? eocimium of Searles Wood 

appears to belong to another genus. 

Cyamium minu'tum *, Fabricius. 

Venus minuta, Fabr. Faun. Groenl. p. 412. Turtonia minuta, F. & H. 

ii. p. 81. pi. xviii. f. 7 & 7a, and (animal) pi. O. f. 1. 

Body gelatinous, greyish-white with a faint tinge of purple : 

tithe, almost sessile : foot very flexible. 

Shell rhomboidal, or inclined to triangular in consequence 

of the prominence of the beaks, convex, rather thin, semi- 

transparent and glossy : sculpture, irregular lines of growth, 

and fine but not close-set intermediate strias : colour purplish- 

brown, varying in intensity, and sometimes very pale, espe- 

cially in front : epidermis only observable in bleached specimens 

: margins rounded on the anterior side, with an oblique 

slope to the front, which has a long and gentle curve, wedge- 

* Minute.

CYAMIUM. 261 

shaped at the posterior angle, and gradually and slightly curved 

on the dorsal side ; umbonal area prominent : beaks blunt and 

calyciform, not much recurved, almost contiguous, and often 

eroded ; they are placed very excentrically, being close to the 

anterior side : ligament cylindrical, horncolour, extending from 

the beaks towards the posterior or longer side, and rising above 

the level of the dorsal line : hinge- line obtusely angular : 

hinge-plate narrow, occupying 

rather more than one-third of 

the circumference : teeth, in the right valve one extremely 

thick and blunt cardinal, which is often bifid or trifid ; in the 

left valve two erect and recurved cardinals ; all these teeth 

are in adult specimens deeply and beautifully tinged with 

purple, and project from under the beaks; laterals hardly 

distinguishable from the hinge-plate and apparently forming 

part of it : inside glossy, but not nacreous : pallial scar entire : 

muscular scars distinct ; the posterior is the larger of the two. 

L. 0-07. B. 0-09. 

Habitat : Gregarious among 

seaweeds and under 

stones at low-water mark, and in the laminarian zone, 

on sheltered parts of our coasts from Unst to Aldemey. 

Mr. Grainger has noticed it in the so-called " alluvial " 

deposit at Belfast. This species has a high northern 

range, 

but its southern distribution is limited. Fabri- 

cius, Moller, Morch, and Torell found it in Greenland, 

and the last-named conchologist (as w r ell as Steenstrup) 

in Iceland ; 

Loven and others have recorded it from the 

Scandinavian coasts, Recluz and Mace from Cherbourg, 

and myself from the Gulf of Spezzia. Stimpson says 

that it lives in Massachusetts Bay, " abundantly in June, 

about the roots of fuci, which cover the boulders at 

Point Shirley." 

According to Fabricius this tiny shell has a Greenlandic 

name, " Ipiksaunarak." On certain parts of our 

coast it occurs in countless multitudes. Mr. Hyndman 

shells were contained in the sto- 

estimated that 35,000 

mach of a single mullet caught in Lame Lough, where 

I have noticed them covering the leaves and stalks of

262 CARDITID^. 

Zostera marina. I have also seen them at Balta clus- 

tering in vast profusion round the base of the pegtopshaped 

plants of Himanthalia lorea, or the common 

strapweed; and my friend Mr. Norman brought me 

one day a small hand-net nearly full of them, which he 

had captured by sweeping the seaweeds at low water on 

the Whalsey Skerries. There must have been millions 

in this heap. The animal is a fearless or hardy little 

creature, and very active. When put into a saucer of 

sea-water, 

it immediatelv stretched out its white and 

slender foot, attaching the point to the surface of the 

vessel, and walked about with tolerable rapidity. I 

have observed it in a rock-pool, after having thus shifted 

its quarters, drawing in the foot and mooring itself to a 

but almost 

stone, or leaf of a seaweed, by its strong 

transparent byssus. Under a microscope the gills may 

be seen through the shell, when it is of a lighter colour 

and therefore more transparent than usual, to flap like 

those of a fish. It swims freely in an inverted position, 

the beaks of the shell downwards, and the point of the 

foot expanded. The motion of swimming seems to be 

effected by a series of muscular contractions parallel with 

the line of progress, the point only of the foot being so 

employed. The gills are then distinctly visible through 

the open folds of the mantle, and consist of two pairs ; 

the outer pair are rather larger and higher than the 

inner pair. 

The mantle appears to have two folds, the 

inside one being the smaller. When the animal is 

creeping, the foot is folded inwards for its whole length. 

It is then filled with water through a wide and open 

slit in the heel or base, and becomes of a tubular or 

cylindrical shape. Several individuals being confined 

in the same vessel, after restlessly and actively moving 

about for some time, assembled in groups, young and

CYAMIUM. 263 

old, and continued in a torpid or quiescent state even 

after they had been provided with a fresh supply of 

water. In this state, however, the shells were partly 

open, and the Cyamia were still feeding. The fry are 

enveloped in irregularly oval gelatinous masses, each 

containing from 12 to 20 individuals. These spawnmasses 

are deposited on extraneous substances; so 

that the animal is not viviparous. The fry are found 

in various stages of development ; but in every state the 

shells are perfectly formed and can be seen through the 

transparent envelope. 

' 

Fleming, in his British Animals/ seems to have mis- 

taken this species for Lascea rubra. It is the My a purpurea 

of Montagu. Brown placed it in the genus Saxi- 

cava, Deshayes in Chione, and Moller in Lescea. 

In some shell-sand dredged for Dr. Lukis at about 

20 fathoms, on the east coast of Guernsey, and within 

two miles of the land, I found not only a living CVzr- 

dium papillosum and other rarities, but also a young and 

perfect specimen of Cardita lithophagella 

of Lamarck. 

It is the Byssomya Guerinii of Payraudeau, and is not 

very uncommon in the Mediterranean. In all probability 

it belongs to the genus Cypricardia. Lamarck, in 

describing this genus, says that it has three cardinal 

teeth and one lateral, and that Cardita has only one 

cardinal and one lateral tooth. But the present species 

has two cardinal teeth, and one posterior lateral tooth, 

in each valve, besides an anterior lateral in the left 

valve. The pallial scar is deeply sinuous or indented at 

the posterior side, and the muscular scars are of enormous 

size. In these respects it would come nearer to 

Venerirupis. The ' Journal de Conchyliologie ' 

for 1850 

has an able article by M. Mittre on this species, in which, 

however, he erroneously considered it to be the Cypri-

264 cardiid^:. 

cardia coralliophaga of Lamarck, 

a native of the West- 

Indian seas, which burrows in corals and madrepores. 

The usual habitat of C. lithophagella is in crevices of 

rocks ; but the irregular and often distorted shape of the 

shell induces me to believe that it does not perforate them. 

Young shells are not much unlike Cyamium minutum of 

a comparatively large size, and are nearly of the same 

colour ; but they are natter, and the hinge-process and 

scars are quite different. It is possible that Montagu 

may have described the young of C. lithophagella under 

the name of Donax rubra, which he said was very rare 

and had been taken " amongst coralline in deep water." 

The D. rubra of Turton is the fry of D. trunculus. I hope 

this notice may induce conchologists to search for C. 

lithophagella on our southern coasts, and especially in 

the Channel Isles. 

Family XL CARDI'ID.E, Broderip. 

Body globular or roundish- oval : mantle widely open in 

front, and forming two short and usually contiguous tubes at 

the posterior or larger end : 

gills two on each side, unequal : 

foot very large and conical, much bent in the middle : 

byssus 

rarely produced. 

Shell equivalve, ventricose, with a triangular outline, 

generally somewhat equilateral, sculptured by longitudinally 

radiating ribs or striae, and in most cases also with concentric 

plates or foliations, which form spines, tubercles, or vaulted 

scales ; umbonal area prominent : ligament quite external, 

placed on the posterior side, and in some cases continued under 

the beaks to the other side : hinge short but thick, furnished 

with one or two rather small but strong and conical cardinal 

teeth in each valve, besides lateral teeth, but the latter are 

sometimes wanting or inconspicuous : paUial 

muscular scars oval and distinct. 

scar entire : 

We are now in smooth water, and not sorry to have 

escaped from the troubled sea and short broken waves,

CARDIUM. 2G5 

which lately hindered our passage and made it so difficult 

aud unpleasant. The present group is free from all 

those anomalies that rendered the position and arrangement 

of many genera in the last two families extremely 

critical and indefinite, taxing the discriminative powers 

of the systematist to an extent which makes concho- 

logical nature almost faint under the task. The Cockles 

are easily characterized and cannot be well confounded 

with any other family. 

Although the mantle-scar is usually entire, Mr. Clark 

has observed that " in some species an imperfect pallial 

siphonal sinus may 

be seen." I have in vain searched 

for such a mark. According to Dr. Carpenter the 

microscopical structure of these shells is very much 

the same as in the Area family. He says that in various 

species of Cardium, which he had examined, he found 

"a considerable amount of tubular structure in the 

external layer, while in Isocardia there is scarcely a 

vestige of it— thus bearing out the general statement 

that the presence of the tubular structure has a relation 

to the costations, foliations, or other sculpturing of the 

external surface." 

Cockles inhabit sandy and soft ground ; 

and they are 

widelv distributed over all seas, from low-water mark to 

considerable depths. 

We have only the typical genus : the others (Car- 

dissa, Papyridia, and Aphrodita) are tropical 

forms. 

Genus CAR'DIUM *, Linne. PI. V. f. 9. 

and arctic 

Body globose : mantle, thin at the edges and tubercled be- 

hind, very slightly adhering to the shell: tubes unequal in 

size, but nearly of the same length, covered with cirri or fila- 

* Heart-shaped. 

X

266 cardiid^:, 

ments : 

gills short ; upper pair smaller than the lower : palps 

triangular : foot sickle -shaped. 

Shell convex, closed in nearly every case : beaks bent in- 

wards, but scarcely (if at all) to one side : teeth, in the right 

valve usually two cardinals, besides two laterals on the ante- 

rior side and one on the posterior side ; sockets deep : inside 

more or less fluted, and having the margin notched. 

This genus is redolent of the good old times. It 

carries with it a smack of true conservatism— progressive 

improvement without innovation. Every sound conchologist 

must rejoice at seeing the name of Cardium 

still preserved, with a few others, and to know that 

they have survived the extensive and often injudicious 

changes which systematists have been continually proposing 

since the death of the much-honoured Swede. 

Some corrections and modifications of his scheme of 

classification were required by the progress of science, 

and they have been made. With regard to our own 

molluscan fauna, C. corneum, C. lacustre, C. amnicum, 

C. rubrum, C. discors, and C. arcuatum of Montagu 

have been placed in very different families, and a few 

species have lately 

been added to the British list. But 

the genus has a solid foundation, and is likely to last as 

long as conchology itself. 

Its large and fleshy foot is admirably adapted for 

penetrating and burrowing into sand. The mode by 

which this operation is effected has been well described 

bv Reaumur. He savs that when the animal wishes to 

and at the same 

sink, it lengthens its arm [or foot], 

time attenuates the extremity of it, which thus becomes 

almost pointed. With this it makes a hole, like a 

gardener using his dibble, and buries the arm in the 

sand, continuing the perforation with the pointed end ; 

and by repeatedly lengthening and contracting this 

muscular organ, it in a short time works the shell below

CARDIUM. 2G7 

the surface. When, on the contrary, the animal would 

return to the light, it is only necessary to expand and 

press its arm firmly against the sand, and the shell will 

rise in proportion to the power exerted from beneath, 

and will soon be disengaged. By this means the cockle 

is also enabled to move both forwards and backwards, 

but in a very limited degree. So far Reaumur. I 

may also observe that the sand in which it lives is always 

more or less saturated or infiltrated with water, and 

sometimes is even semifluid, making it much easier for 

the cockle to work its way than if it had to penetrate a 

harder mass. The foot is very elastic ; and the pro- 

digious leaps 

which the animal makes with it have been 

noticed by many writers on popular science : Mr. 

Gosse gives an amusing account of the feats which his 

" Signor tuberculato " (C. tuberculatum) performed in 

this way. The ridge-and-furrow sculpture is very re- 

gular, and by means of this alternate arrangement each 

valve locks closely into the other. Owing to the ad- 

ductor muscles being but slightly attached to the shell, 

the animal immediately becomes loose when put into 

boiling or scalding water. Collectors therefore experience 

no trouble in cleaning the inside of any cockle- 

shell. For this reason also live cockles are much more 

easily opened than oysters, the latter operation being 

rather an arduous undertaking to a bungling tyro. 

They may have served to illustrate the proverb mentioned 

by Hesiod— Koy^rjv htekelv— signifying any slight 

task. 

Very many species of Cardium occur in a fossil state. 

Mr. Searles Wood " 

says, Species possessing uu doubted 

characters of this genus have been obtained from the 

middle secondary formations, and they are largely deve- 

N 2

268 CARDIID^. 

loped in the tertiaries, while from the present seas not 

less than 200 species have been obtained." 

It is much more difficult to reconcile the synonymy 

of our native species than to distinguish them. As Loveii 

has justly remarked, " Cardia europsea misere confusa." 

I will endeavour not to increase this perplexity, with- 

out disregarding, however, the established rules of pri- 

ority and general usage. 

The meaning of the generic name (heart-shaped) 

will appear when the united valves are viewed in profile. 

The genus Cerastes was formed by Poli for the animal. 

A. Shell more or less globular ; ribs strong, and covered with 

spines, tubercles, 

or vaulted scales. 

This section may be further subdivided into 

a. Round. 1. C. aculeatum. 2. C. echinatum. 3. C. tu- 

berculatum. 4. C. papillosum. 

b. Triangular. 5. C. eociguum. 6. C. fasciatum. 7. C. 

nodosum. 8. C. edule. 

c. Longitudinally oval. 9. C. minimum. 

1. Cardium aculea'tum * 9 Linne. 

C. aculeatum, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1122 F. & H. ii. ; p. 4, pi. xxxiii. f. 1. 

Body of a vermilion colour : foot long and awl-shaped. 

Shell very gibbous, with a somewhat oblique outline, thin 

for its size, opaque and rather : glossy sculpture, 20-22 strong 

compressed ribs, which are a little broader than the furrows 

between them ; each rib is divided in the middle by a ridge of 

spines, which bend towards the posterior side, being longer and 

double on that part and tubercular on the anterior side ; the 

furrows are transversely striated, or in aged specimens are 

marked with flexuous wrinkles ; in younger shells there are a 

few irregular longitudinal lines, giving the furrows an appear- 

* Thorny.

CARDIUM. 269 

ance of being partially decussated ; the ribs are also striated 

transversely, but less distinctly than the furrows ; the whole 

surface is covered with frost-like microscopical markings : colour 

yellowish with a reddish tinge : epidermis fibrous, only observable 

near the margins, having been removed in other parts 

by continual attrition : margins rounded on the anterior side, 

and sloping with an oblique curve in front to the posterior side, 

which is produced, much broader than the other side, truncate, 

and exhibits a long and narrow but distinct gape extending from 

the edge of the hinge-hue to the angle where it joins the ventral 

margin : beaJcs almost touching each other ; umbones tumid : 

ligament cylindrical and thick, resembling the chrysalis of a large 

fly, prominent, reddish-brown : hinge-line obtusely angular : 

hinge-plate folded back towards the beaks, occupying scarcely 

one-third of the circumference : teeth, in the right valve two 

erect cardinals, besides two laterals on the anterior and one on 

the posterior side ; 

in the left valve two similar cardinals, the 

posterior of which is very much smaller than the other, besides 

one lateral on each side ; all the lateral teeth are triangular 

and pointed : inside rather glossy, fluted towards the front and 

anterior margins, the concavities corresponding with the outside 

ribs ; the under side of the furrows is flat : 

pallia! scar broad 

and entire : muscular scars about equal in breadth, but the 

anterior one is the longer. L. 32. B. 3*35. 

Habitat : Not uncommon on the South- Devon 

coasts, especially at Paignton near Torbay, but scarcely 

ever found in a living state ; Weymouth (Thompson) ; 

Guernsey (Lukis) ; Dublin Bay (Brown) ; Point of 

Ayre, Isle of Man (E. Forbes) ; 

Hebrides and Orkneys 

(Pennant). These last two localities, as well as the 

next, are very doubtful. Mr. James Smith says, on the 

authority of the late Dr. Landsborough, 

that it occurs 

in the glacial deposit at Stevenston. Sars has dredged 

a fine specimen near Bergen ; De Gerville, Collard des 

Cherres, and Mace have recorded the species as in- 

habiting the North of France ; 

and many 

other authors 

have described or enumerated it as Mediterranean. It 

may 

on the whole be considered a southern form. 

Young specimens are globular and not angular ; and

270 cardiidjE. 

they 

are sometimes marked with concentric zones of a 

paler colour than the rest of the shell, denoting the 

lines of growth. This state is the C. spinosum of J. 

Sowerby. C. ciliare of Montagu represents 

an earlier 

stage of growth : Linnets species of that name is very 

different. Turton noticed and figured in his ' 

Con- 

chylia Dithyra' (p. 181, tab. 13. f. 7) a distorted shell, 

side which is more 

obliquely twisted to the posterior 

elongated or produced than usual. The cardinal teeth 

in this specimen are equal in size, tubercular, and 

slightly cloven ; there is a third cardinal in the right 

valve, and the laterals are very short. Linne supposed 

that the present species was perhaps a variety of C. 

echinatum ; but the latter is much smaller, more solid, 

and never angular, and it has shorter prickles. The 

posterior gape, also, in C. aculeatum is very considerable, 

while in C. echinatum it is scarcely perceptible. 

2. C. echina'tum *, Linne. 

C, echinatum, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1122 ; F. & H. ii. p. 7, pi. xxxiii. f. 2, 

and (animal) pi. N. f. 3. 

Body somewhat compressed, varying in colour from yellowish-white 

to a rich pink : mantle open for three-fourths of 

its circumference, having a plain and thin margin (which in 

the young is dentate or notched) about a line in breadth, 

behind which it is suddenly thickened, and at regular intervals 

raised into a series of glandular warts or tubercles, corre- 

sponding with the grooves inside the shell : tubes contiguous, 

each encircled with a fringe of white cirri or tentacular pro- 

cesses, which have at their base a corresponding row of yellow, 

brown, or red points ; the outside of the tubes is also clothed 

with some scattered and coarse white pendulous filaments; the 

excurrent tube is rather the shorter and smaller of the two, 

and its orifice is provided with a globular valve, which is occa- 

sionally protruded : mouth very large and funnel-shaped : 

* Prickly. 

gills

CARDIUM. 271 

semioval ; the upper pair are as long as the lower, but not 

half the depth : palps very long, slender and pointed, strongly 

striated on the inside and less so on the outside : foot finger- 

shaped, closely striated lengthwise, 

covered with a flesh- 

coloured or vermilion delicate skin, under which it is pure 

white ; its length is at least twice that of the shell. 

Shell roundish, very convex, rather solid, opaque and 

of a dull hue : sculpture, about 20 strong 

but somewhat com- 

pressed ribs, which are a trifle broader than the furrows be- 

tween them ; the crest of each rib has a numerous row of 

triangular and short but stout spines, 

which are connected 

together at the base and are usually curved towards the posterior 

side ; all these spines are nearly equal in diameter and 

length; both ribs and furrows (especially the latter) are crossed 

by nexuous wrinkles, which are coarser and more distinct on 

the posterior side; in young specimens are observable some 

longitudinal lines and microscopical markings similar to those 

noticed in the description of the last species : colour yellowish - 

white : epidermis fibrous, mostly obliterated : margins rounded 

on the anterior side, and sloping to the front, which is curved, 

but much less obliquely than in C. aculeatum ; posterior side 

not much produced, although considerably broader than the 

other, slightly truncate, and exhibiting a narrow and indistinct 

gape : beaks more or less contiguous ; umbones tumid ; below 

the beaks on the anterior side is a nearly smooth heart-shaped 

space, the lips of which project or pout, especially on the upper 

brownish - 

part : ligament shaped like that of the last species, 

homcolour : hinge-line obtusely curved : hinge-plate reflected, 

occupying about one.-third of the circumference : teeth, in each 

valve two erect nearly equal-sized cardinals, with laterals 

similar to those of the other : species inside and scars the same. 

L. 2-2. B. 2-3. 

Yar. 1. expansa. Shell rather more depressed and spread 

out at each end. 

Var. 2. ovata. Shell transversely oval ; ribs sharp, obliquely 

radiating, and much narrower than the furrows ; transverse 

dorsal 

striae fewer than in typical specimens of a similar size ; 

margin nearly straight ; there is only a single minute cardinal 

tooth in each valve, besides indistinct laterals. L. 0-125. 

B. 0-15. 

Habitat : 

All our sandy coasts, at various depths 

from 5 to 100 fathoms. It occurs in almost every

272 CARDIIDyE. 

newer pliocene deposit from the Belfast bed (Grainger) 

to the Caithness boulder-clay (Peach), and also in the 

Red Crag. Var. 1. Exmouth Ullapool and Lerwick 

(J. G. J.) j Dublin Bay (Warren). Var. 2. Barmouth 

and Shetland (J. G. J.j ; Inverary (M'Nab). The last 

variety resembles in many respects the C. elegantulum of 

Moller, and the C. strigilliferum, a Coralline Crag shell. 

In two of my specimens some of the spines are vaulted 

as in C. elegantulum. That species inhabits Greenland, 

Iceland, and Finniark. The geographical range of C. 

echinatum is very extensive. Fabricius has recorded it 

from Greenland, Landt from the Faroe Isles, Loven 

and others from Scandinavia, De Gerville and others 

from the North of France, Risso and others from the 

Mediterranean, Chiereghini from the Adriatic, Forbes 

from the iEgean, and M 'Andrew from Vigo, Madeira, 

and the Canaries. 

O. F. Miiller says that the animal seems to be little 

else than a huge foot. The coloured points, which stud 

the orifices of the tubes (and also, according to the lastnamed 

author, the margin of the mantle), may be analogous 

to the " eyes " of a scallop. The largest British 

I have measure a trifle more than two inches 

specimens 

and three quarters in length. 

Those from the south of 

Europe are much smaller. Sometimes the shell is par- 

tially coated with a ferruginous deposit. 

This common species was first described by Ronde- 

letius as " Concha echinata ;" and although the specific 

name was accompanied by expletives, and is pre-Linnean, 

it has survived the changes consequent on the institution 

of the binomial system. The young is the Cardium 

ciliare of Pennant, C. parvum of Da Costa, and C. spatula 

of Solander.

CARDIUM. .273 

3. C. tuberculatum *, Linne. 

C. tuberculatum, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1124. C. rusticum, F. & H. ii. p. 11, 

pi. xxxi. f. 3, 4. 

Body reddish-yellow : mantle thickened and notched on the 

posterior side : tubes fringed with cirri : foot long 

crimson colour. 

and of a 

Shell resembling that of C. echinatum ; but it is larger, and 

much more globular and solid ; the sculpture is coarser, and 

there are 21 or 22 ribs ; the spines are more like tubercles, 

those on the anterior side being spatulate, or flat and trans- 

versely triangular, while those in front and on the posterior 

side are very short and bluntly conical : colour yellowish-brown 

with a tinge of red, often disposed in beautifully variegated 

zones or bands : margins in front remarkably contracted or 

pinched in, so as greatly to increase the convexity of the shell. 

It does not differ in other particulars from C. echinatum. 

L. 2-9. B. 3-2. 

Habitat : Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset, in sandy 

bays, from low water at spring tides to 12 fathoms; 

Guernsey (Lukis) ; . Bantry Bay (Humphreys) Leach 

says, "abundantly in the Firths of Forth and Clyde, 

Yawl [Youghal], Bantry, Cork, and Dingle Bays, Ire- 

land ;" but I fear he has confounded this species with 

C. echinatum. Newer pliocene, Worcestershire (J. Smith) ; 

Sussex tertiaries (Godwin-Austen). It has not been 

recorded from any place north of Great Britain \ but 

its range southward extends from Finistere to Vigo, 

Madeira, and the Canary Isles, as well as throughout 

the Mediterranean as far as Sicily. 

Young shells are very pretty. They are invariably 

coloured like the adult, the ribs are covered with white 

calyciform tubercles, and the transverse markings form 

near the beaks a fine and regular lattice-work. A single 

valve in Dr. Turton's collection is obliquely elongated at 

* Covered with tubercles. 

n5

274 CARDIID^. 

the posterior extremity, showing that the same kind of 

monstrosity occurs in different species which agree in 

general structure. 

In the present instance I have omitted some of the 

characters, believing that a comparison 

between this 

species and the last would be sufficient. The two are 

very similar. Such a strong family likeness runs through 

all the Cockles, and indeed through every other equally 

homogeneous group, that some may think it superfluous 

to repeat the same particulars in describing each species. 

But nothing is more difficult, and often more unsatis- 

factory, than to compress the description within narrow 

limits. In attempting to seize the salient points, others 

which perhaps are not less material are liable to remain 

" Dum brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio." 

unnoticed. 

More harm to science has been done bv a slight and 

consequently vague diagnosis than by a too great pro- 

lixity of detail. 

This species may be the C. rusticum of Linne; but 

there is equal probability that it is his C. tuberculatum, 

which is of prior date. The latter name only is given 

in his descriptive Catalogue of the Museum of Queen 

Louisa Ulrica ; 

and the comparison there made between 

the present species and C. echinatum is full and con- 

clusive. Even in the ( 

System a Natural/ which contains 

a description of all three species, C. tuberculatum is 

placed next but one to C. echinatum, and C. rusticum 

follows C. edule, which is separated from the first by 

eight other species. 

I have observed a similar order of 

sequence in the present work, as I consider it a great 

help to classification, and that this method of asso- 

ciating or bringing together species closely allied to 

each other enables the student to distinguish them 

more readily than if they were arranged indiscrimi-

jcardium. '275 

nately and without regard to their natural connexion. 

The characters assigned by Linne to C. tuberculatum 

(" sulcis obtusis nodosis transversim striatis ") are more 

applicable to our shell than those by which C. rusticum 

is described, viz. " sulcis xx remotis interstitiis rugosis." 

For the above reasons, and because every writer on 

European or British conchology, except 

Poli in the last 

century and Forbes and Hanley of late years, has applied 

the name of rusticum to a varietv of C. edule. it would 

seem undesirable to reject the well-known and appropriate 

name of tuberculatum. I may also observe that 

Mr. Hanley, in his Supplement to Wood's ( 

Index Tes- 

taceologicus ' 

(the publication of which was completed 

in 1856), regarded the C. rusticum of Linne as "probably 

a " 

variety of edule The C. ciliare of Donovan 

(but not of Linne) and C. nodosum of Montagu (but not 

of Turton) are the young of the present species. 

4. C. papillo'sum*, Poli. 

C. papillosum, Poli, Test. utr. Sicil. ii. p. 56, t. xvi. f. 2-4. 

Shell very gibbous and nearly globular, with a somewhat 

25 or 2(5 

oblique outline, solid and : 

opaque, glossy sculpture, 

flattened ribs, with very narrow furrows or interstices between 

them ; each rib is furnished with a series of white tubercles, 

which are conical and more or less incurved on the posterior 

side, smaller in the middle, and bluntly triangular or calyciform 

on the anterior side the furrows are crossed and in- 

; 

dented by numerous regular, narrow slits or : punctures colour 

yellowish, sometimes variegated by 

reddish-brown streaks or 

fibrous and 

bands, especially on the posterior side : epidermis 

rather coarse, light yellowish-brown, only observable in the 

rounded on the anterior side, with an ob- 

furrows : margins 

lique slope to the front, which is also curved, and obtusely 

truncate on the posterior side, which is expanded and twice 

the breadth of the other side ; a blunt and indistinct angle 

* Covered with papilla 1 .

~~6 CARDlIDvE. 

runs from the beak to the lower part of the posterior margin; 

there is no : perceptible gape beaks very small, not contiguous, 

slightly inclining to the anterior side beneath them on this 

; 

side is a false lunule or smooth lozenge-shaped space with 

slightly prominent lips : ligament cylindrical, yellowish-brown with a golden hue : hinge-line curved : hinge-plate reflected, 

occupying about one-fourth of the circumference : teeth, 

in the 

right valve two triangular cardinals, the posterior of which is 

much larger and higher than the other, besides two short an- 

terior laterals also of unequal size, and one triangular and projecting 

posterior lateral; in the left valve two cardinals, the 

anterior of which is the larger, besides a single lateral on each 

side, the anterior one being triangular and projecting : inside 

bright and glossy, sometimes stained with purple or reddishbrown 

towards the beaks and on the posterior side, fluted near 

the margin only : pallial scar indistinct : muscular scars large, 

roundish-oval, and equal-sized. L. 0*55. B. 0*6. 

Var. lactea. Shell milk-white. 

Habitat: In gravelly sand, at 15-20 fathoms, oft 

1 

Guernsey and Sark, as well as thrown up on the beach 

at Herm (Lukis and J. G. J.). It is at present one of 

our most scarce shells, although I have a series from not 

much larger than half a line to the full size. I shall 

not be surprised if it is found on the Cornish coast. Its 

exotic range is entirely southern. No writer on the 

conchology of the North of France appears 

to have 

noticed it. It inhabits every part of the Mediterranean, 

and also the iEgean, as well as the Atlantic from Vigo 

to the Canary Isles, at various depths from 6 to 75 

fathoms. 

The appearance of punctures in this and the follow- 

ing three species arises from the ribs being 

crowded or 

squeezed together, so as to prevent the free development 

of the interstitial strise. 

The late Dr. Lukis discovered the interesting and 

remarkable species now described, to be an inhabitant of 

our seas ; 

and he most liberally sent me the finest of the

CARDIUM. 277 

first two specimens which he found. Both were living 

when taken by the dredge. I cannot resist the opportunity 

of acknowledging my gratitude for the valuable aid 

and communications which I continually received from 

this kind friend for many years and up to the time of his 

lamented and premature death. His gifted mind, varied 

acquirements, generous nature, and great amiability 

fascinated all who had the good fortune to know him. 

He was a true naturalist. These and collectors are too 

frequently classed together; 

but there is an essential 

difference between them. The former loves science for 

its own sake, and not for the childish pleasure of ac- 

quiring many rare species or even a unique specimen. 

He is never selfish or covetous, his only craving being 

for the sympathy of others who have the same tastes as 

himself. The mere collector is generally not so intel- 

lectual or estimable. Dr. Lukis exemplified this dif- 

ference. The feelings that prompted him to share the 

discovery above-mentioned with a brother naturalist 

were doubtless the same as those expressed by the most 

philosophic of our modern poets in the following lines:— 

" Often have I sighed to measure 

By myself a lonely pleasure, 

Sighed to think, I read a book 

Only read, perhaps, by me." 

May such characters never be wanting 

in our land ! 

C. papillosum is the C. scobinatum of Lamarck, C. 

planatum of Renier, and C. Polii of Payraudeau. The 

last-named author said that another species of Cardium 

(C. echinatum), having papillse, 

was known before Poli 

described the present species as papillosum ; but this 

hardly seems a sufficient reason for changing the name. 

The young is C. punctatum of Brocchi, but not of Phi- 

lippi.

278 CARmiDM. 

5. C. exi'guum*, Grmelin. 

C. exiguum, Linn. Syst. Nat. (ed. Gmel.) p. 3255. C. pt/gmaicm, F. & H. 

ii. p. 29, pi. xxxii. f. 8, and (animal) pi. 2s . f. 2. 

Body triangular and much truncated at the posterior side, 

jello wish-white : mantle plain-edged in front, and fringed 

with numerous white filaments about the bases of the siphonal 

tubes : incurrent (or branchial) tube the larger of the two, and 

8urrounded by a border of about ten filaments, with as many 

there is also a tinge 

or more tawny streaks radiating from it ; 

of tawny or orange around the orifice of the smaller or excurrent 

tube both are ; nearly sessile : foot long, cylindrical, and 

large in proportion to the body ; its base is tinged with tawny, 

the rest being white. 

Shell obliquely triangular, exceedingly gibbous, solid and 

opaque, usually of a dull hue, and never so glossy as that of 

the last species : sculpture, 20 or 21 ribs, "which are at firstsharp 

and angular but afterwards become compressed and 

broad, especially in front ; the ribs are in young specimens 

more or less covered with small white tubercles, which are 

not formed in the adult except on the anterior side ; the fur- 

rows, which are very narrow, are crossed and indented by 

numerous regular, oval : punctures colour yellowish or dirtywhite, 

sometimes variegated by purplish-brown streaks or 

blotches, which are more visible on the posterior side, occa- 

sionally tinged with pink : epidermis fibrous and often thick, 

yellowish-brown of different shades : margins bluntly angular 

on all sides except in front, where there is a contraction simi- 

lar to that in C. tuberculatum, causing this side to be very 

gently curved, and not so much rounded as in most other 

species ; the angle or ridge separating the posterior side is 

very conspicuous and increases the gibbosity 

of the shell: 

beaks very small, not contiguous, inclining a little to the ante- 

rior side, and placed very much nearer to it ; 

beneath them on 

this side is a deep and heart-shaped or lanceolate ribless de- 

pression, more like a lunule than the similar mark in any of 

the preceding species, and having slightly projecting lips : 

ligament short and sunken, cylindrical, : 

yellowish-brown 

curved : 

hinge-line slightly 

hinge-plate thick, reflected, occupy- 

in the 

ing scarcely one-fourth of the circumference : teeth, 

right valve two cardinals, the posterior of which is much the 

* Little.

CARDIUM. 279 

larger, besides two anterior laterals of unequal size and one 

in the left valve two cardinals, the anterior 

posterior lateral ; 

being much larger than the other, besides a single lateral on 

each side all ; the lateral teeth, except the front anterior one 

in the right valve, are triangular, and, although short, project 

considerably : inside bright and glossy, occasionally iridescent, 

and sometimes of a yellow hue and more or less stained with 

purplish- or chocolate-brown in front and on the posterior 

side, fluted near the margin only : pallia! scar indistinct : muscular 

scars oval, large, nearly equal-sized, and deeply im- 

pressed. L. 0-55. B. 0-55. 

Yar. subquadrata. 

Shell rhomboidal, in consequence of the 

posterior side being more expanded than usual and of the 

dorsal margin being quite straight ; furrows slightly striated, 

instead of being punctured. 

Habitat : 

Oozy ground in the laminarian zone on 

most parts of our coasts, at from 3 to 15 fathoms. The 

variety is rare, and has onlv occurred to me at Seal- 

loway in the mainland of Shetland, and at Sark, one of 

the Channel Isles. As an upper tertiary fossil this 

species has been noticed by Mr. Grainger at Belfast, by 

Mr. James Smith in the Clyde beds at Dalmuir and 

Bute, and bv Mr. Godwin-Austen in the Sussex de- 

posits. Finmark and Bergen (Sars) ; Sweden, 15-20 

fathoms (Malm) ; Cherbourg and Granville (De Ger- 

ville) j Vigo (M f 

Andrew) ; Gulf of Lyons (Martin) ; 

Algeria ( Weinkauff) ; Corsica (Requien) ; Adriatic 

(Chiereghini) ; Sicily (Philippi) ; iEgean, 7-30 fathoms 

(Forbes) ; and Sebastopol in the Black Sea (Middendorff). 

Many intermediate localities have also been 

recorded bv other authors. 

Turton says that these shells are "sometimes imbedded 

in hard clay 

:< and both Mrs. Griffiths and ourselves have 

taken them from the interior of the hardest stones in 

Torbay." They may have found their way 

into such 

places for the sake of shelter, but (like Sterne's star-

280 CARDIID.E. 

ling) couldn't get out. Another habit, however, which 

this little cockle possesses, is more remarkable. In the 

' 

Antologia di Scienze natural!/ published at Naples in 

1841, Sr. Costa described and figured a shell under the 

name of C. parasitum, which appears to be a variety 

of C. exiguum. He observes that it attaches itself by 

means of a byssus to the boughs of trees laid down in 

the sea for the purpose of collecting oyster-spawn. A 

short account of these nurseries has been given in p. 46 

of the present volume. Some interesting particulars of 

the embryogeny of C. exiguum will be found in the 

treatise of Professor Loven on the development of the 

Acephala Lamellibranchiata, 

to which I have elsewhere 

referred. The decided angularity of the shell serves as 

an unfailing test to recognize this species, although (like 

its congeners) it is subject to considerable variation in 

respect of shape and colour. In the fry 

the dorsal mar- 

gin is straight, making the outline more square than 

triangular. 

Gmelin constituted this species from a figure in 

Lister's c Historia Conchyliorum/ t. 317. f. 154 (" A. 

Pectunculus exiguus, subfuscus "), which unquestionably 

represents our shell. His own description is slight ; but 

in adopting the name originally given by Lister he has 

been followed by all conchologists except Donovan and 

the authors of the * British Mollusca/ who have called it 

pygmcenm. Among other synonyms (for variatal forms) 

may be mentioned C. subangulatum of Scacchi, C. Siculum 

of Sower by, C. stellatum of Reeve, and C. aquUinum of 

Mittre*. C. parvum of Philippi appears 

to be also a 

variety, and C. muricatulum of Montagu (from Walker, 

pi. iii. f. 83, 84) the fry of the present species.

CARDIUM. 281 

6. C. fascia'tum *, Montagu. 

C. fasciatum, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 30 ; F. & H. ii. p. 25, pi. xxxii. 

f. 5, and (animal) pi. N. f. 4. 

Body suborbicular, flake-white : mantle plain-edged : tubes 

usually not much produced, of the same length, and united, 

each encircled with ten simple white cirri, and fringed with 

longer 

filaments of the same colour : 

gills pale brown : 

foot 

long, narrow, subcylindrical, or finger-shaped, and (contrary 

to what it is in most other species of Cardium) hyaline. 

Shell obliquely triangular, convex but not very gibbous, 

compressed towards the front, rather thin, but usually opaque, 

not glossy: sculpture, 25 or 26 ribs, which are remarkably 

flattened in front and compressed at each end of the shell ; 

they are smooth in front, but are more or less covered on the 

anterior side with obliquely transverse blunt plates, and on 

the posterior side with short conical tubercles or prickles ; 

furrows extremely narrow and slight, for the most part im- 

pressed with numerous and minute circular : punctures colour 

yellowish-white, with sometimes a tinge of red or pink near 

the beaks, and frequently variegated by interrupted reddishbrown 

bands, which are more conspicuous on the posterior 

side : epidermis very slight, fibrous, yellowish-brown : margins 

rounded on the anterior side, with an oblique slope to the 

front, which is also (but more bluntly) rounded, more or less 

elongated and wedge-shaped on the posterior side, with a 

blunt angle running from the beaks ; on this side there is a 

greater or less degree of truncature ; dorsal margin short : 

heahs very small, not contiguous, inclining towards the ante- 

rior side, but not so excentrically placed as in C. exiguum ; 

beneath the beaks is a distinct but not deep lunule-shaped 

depression : ligament rather long, cylindrical, narrow, greenishbrown, 

occasionally continued on the anterior side : hinge-line 

curved : hinge-plate thin and narrow, slightly reflected, sometimes 

stained with purplish-brown, occupying not one-fourth 

of the circumference : teeth as in C. exiguum, but they are very 

much slighter: inside glossy, frequently of an orange colour in 

the middle and marked with reddish-brown streaks, fluted 

more than in many other species, by reason of the shell being 

thinner and the deposit from the mantle being more slight : 

pallial scar scarcelv perceptible 

L. 0-5. B. 0-5. 

* Marked with bands. 

: muscular scars indistinct.


Yar. 1. globosa. 

being less produced. 

Shell more globular, the posterior side 

Yar. 2. alba. Shell milk-white, of an intermediate shape 

between that of the typical kind and the first variety. 

Habitat : 

Gravelly sand, in 5-90 fathoms, from Shet- 

land to the Channel Isles, generally diffused and rather 

common. Var. 1, Shetland and west coast of Scotland. 

Var. 2. Off Unst in deep water, together 

with coloured 

specimens. In a fossil state this species occurs in the 

Clyde beds at Bute (Smith) ; Coralline Crag (J. G. J.) . 

Its foreign range extends from Iceland (Steenstrup and 

and Sweden 

Torell), Faroe Isles (Morch), Norway 

(Loven, Sars, and others), Bay of Kiel (Meyer and 

Mobius), Zealand (Hsellebsek), Cannes (Mace), Spezzia 

in 18 fathoms (J. G. J.), Gulf of Tunis, Malaga, and 

Canary Isles (M'Andrew), to the Azores (H. Drouet). 

In Finmark it acquires a comparatively enormous size. 

It is one of the Uddevalla fossils. 

This shell is never sharply angular like C. exiguum, 

and it is of a much thinner substance. In the young 

the prickles 

are vaulted, and cover the ribs in the same 

as brick tiles are set on the crest of a roof. The 

way 

fry are almost flat, and have a square contour. They 

may be distinguished in this state from C. exiguum by 

having more ribs. Mr. Clark observed a specimen to 

be full of ova on the 4th of August. 

Owing to the posterior side being more produced in 

some specimens than in others, Montagu seems to have 

made two species out of this one, viz. C. elongatum and 

C. fasciatum. The former represents the more usual or 

typical kind. I have a shell which was sent by Mr. 

Dillwyn to Col. Montagu for his opinion, and returned 

with the name " Car. fasciatum " in the handwriting of 

the latter on the cover of the small packet which still

CARDIUM. 283 

contains it. This specimen undoubtedly belongs to the 

present species ; 

and Mr. Dillwyn was, I believe, as care- 

ful as I have endeavoured to be, in the conservation of 

such proofs of authenticity. Bruguiere and Lamarck 

described a tropical species as C. elongatum : otherwise 

that name is more appropriate than fasciatum in respect 

of our shell. The C. fasciatum of Gmelin is different, 

having been derived from a figure of Knorr; but his 

species is obsolete. The late Mr. G. B. Sowerby proposed 

to change the name fasciatum to ovale, and Dr. 

Leach to that of zonatum. It is the C. elongatum of 

Turton and of most other writers on British concho- 

logy, C. exiguum of Macgillivray, and (in a younger 

state) probably C. scabrum of Philippi. It is also the 

C. rubrum and C. arcuatum of Reeve, who by his refer- 

ences to Montagu appears to have considered the pre- 

sent species identical with. Lascea rubra and Loripes 

divaricatus. His descriptions and figures were taken 

from shells in Mr. Cuming's collection. 

7. C. nodo'sum *, Turton. 

C. nodosum, Turt. Conch. Dith. p. 186, tab. 13. f. 8 ; F. & H. ii. p. 22, 

pi. 

xxxii. f. 7. 

Body subglobose, of a whitish colour, and semitransparent : 

mantle edged with white pointed filaments, which correspond 

with the ribs of the shell : tubes very short, pale yellow, each 

having 10 or 12 flake-white cirri at the orifice, and red points 

at the base, besides longer and curved white filaments above, 

below, and on the sides of both tubes ; 

a retractile valve : 

protrudes 

from the excurrent tube 

not half 

gills semioval, the upper 

the length or breadth of the lower ones : palps very small 

and triangular, pectinated more strongly above than below, 

like the : 

gills foot white, moderately long, sub cylindrical, with 

a slight bend or elbow. 

Shell obtusely triangular, convex, gibbous near the beaks, 

* Covered with knots.

284 cardiidjE. 

and gradually compressed or sloping towards the front margin, 

solid and opaque, rather glossy : 

sculpture, 24-28 longitudinal 

ribs, which are rounded at the sides and somewhat depressed 

above ; they are for the most part thickly covered either with 

small tubercles, or else with oval or arched plates, which 

are often spinous or prickly on the posterior side furrows 

; 

narrow and rather slight, usually impressed with numerous 

and minute oval punctures, and sometimes with obliquely 

transverse striae : colour milk-white, with frequently a tinge 

of pale yellow or orange, and occasionally (but rarely) varie- 

gated by interrupted bands, blotches, or spots 

dermis slight, fibrous, pale yellowish -brown : 

of chestnut : 

epi- 

margins rounded 

in front and on both sides, but somewhat truncate and a little 

produced at the posterior end, with an obtuse and slight angle 

from the beak on that side dorsal ; margin sloping at nearly 

the same angle on each side : beaks very small, not contiguous, 

inclining a trifle to the anterior side, but nearly central ; the 

space below them is ribless and almost smooth, but not much 

depressed or well defined : ligament rather short, cylindrical, 

narrow, pale yellowish-brown, 

sometimes continued on the 

of moderate 

anterior side : liinge-line curved : hinge-plate 

thickness and breadth, reflected, more or less stained with 

brown or chocolate colour, occupying 

about one-fourth of 

the circumference : teeth, in the right valve one conical, and 

one smaller oblique laminar cardinal, and a strong triangular 

lateral on each side, besides occasionally a very small and in- 

distinct second lateral on the anterior side ; 

in the left valve 

two similar cardinals (but their position is reversed with re- 

spect to that of the teeth in the other valve), and a slighter 

lateral on each side : inside glossy, sometimes more or less 

stained with chestnut or chocolate, fluted or deeply notched 

on the margin only : pallial scar entire, but mostly slight and 

inconspicuous : muscular scars oval, posterior one the larger. 

L. 0-475. B. 0-5. 

Var. 1. ovata. Shell more produced at each end and coarsely 

sculptured. 

Var. 2. rosea. Shell tinged with a rosy or pink hue both 

outside and inside. C. roseum, Lam. An. sans Vert. vi. p. 14. 

Habitat : 

Locally diffused on various parts of the 

British and Irish coasts, at from 3 to 86 fathoms, in 

shelly gravel and sand. Capt. Beechey dredged 

it in

CARDIUM. 285 

145 fathoms off the Mull of Galloway. At Guernsey 

it is gregarious in 15-20 fathoms. Var. 1. Hebrides 

and Shetland. Var. 2. Guernsey, 18 fathoms. The 

typical form occurs, according to Searles Wood, in the 

Red and Coralline Crag. Loven and manv others have 

recorded it as Scandinavian and inhabiting various 

depths from 3 to 100 fathoms ; 

I have found it at Etre- 

tat in the North of France, as well as at Spezzia ; 

near 

Cherbourg (Lamarck), Gulf of Lyons (Martin), Cannes 

(Mace), Sicily (Philippi), and Vigo (M f 

Andrew). 

C. nodosum has probably been passed over as the 

young of the common cockle (C. edule); but that species 

is always more globular and produced in front, and has 

much smoother ribs and less distinct and prominent 

tubercles. The present species differs from C. fasciatum 

in being more solid, and usually of a milk-white colour ; 

the ribs are more thickly covered with tubercles ; the 

beaks are nearly central; and the posterior side is not 

obliquely produced, as in the last-mentioned species. 

Young shells have a somewhat square outline. The 

most brightly coloured specimens in my collection were 

found in Guernsey, Arran Isle (Galway), and Balta 

Sound. Southern specimens are more triangular than 

those from the north. 

In strict justice this species ought to be called roseum, 

being the name given by Lamarck to the second variety, 

three vears before Turton described his C. nodosum: 

but it is now generally known by the latter name, and 

the shell is rarely rosecolour. I before observed that 

Montagu's shell of the same name (to 

which Turton 

of C. 

erroneously referred this species) is the young 

tuberculatum. The C. roseum of Chemnitz is a Cardissa. 

C. punctatum of Philippi (but not of Brocchi) appears to 

be a variety of our species.


8. C. edu'le *, Linne. 

C. edide, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1124 ; F. & H. ii. p. 15, pi. xxxii. f. 1-4, and 

(animal) pi. 

N. f. 5. 

Body subglobose, thick, opaque white : mantle pale yellow ; 

edges fringed with short white filaments, corresponding with 

the ribs of the shell : tithes short, conical, separate at their 

bases and divergent, whitish, pale yellow, or reddish -brown, 

and sometimes speckled with black; the incurrent tube is 

larger than the other, and has its orifice encircled with 10 

long white cirri, besides two or three shorter ones between 

each the ; excurrent tube has a plain orifice, and is provided 

with a distinct retractile tubular valve ; the orifice of each 

tube is bordered by a dark or red-brown line, and the sides of 

both are clothed with curly white filaments, as well as part of 

the mantle, as in other species of Cardium : 

gills suboval, pale 

brown, finely pectinated ; upper pair much the smaller : palps 

longish, pointed, flat, somewhat triangular, red-brown, smooth 

on the outer and pectinated on the inner surface : foot long, 

and lancet-shaped at the point, proportionally smaller than in 

other species, varying in colour from opaque white to pale 

yellow or brown, often of a deeper hue towards the extremity. 

Shell triangularly rhomboidal, convex, deeper behind, 

somewhat compressed towards the margins, and especially at 

the sides, very solid and opaque, of a dull hue: sculpture, 

24-28 flattish ribs, more or less crested with straight trans- 

verse plates, which are stronger and more developed at the 

sides ; there are also some extremely fine and microscopical 

longitudinal and transverse strire, which cover the whole sur- 

face, making it appear partially shagreened ; furrows rather 

narrow and slight, without punctures : colour whitish, or yel- 

lowish, sometimes light reddish-brown, with a faint prismatic 

lustre, marked transversely in the young by zigzag and irre- 

gular streaks of purplish -brown : epidermis thin, fibrous, yellowish-brown, 

usually rubbed off except round the edges: 

margins gently curved but occasionally nearly straight in 

front, rounded on the anterior side, obliquely truncate and 

wedge-shaped on the posterior side on the ; upper part of this 

side the margin forms an obtuse angle with the dorsal line, 

which slopes a little : beaks very small, contiguous and con- 

sequently often worn by the attrition, considerably incurved ; 

* Edible.

CARDIUM. 287 

umbones central : lunide slight and indistinct : ligament short 

but strong, horncolour, with sometimes a greenish tint, continued 

on the anterior side in : large specimens hinge-line 

curved : 

gently 

hinge-plate thick and rather broad, reflected 

on the posterior side, where it is usually stained with chocolate 

colour, occupying about one-third of the circumference : teeth, 

in the right valve one double cardinal, shaped like a reversed 

Y, and set obliquely, and a strong but short double lateral on 

each side ; inner teeth and laniinse much smaller and more 

sunk than those next to the hinge-line ; in the left valve are 

similar cardinal and lateral teeth, having their relative size and 

position reversed, but these laterals are not so disproportionately 

small as those in the right valve : inside somewhat 

glossy and nacreous, deeply stained with purplish-brown on 

the posterior side, fluted towards the margin, which is armed 

with short spikes, corresponding with the outside furrows : 

palUal scar slight and wavy : 

terior one the longer. L. 1*6. B. 1*7. 

muscular scars very strong, pos- 

Yar. 1. rustica. Shell smaller and thinner, with the posterior 

side usually more produced and wedge-shaped : colour 

purplish-brown or light orange, often disposed in transverse 

rows. C. rusticum, Chemn. Conch. Cab. vi. p. 201 (referring to 

Linne's species of the same name), pi. 19. f. 197. 

Yar. 2. cremdata. Shell oval and more equilateral ; front 

margin nearly straight. C. crenulatum, Lam. An. sans Yert. vi. 

p. 13. 

Habitat : Gregarious everywhere in our sandy bays, 

from low-water mark to a few fathoms. Var. 1 . Estuaries 

of brackish water. Var. 2. Plymouth (Reeve) ; Herm 

(Lukis); Dogger Bank (Rich). This well-known spe- 

cies occurs in all our pliocene tertiaries from the latest 

raised beach to the Coralline Crag ; 

and I have found 

it in upper miocene strata near Antibes. It is very 

generally distributed through the North Atlantic Ocean, 

from Iceland (Mohr) to the iEgean (Forbes). The 

variety rustica lias also a range of similar extent ; and, 

according to MidclendorfF, it inhabits the Aral Sea, 

Caspian, Black Sea, and Russian Lapland. Lamarck 

gives " La Manche " for the other variety ; and I am

288 CARDIID^. 

inclined to refer to it also some fossil shells which the Rev. 

H. B. Tristram brought home from the Great Sahara 

and sent to Sir Charles Lyell. 

The mode bv which the cockle burrows in sand with 

it 

its dibble-shaped foot (called by Paley " its stiff tongue") 

has been already described : but Mr. Dennis informs 

me of another habit, with which I was not before ac- 

quainted. He " 

says, 

I found a large specimen of the 

common cockle moored by a byssus to a stake in the 

mill-creek. It might be eighteen inches up the stake. 

The run of the water is very strong at the spot, and 

the bottom shingle." This confirms an observation of 

the same kind made by Costa with regard to a variety 

of C. exiguum, and which I have before noticed. Phi- 

lippi expressed his disbelief of Costa's statement; but 

there is nothing wonderful in the cockle or any other 

animal acquiring a new habit under altered circum- 

stances, if 

especially such habit is not inconsistent with 

its general organization. It may arise from the development 

of a mysterious faculty, closely allied to one 

which in our pride we call reason, and consider to be our 

own exclusive property. But boast not, O Man, of your 

superiority to other animals in this respect ! Your 

their Creator may, if he think fit, grant 

and 

the same 

mental privileges as you enjoy to the brute, and even 

to the mollusk. See what Coleridge has to say on the 

subject : 

" And what if all of animated nature 

Be but organic harps diversely framed, 

That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps, 

Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, 

At once the soul of each, and God of all." 

The shape of the cockle is extremely variable. In 

sheltered or still water, where the ground is muddy or

CARDIUM. 289 

soft, the shell is thinner, and the posterior side has a 

tendency to become elongated and more wedge-like 

than usual. In exposed and rough seas, where the 

ground is harder, the shell is thick and globular. In 

certain localities the inside is of a rich purple colour. 

The largest specimens I have seen came from Unst 

and Stornoway, and the next in size from Appledore 

in North Devon and the Scillv Isles. Some of these 

t/ 

examples measure 2 J 

inches in breadth. Distortions 

are not unfrequently met with. The most remarkable 

are as follows :— inequivalve, the left valve being much 

smaller than the right, and nearly flat ; divided into 

two lobes by a constriction in front ; resembling a 

Cardissa, the anterior side being squeezed in and show- 

ing a large lunule; and one shell piled on another, 

and apparently growing out of it. Irregular pearls are 

occasionally formed. A specimen of C. edule in Mr. 

Norman's cabinet, found bv Mr. Cocks at Falmouth, 

contains a massive secretion of this kind, which occu- 

pies nearly one-half of the inside. It proceeds from 

under the beak, and looks like a huge wen. The animal 

seems to have suffered no further inconvenience from 

the excrescence than being obliged to extend its shell 

in front, so as to make up for the space lost at the back. 

I have likewise a large button- shaped livercolour pearl 

which was taken from a common cockle in the act of 

being eaten at breakfast. Young shells are frequently 

round, or longer than broad, and are indistinctly angular 

on each side. In a still earlier stage of growth they are 

very prettily variegated, 

C. fasciatum ; 

and liable to be mistaken for 

but they never have the oblique contour 

or the polished ribs of that species. 

I hope I shall not be accused of undignified trifling, 

or of venting platitudes, if I say a little more about the 

o

.290 CARDIIDiE. 

variableness of the cockle-shell. No specimens are 

alike. I have amused myself at the seaside in looking 

over a basketful of them, with a view of finding two 

exactly similar ; but I have never succeeded. They may 

be distinguished one from another, like men, sheep, or 

dogs. Ruskin has the following apposite remark, in his 

' 

[Modern Painters/ as to what he terms " the truths of 

nature." He says that 

" 

they are one eternal — change 

one infinite variety. There is no bush on the face of 

the globe like another bush : there are no two trees in 

the forest whose boughs bend into the same network, 

nor two leaves on the same tree which could not be told 

one from the other, nor two waves in the sea exactly 

alike/' This is an eloquent and suggestive truth. Lu- 

cretius had long ago illustrated the same idea by in- 

stances drawn from the animal kingdom, in which he 

includes " concharumque genus." 

The good qualities of this shell-fish as an article of 

food are notorious. The ancients appear to have been 

in the habit of roasting them, if we believe that they are 

the subject of one of iEsop's fables, 

in which the son of 

a husbandman thus apostrophizes some he cooked in 

" O most 

this way, and which were fizzing in the fire : 

wicked creatures, are you singing, while your houses 

are being burnt ?" A schoolboy thinks the true moral 

of this fable ought to be, " add insult to injury," instead 

of 

' ' 

every thing 

in its season." Lister mentions that in 

his time cockles were eaten raw, as well as cooked ; and 

Fleming and Macgillivray 

notice the same custom as 

prevalent in Scotland. They are also pickled like oysters, 

and a "vol-au-vent aux bucardes" is by no means 

a despicable " plat." Mace says that the Bretons call 

them " Coques," a name also applied 

to one or more 

species of Tapes. Cockle-gathering is a useful, though

CARDIUM. 291 

humble branch of our national industry, and gives ao 

honest employment to thousands of women and chil- 

dren. In Surtees's c 

History 

of Durham ' 

it is stated that, 

besides the home consumption, about £300 is annually 

gained in Greatham alone by this occupation. Near 

the little village of Penclawdd in South Wales a busy 

and picturesque scene may be witnessed towards the end 

of autumn or in the early spring. When the tide is 

out, nearly all the female and juvenile population are 

engaged in raking the sands and collecting 

these shell- 

fish. The cockles are put into tubs and pans of fresh 

water to get rid of the " grit " or sand, and the next 

day they are boiled in large caldrons placed in the open 

air. The produce is then fished out with sieves, and 

after being well rinsed in clean water is carried to Swan- 

sea market in baskets poised on the heads of the cockle- 

women. Many a drawing in the Water-colour Exhibitions 

has been enlivened by the addition of a group thus 

equipped and crossing the sands at low water. Immense 

heaps of shells are accumulated in the above 

process of preparing cockles, and may hereafter give rise 

to as much speculation with regard to the antiquity of 

the race of cockle-gatherers, as the Danish and Scotch 

" kjokkenmoddings " do at the present time. The shells 

also are useful. In places near the sea-coast where 

ordinary lime is not to be had, or the carriage 

expensive, 

of it is 

there cannot be a better substitute than the 

lime which is made by calcining cockle-shells. An 

analysis by Dr. Phipson, a chemist of no mean repute, 

has shown that they contain more than 90 per cent, of 

pure carbonate of lime. They seem to have been con- 

verted into rude ornaments by our ancestors ; 

son, 

in his ' 

and Wil- 

Prehistoric Annals of Scotland,' describes a 

cist in which the only relics deposited beside the skeleo2

292 CARDIIDiE. 

ton were a quantity of cockle-shells of different sizes, 

rubbed down until they were reduced nearly to rings. 

An impudent hoax was played on the learned Wer- 

nerian Society in 1825 by a pretended " discovery of live 

cockles in peat-moss, at a great distance from the sea, 

and much above its present level." The name of the 

place where this phenomenon 

is said to have been ob- 

served wr as Cocklesbury near Greta Bridge, and some 

highly ingenious arguments were adduced to show how 

the cockles got into the moss, and contrived to exist for 

centuries out of their native element. It need scarcely 

be said that the writer of the article was imposed upon 

by a scientific wag. Other Scotchmen have been equally 

credulous. Buchanan relates a strange notion, which 

he had heard was prevalent in Barra, one of the Western 

Isles, that the cockle originates from a freshwater bivalve 

(probably a species of Pisidium) called the " seed" 

by the inhabitants, who supposed that it grew larger in 

the sea, after being carried down by the river. 

According to Searles Wood, 

fossil state has sixteen synonyms. 

9. C. mi'nimum *, Philippi. 

C. edule in its recent and 

C. minimum, Phil. Moll. Sic. i. 

p. 51, and ii. p. 38, t. xiv. f. 18. C. Suecicum, 

F. & H. ii. 

p. 33, pi. 

xxxii. f. 6. 

Body of a gelatinous consistency and whitish colour. 

Shell roundish- oval, with an oblique outline, convex 

(especially behind), thin but nearly opaque, rather glossy : 

sculpture, 28-30 delicate and flattened longitudinal ribs, more 

or less covered throughout with minute crowded arched scales, 

which are sometimes arranged in a double row, giving a sca- 

brous appearance to the surface ; furrows rather narrow and 

slight, crossed by microscopical striae, which are three times as 

numerous as the costal scales, and in younger and less perfect 

* Smallest.

CARDIUM. 293 

specimens resemble punctures : colour milk-white, 

with occa- 

sionally a very faint prismatic hue : margins rounded on all 

sides except behind, where there is a gradual slope towards 

the posterior end, which in the young is indistinctly angular : 

beaks very small, glossy, turning towards the anterior side ; 

lunule-shaped depression rather long and deep : ligament 

above the dorsal line : 

short, yellowish-brown, projecting 

hinge-line curved : hinge-plate narrow and sharp, occupying 

between a third and a fourth of the circumference : teeth, in 

the right valve one double cardinal (the plates or lobes of which 

are of unequal size), with a short triangular lateral on the 

anterior side and a small sunken laminar lateral on the posterior 

side ; in the left valve are corresponding cardinals and 

laterals, the latter on the anterior side being double : inside 

polished and slightly nacreous, fluted in every part, owing to 

the concavity of the outside ribs, the flutings having broad and 

truncate terminations : scars slight and usually indistinct. 

L. 0-4. B. 0-4. 

Habitat : 

Fine sand in 5-100 fathoms, 

west of Scot- 

land and Moray Firth, Shetland, and all the Irish coasts ; 

Mr. M 'Andrew has dredged it sixty miles N.N.W. of 

the Land's End in 50 fathoms. It is a local species. 

According to Geikie it has been found by 

Mr. Richmond 

in the glacial deposits at Bute. It inhabits the seas of 

Scandinavia and the western coasts of the Baltic, at 

depths varying from 10 to 130 fathoms. Philippi discovered 

a recent single valve at Panornii, and many in a 

fossil state at Palermo and Tarenti ; 

taken it alive in the Gulf of Lvons. 

and M. Martin has 

Clark thought that this might be a variety of C. edule. 

It is, however, a much more delicate shell ; its length 

is greater in proportion to its breadth, and its contour 

is more oblique; the transverse scales are arched or 

vaulted, instead of straight; 

the interstices of the ribs 

are minutely striated or punctured ; and the inside is 

fluted throughout, and not towards the edge only, and 

the extremities of these internal grooves are truncate or 

blunt, being in C. edule sharply pointed.


It is the C. Suediense of Reeve, C. Loveni of Thompson, 

and C. Suecicum of Loven. 

B. Shell longitudinally oblong ; ribs slight and smooth, absent 

at the sides. 

10. C. Norve'gicum *, Spengler. 

C. Norvegicum, Spengl. Skrivt. Naturh. Selsk. v. pt. 1. p. 42; F. & H. ii. 

p. 35, pi. xxxi. f. 1,2, and (animal) pi. N. f. 1. 

Body nearly oval, thick, yellowish-white : mantle flesh- 

colour or reddish-white ; edges plain and white : tubes short, 

united at their base and divergent at the point of separation, 

pale yellow, marked with flake-white spots and lines ; 

the in- 

current tube is rather the shorter of the two, but wider, and it 

has its orifice encircled by about 20 yellowish-white cirri of 

different lengths, each having a dull red-brown line round its 

base ; the excurrent tube has a plain orifice, with the usual 

retractile valve, which is marked on the upper and lower 

surface with a faint red -brown line, a few spots of the same 

colour surrounding the orifice of this tube ; the sides of both 

tubes and the posterior side of the animal are clothed with 

thick-set pale reddish-brown and light-yellow curled filaments 

: gilh suboval, pale brown, with the edges of a deeper 

hue, unequal-sized (as in the other species) but hanging more 

vertically : palps very long, triangular, more deeply striated 

on the outside than within : foot long and powerful, cylindrical, 

geniculate, pointed at the extremity, covered (except at 

the point) with a thin fleshcolour film, resembling shagreen 

in appearance, under which it is pure white. The colour of 

the different parts of the body varies in intensity and its rela- 

tive hues, according to the age 

nature of the sea-bottom. 

of the individual and the 

Shell longitudinally oval, with a triangular outline, moderately 

convex, sloping gradually towards the front and sides in 

a wedge-like form, slightly gaping at the posterior side, solid 

and opaque, silky but not shining : sculpture, 40-42 extremely 

faint ribs, which are quite flat and about as broad as the 

intermediate spaces ; there are no ribs on the sides ; the whole 

surface is crossed by remarkably crowded wavy strise, not per- 

* Norwegian,

CARDIUM. 295 

ceptible by the naked eye : colour yellowish-white, beautifully 

mottled in the young and near the beaks of the adult with 

blotches or longitudinal streaks of reddish-brown or fleshcolour : 

epidermis thin, consisting of a tissue of exceedingly numerous 

and delicate fibres, woven in a transverse direction, frequently 

anastomosing or becoming blended together, and varying in 

colour from yellow to brown : marc/ins curved in front and 

at the sides, with a slight tendency to form an angle at the 

posterior extremity ; the rounded contour is only interrupted 

behind by the prominence of the umbonal area : beaks small, 

almost touching each other, slightly recurved towards the 

anterior side : tunule indistinct, but having projecting lips : 

Ugamentlojig, spindle-shaped, horncolour, and continued under 

the beaks on the anterior side : hinge-line obtuse-angled : 

hinge-plate broad, reflected fourth of the circumference : 

outwards, not occupying one- 

teeth, in the right valve two cardinals, 

a strong triangular lateral on the anterior side and a 

smaller pointed lateral on the posterior side ; in the left valve 

are also two cardinals, two laterals (the lower one being very 

much larger than the other) on the anterior side and one 

short triangular lateral on the posterior side ; the cardinals are 

relatively of the same size in each valve : inside porcellanous, 

closely and microscopically striated like the epidermis, sometimes 

of a chocolate colour, or variegated with reddish-brown ; 

margin fluted in the middle and towards the sides, but only 

notched near the hinge-line : pallial 

scars oval and deep. L. 2-4. B. 2*3. 

scar distinct : muscidar 

Var. 1. gibba. Shell smaller, having a more oblique con- 

tour, and gibbous. 

Var. 2. rotunda. Shell flatter and rounder. 

Var. 3. pallida. 

Habitat : 

Shell of a uniform strawcolour. 

Generally, but locally, diffused throughout 

the British seas, on sandy and nullipore bottoms, in 5- 

80 fathoms. Var. 1. Exmouth (Clark); Swansea and 

Bantry Bay (J. G. J.); Milford Haven (Jordan). Var. 2. 

Birterbny Bay, Connemara (Barlee) 

. Var. 3. Exmouth 

(Clark); Sark (J. G. J.). This species is a member of 

our more recent pliocene beds, as well as of the Coral- 

line Crag. Mr. Rose has found a specimen in a stratum

296 CARDTIDÊ. 

what he 

at Breydon, near Great Yarmouth, containing 

considers " redeposited " Crag shells. Its foreign habi- 

tation comprises the Faroe Isles, Finmark, and all the 

intervening coasts to the iEgean, Madeira, and the Ca- 

naries. 

Specimens which I dredged in Bantry Bay measure 

about 3 inches in length, and nearly as much in 

breadth. Single valves found by Sars in Christiansund 

are of the same dimensions ; and some living specimens 

taken by Martin in the Gulf of Lyons are scarcely in- 

' ' 

" 

ferior in size. It is the large high-beaked cockle 

of Wallis, and the " smooth cockle " of Pennant. 

This shell was for a long time considered by British 

authors to be the C. laevigatwn of Linne ; but his very 

short description in the Catalogue of the museum of 

Queen Louisa Ulrica (upon which that in the twelfth 

edition of the ' 

Systema 

Naturae ' 

was founded) 

states the 

colour as reddish spotted with white > a character inap- 

plicable to the present species. No locality is given ; 

and there are several allied species in the same section, 

any one of which might have been intended by Linne. 

Our shell was more probably his C. serratum, as well as 

Lamarck's species of that name. It would have been 

strange if Linne did not know this common shell. How- 

ever, the name proposed by Spengler is now generally 

accepted. 

It is the Pectunculus maximus &c. of Lister, 

C, crassum of Gmelin, C. oblongum of Brown (but not 

of Chemnitz) as well as of Reeve, and also the C. Pennantii 

and C. vitellinum of the last-named writer. The 

C. medium of Turton (but not of Linne) is the fry of 

C. Norvegicum, judging from his typical specimen. The 

genus Lavicardium of Swainson represents 

this section 

of Cardium, the synonymy of which is sadly confused. 

C. muricatum and C. medium of Linne, 

C. citrinum

CYPRIXID.E. 297 

of W. Wood (C serratum, Turton), and C. Graznlandicum 

of Chemnitz (C. edentulum, Montagu, and Mactra 

radiata, Donovan) are not British, although they have 

been wrongly introduced into our fauna. The first 

three are tropical, and the last arctic. Dr. Fleming 

was mistaken in regarding the C. nodosum of Turton as 

the young of C. muricatum. 

Family XII. CYPRI'NID^, Geinitz. 

Body globose or suborbicular : mantle open in front : tubes 

sessile or short : 

gills nearly equal in size : foot tongue-shaped, 

and adapted for burrowing in sand or mud. 

Shell equiyalve, globose or rounded, with a triangular out- 

line, more or less equilateral, solid, concentrically 

striated or 

furrowed : beaks twisted spirally or turned to one side : ligament 

mostly external : hinge short but strong, furnished with 

two or three cardinal teeth, besides laterals, in each valve ; 

pallial scar entire : muscular scars oval and usually very distinct. 

This family holds a middle rank between the Car- 

diidce and Veneridce, but is more nearly allied to the 

latter. It differs from Cardiidce principally in the shell 

not having the longitudinal ribs which characterize that 

family, and from Veneridce in the tubes of the animal 

being sessile or short, and in the pallial scar being con- 

sequently entire at the posterior side. I am not quite 

satisfied, however, that it is a " good " family, except as 

regards the single genus Isocardia. 

All the Cyprinidce are inhabitants of sandy and muddy 

tracts of the sea-bed. Thev mav, on the whole, be re- 

garded 

as northern forms. 

o o

298 CYPRINID.E. 

Genus I. ISOCAE/DIA * Lamarck. PL VI. f. 1. 

Body globose, small in proportion to the shell : mantle thin ; 

edge double, but plain : tubes sessile ; orifices papuliferous : 

foot broad, compressed, and triangular. 

Shell heart-shaped when viewed sideways, smooth or con- 

centrically striated : epidermis longitudinally 

ciliated : beaks 

separate, and involute or spirally twisted : lunule incomplete : 

corselet none : ligament wholly external, forked outwards on 

the anterior side, owing to the divergence of the beaks : teeth, 

in each valve two cardinals, placed obliquely, the outer one 

being laminar and curved, besides a single lateral on the posterior 

side. 

The only species which we possess of this eccentric 

genus was placed by Linne in Chama, and by Bruguiere 

in Cardita ; Lamarck properly separated it from both, 

and it constitutes the type of his Isocardia. It may 

be known from Cardita by its convolute and twisted 

beaks, and from Chama by being both equivalve and free. 

Lamarck placed it at the end of the "Cardiacees/-' on 

account of its general resemblance to the Cockles. The 

globular and cordate form of the shell is very elegant. 

Carpenter says that the external layer has scarcely a 

vestige of the tubular structure which is so conspicuous 

in Cardium. The epidermis of the European Isocardia 

is much thicker than that of tropical species of the same 

genus. No species appears to have been found on the 

northern coasts of America. Poli called the animal 

Glossus. 

Isocardia cor f, Linne. 

Chama Cor, Linn. Svst. Nat. p. 1137. I. cor, F. &H. i. p. 472, pi. xxxi\ . 

f. 2 , and (animal) pi. N. f. G. 

Body soft, yellowish - white : mantle completely lining the 

shell ; margin of an orange 

colour : tubes rather wide at their 

* From its resemblance to a heart with equal sides. t Heart.

orifices : 

of the body : 

ISOCARDIA. 299 

gills free, concealed between the mantle and the rest 

foot very muscular, orangecolour. 

Shell almost spherical, solid when adult, of a dull hue : 

sculpture, faint concentric striae, with occasional deeper lines 

of growth : colour yellowish-white, variegated in the young by 

zigzag streaks of reddish-brown : epidermis chestnutcolour, 

rather thick, covered with extremely numerous rows of very 

short fine bristles, which are of a darker colour, and radiate 

from the beak to the margins, except on the upper part of the 

anterior side where the cilia are wanting : man/ins curved in 

front, sloping upwards on the anterior side to a blunt angle 

formed by its junction with the dorsal margin, obliquely 

truncate at the posterior side, which is indistinctly sinuous ; 

dorsal margin projecting : beaks excentric, gracefully recurved 

and making an incomplete whorl : lunule forming a broad ex- 

cavation below the beaks, and enlarging rapidly during the 

progress of growth : ligament strong and raised, dark reddish - 

brown, following the bend of the posterior dorsal margin : 

hinge-line curved: hinge-plate thick and broad, reflected outwards, 

occupying rather more than one-third of the circum- 

ference : teeth, in the right valve two cardinals, the outer of 

which is laminar and nearly parallel to the hinge-line, and the 

inner is shorter, very much thicker, and cloven obliquely; 

between the latter tooth and the iuside of the shell is a deep 

socket for the reception of a similar tooth in the opposite 

valve ; lateral tooth short and triangular ; the left valve has 

two cardinals corresponding with those in the other valve, 

except that the outer one is cloven obliquely, and the socket 

the lateral tooth 

is placed on the inside of the thicker tooth ; 

in this valve is longer than that in the right valve, but not so 

high: inside chalky, with sometimes a faint tinge of fleshcolour, 

irregularly furrowed lengthwise, apparently in con- 

sequence of an unequal secretion by the mantle : pallial scar 

broad and shining : muscular scars rather large, that on the 

anterior side being remarkably deep. L. 4. B. 3-8. 


ground 

in 4-40 fathoms on the 

coasts of Devon and Cornwall, east and south of Ireland, 

and west of Scotland. Laskey 

is said to have taken it 

off St. Abb's Head. It is not generally distributed,, 

although tolerably plentiful in certain places. Searles 

Wood has recorded it as a fossil of the Red and Coral-

300 CYPRIXIDÊ. 

live Crag, and. it is not uncommon in a layer of brick- 

earth near Christiania containing shells of arctic species. 

Lilljeborg has dredged 

it as far north as Molde fiord near 

Christiansund ; and, according to Maravigna 

and Phi- 

lippic it occurs as far south as Sicily. Many instances 

mav be enumerated of its inhabiting the Scandinavian 

as well as Mediterranean seas, at depths varying from 

15 to 80 fathoms. 

By far the best account which has been given of the 

in the second 

animal is that by the Rev. James Bulwer, 

volume of the ' 

Zoological Journal/ He procured a 

considerable number of live specimens, taken by trawl- 

ing in very deep 

water on the east coast of Ireland. 

Although this account has been twice republished, it is 

so interesting and evidently so accurate, that I cannot 

refrain from inserting here a portion of it. He says, 

" On being placed in a vessel of sea-water the valves of 

the shell gradually opened, to the extent represented in 

the drawing [which accompanies the description] : the 

feelers or ciliated fringe of the upper* orifice of the 

mantle moved slowlv, 

as if in search of animalcule. 

Having remained in this situation about ten minutes, 

water was ejected with considerable force from the 

lower [upper or excurrent] orifice, which had till now 

remained motionless. The expulsion of the water appeared 

to be effected by a sudden contraction of the 

muscles, because this was never done without the valves 

nearly closing at the same instant. After a few seconds 

the valves gradually returned to their open position, and 

remained quiescent as before, till the water was again 

ejected with a jerk : this alternating process was re- 

* [The Isocaratd is delineated in a horizontal position, and this orifice 

being 

rent oriiice.] 

next to the foot and furthest from the beaks is the lower or incur

ISOCARDIA. 301 

peated at unequal intervals during the whole time my 

specimens were under examination, but at shorter inter- 

vals on receiving fresh supplies of sea-water, when, I 

suppose, food (its quality I could not ascertain) was 

more abundant. The animal appears to be insensible 

both to sound and light, as the presence or absence of 

either did not at all interrupt its movements; but its 

sense of feeling appeared to be very delicate : minute 

substances being dropped into the orifice of the mantle 

instantly excited the animal, and a column of water 

strongly directed expelled them from the shell. With 

so much strength was the water in some instances 

ejected, 

that it rose above the surface of three inches of 

superincumbent fluid. Animal small in proportion to 

its shell, occupying when dead barely 

a third of the 

space enclosed in the valves. Its mantle is slightly 

attached to the shell and to the epidermis at the margin, 

and appears to be kept distended, and in contact with 

the interior of the valves, bv the included water. The 

valves fit so closely that the animal can remain two 

days or more without permitting a single drop 

of fluid 

to escape. Locomotion is very confined ; it is capable, 

with the assistance of its foot, which it uses in the same 

manner (but in a much more limited degree) as the 

Cardiacea, of fixing itself firmly in the sand, generally 

choosing to have the umbones covered by it, and the 

orifices of the tubes of the mantle nearly perpendicular. 

Uesting in this position on the margin of a sand-bank, 

of which the surrounding soil is mud, at too great a 

depth to be disturbed by storms, the Isocardia of our 

Irish Sea patiently collects its food from the surround- 

ing element, assisted in its choice by 

the current it is 

capable of creating by the alternate opening and closing 

of its valves. Some of the specimens that had been


taken four or more days before they were brought to 

me exhibited on dissection the following curious appearance 

:—On removing the mantle from the surface 

of the shelly a considerable quantity of shelly matter of 

the consistence of thick cream, or like moistened plaster 

of Paris, was discovered ; on a nearer inspection, the 

interior layers of its shelly covering were found to be 

deeply corroded in parallel furrows, in some spots so 

deeply that the brown or outer layers 

of the shell were 

laid bare. This shelly matter had undergone no change 

but that of trituration. To what cause is this appear- 

ance to be attributed ? Are the animals of this species 

when in a state of starvation, as these probably were, 

capable of absorbing a portion of their shell (the gluten), 

and converting it into nourishment ? Or do the animals, 

when languid and unhealthy, secrete a medium that 

destroys the cohesion of the particles of which their 

habitations are formed? In none of the living specimens 

that I had an opportunity of examining did I 

detect any parasite ; 

while in nine out of ten specimens 

of the Cyprina Islandica from the same neighbourhood, 

I found a small Hirudo lurking under the mantle of 

each ; and in very many specimens of a Modiola from 

the shallow water of the same coast, a small Crab (Pisa) 

shared the habitation with the animal." Mr. Bulwer 

also remarked that the /. cor of the Mediterranean 

appeared to differ considerably from that of the Irish 

Sea in respect of the animal, judging from the descrip- 

tion and anatomical drawings of Poli ; but the differ- 

ences he has noticed are probably varietal. Mediter- 

ranean specimens are smaller. Linne indulged in some 

rather fanciful similitudes with regard to the shell, de- 

Systema 

Naturae ' 

e 

scribing it in the tenth edition of the 

as Cardium humanum, and in the twelfth edition com-

CYPRINA. 303 

paring the beaks to a ram's horns. Knorr, 

in his 

f 

DeliciaB Naturae selectse/ says 

" 

coeur de boeuf," and in Holland " zots-kappen " or 

fool's-cap. 

it is called in France 

It is the Bucardia communis of Schumacher and Iso- 

cardia Hibernica of Reeve. 

Genus II. CYPBTNA * Lamarck. PL VI. f. 2. 

Body suborbicular and fleshy : mantle rather thick, slightly 

retractile ; edge finely serrated : tubes extremely short, but 

separate ; 

orifices cirrous : 

foot large 

and extensile. 

Shell heart-shaped, convex, concentrically striated: epidermis 

thick and fibrous : beaks incurved : hi aide and corselet 

: wanting ligament almost wholly external : teeth, 

in each valve 

three cardinals, the outer one laminar, besides a single lateral 

on the posterior side. 

We now approach the boundaries of the Venerid7rpjs\ one of the names of Venus.

304 CYPRINIDJE. 

latitude, which were submerged during a comparatively 

recent geological period ; and they attest the extent of 

its diffusion in the glacial epoch. Other species occur 

in tertiary strata of an older formation ; 

and the history 

of the genus, according to Mr. Searles Wood, may perhaps 

date back from the Greensand. 

This genus was called Arctica by Schumacher, and 

Cardia, Nympha, and Asmidia by 

other authors. 

Cyprina Islan'dica *, Linne. 

Venus Islandica, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1131. C. Islandica, F. & H. i. p. 441, 

pi. xxix, and (animal) pi. M. f. 4. 

Body yellowish -white : mantle powdered for some depth 

with minute red-brown sandy points ; margin thickened, and 

marked with a slender brown line : tubes nearly sessile, tinged 

with red-brown ; each orifice is encircled at the base of the 

cirri which fringe it with a narrow bright red line, varying in 

intensity of colour ; cirri simple, about 20 surrounding the 

incurrent, and about half that number the excurrent tube ; 

from the latter tube frequently protrudes a globular, trans- 

membranous valve : 

parent, gills pale brown, unequal, coarsely 

pectinated, the outer leaflets more triangular and smaller than 

of moderate 

the inner : palps two on each side, pectinated, 

length, triangular and pointed : foot 

crum, rather long and sharply pointed. 

thick at the stalk or ful- 

Shell obliquely triangtdar, gibbous towards the beaks, 

numerous fine laminar and 

thick, rather : glossy sculpture, 

slightly undulating concentric striae, which become coarser and 

more irregular at the sides : colour yellowish-white faintly 

tinged with pink : epidermis chestnut passing into dark brown, 

of a lighter cast or sometimes yellowish with a prismatic hue 

in the young ; 

laminar strise : margins curved in front and at the anterior 

si'ie, obliquely truncate at the lower posterior end, and on 

that side bluntly angular, with an indistinct fold or flexure, 

which is more observable in immature : specimens beaks con- 

it is marked, like the surface of the shell, with 

siderably recurved : ligament strong and raised, horncolour or 

dark brown, partly enclosed in a groove on the dorsal edge : 

hinge-line obtusely angular : hinge-plate thick, broad, and 

* Icelandic.

CYPRINA. 

305 

nexuous, occupying rather more than one-third of the circum- 

ference : teeth, in the rigjit valve three cardinals, the middle one 

strong and short (from which the other two diverge), 

rior triangular, and posterior ridge- like ; 

the ante- 

lateral tooth indistinct ; 

the left valve has likewise three cardinals, two of which 

on the anterior side are symmetrical and very short, and the 

third is laminar and diverges from the centre ; 

strong and distinct ; the hinge 

lateral tooth 

is also furnished with several 

irregular tooth-like processes on the anterior side: inside chalkywhite 

and nearly smooth: paUial scar broad and shining: 

muscular scars large and distinct, but not remarkably deep. 

L. 4. B. 4-25. 

Yar. crassior. Shell thicker, more round, and somewhat 

compressed : epidermis of a darker hue and occasionally pitchblack. 

Habitat: Common in sand mixed with mud, on 

every part of the British coasts, from low-water mark to 

100 fathoms. The variety occurs in Swansea, Cardigan, 

and Bideford bays. This species is a member of all our 

newer tertiaries, and peculiarly characteristic of glacial 

and North 

deposits. Every sea of northern Europe 

America still contains it in a living state, its southern 

limit appearing to be the Boulonnais and Cherbourg. A 

more globose variety (C. csqualis, J. Sowerby) 

is found 

in pliocene strata at Nice and in Sicily. This form is 

the C. islandicoides of Lamarck. 

Hugh Miller says, in his pleasant l 

Sketch-book of 

Popular Geology/ that C. Islandica, " although one of 

the most common shells of the boulder-clay, is by no 

means one of the most common shells at the present 

time of our Scottish coasts." This must be a mistake ; 

for in the Moray Firth, the scene of the gifted geologist's 

labours, recent shells of this species are very much more 

abundant than the fossil remains of specimens entombed 

in the boulder-clay or " till." But in a postglacial or 

raised beach at Goldspie in Sutherlandshire, 

brink of high- water mark, 

close to the 

I noticed that valves were

306 CYPRINID.Ec 

heaped up in extraordinary profusion, far exceeding in 

number those now thrown up on the adjacent shore. 

Neither in the boulder-clay nor in the strata immediately 

overlying it are entire valves often to be seen— gene- 

rally fragments only, and that part which contains the 

hinge, being stronger than the rest of the shell. I 

believe this may be explained by an anecdote which I 

was lately told by Mr. Bean. Many years ago he found 

about a score of fine live specimens on the sands at 

Filey after a storm, and triumphantly carried them 

home in his pocket-handkerchief. On his return to 

Scarborough he put them into a large pan, and poured 

boiling water on the heap. To his astonishment and 

dismay, a succession of loud reports ensued, 

as if a 

volley had been fired, and all the shells were either 

broken or cracked. The action of severe frost at a 

period when the climate and other conditions resembled 

those of the Polar region, enclosing 

might 

"The ice-lock'd secrets of that hoary deep 1 

Where fetter' d streams and frozen continents 

Lie dark and wild, beat with perpetual storm 

Of whirlwind and dire hail," 

have had the same effect on shells of C. Islandica 

water has 

formerly exposed on an Arctic beach, as boiling 

on existing shells of the same species. The fracture may 

have been caused by an imperfect cohesion of the material 

— the proportion of animal tissue, compared with that of 

carbonate of lime, being less in these than in many other 

shells. In Muller's time the animal was eaten by the 

natives of Iceland, and called by them " Ku-skiael ,} and 

" Krok-fishur." In the Shetlands it goes by the uni- 

versal name of " clam." This large and unwieldy mol- 

lusk contrives to burrow, like a cockle, by 

means of its 

foot, which is permeated by a series of pores com- 

municating with a central tube. This tube opens out-

CYPRINA. 307 

side ; and through it water is introduced into the vas- 

cular portion of the foot, when the latter becomes suffi- 

ciently distended to make a passage in the sand for the 

whole animal and shell. According to Dr. Johnston it 

is carnivorous : he states that he once found in its 

stomach "the undigested remains of a large green 

Nereis, enveloped in a pulp which was certainly too 

consistent to have been the sediment from water, how- 

ever loaded with animalcula." This, however, 

contrary to the known habits of the Aeephala, that the 

admission and detention of the Annelid may be ac- 

is so 

counted for in some other way. Possibly, having 

entered into the body of the Cyprina, it could, not get 

out, and thus suffered a lingering death. The contrac- 

tion of the larger tube, or the valve of the smaller one 

might have prevented its escape in that direction ; and 

the stomach has no other vent. At any rate, the fact 

of the Nereis being " undigested " would lead to an 

inference that such was not the ordinary food of the 

Cyprina. The same excellent naturalist also remarked 

that this mollusk and the horse-mussel often swallow 

the bait of the fisherman. It is true that they are fre- 

but their palps are not 

and I should be rather disposed to attribute 

quently caught by the hooks ; 

prehensile ; 

their capture to the fishing-lines being dragged by the 

tide or the motion of the sea, and to the hooks coming 

into accidental contact with the gaping shell-fish. C. 

Islandica is apt to be infested by species of Pinnotheres 

and Planaria. 

Lister first described this shell. Linne, and after him 

Pennant, seem to have confounded it with Venus merce- 

naria. It is the Pectunculus crassus of Da Costa, and 

Cyprina vulgaris of Brown. The latter name was adopted 

in his 

' 

Genera of Recent and 

by Mr. G. B. Sowerby,


Fossil Shells/ from a supposition that the Icelandic 

shell was not the same as ours. 

Genus III. ASTAB/TE * J. Sowerby. PL VI. f. 3. 

Body suborbicular, compressed : mantle rather thick ; edge 

plain : foot rather small but strong, 

and conical. 

Shell more or less triangular, compressed, concentrically 

furrowed (especially in the young) or striated : epidermis yellowish 

or chestnut-brown, sometimes rayed, and usually thick 

and fibrous : beaks prominent, slightly recurved : lunule dis- 

tinct, heart-shaped, or lanceolate : corselet elongated : ligament 

mostly external : teeth, in each valve three cardinals, the outer 

one of which on the posterior side in the right valve, and that on 

the anterior side in the left valve, are small and indistinct ; 

laterals ridge-like and slight, one on either side in each valve. 

Brocchi in 1814 pointed out the peculiar character- 

istics of this genus, and provisionally associated the only 

species then known with Capsa. The author of ' 

The 

Mineral Conchology of Great Britain/ Schumacher, and 

Lamarck gave it in 1816, 1817, and 1818 the several 

names of Astarte, Tridonta, and Crassina. This shows 

the order of their relative priority; and although Sow- 

erby comprised in his genus species 

long to it, viz. Venus Paphia, V. fasciata, 

which do not be- 

and V. sub- 

cordata, he distinctly stated that A. sulcata was the 

type. Lamarck placed A. sulcata and A. castanea in 

Venus. The late Mr. G. B. Sowerby first noticed the 

relation of Astarte to Cyprina. Scacchi and Philippi 

considered the animal allied to Cardita. C. F. Romer 

published in 1842 an elaborate treatise on the genus ; 

and De la Jonkaire had previously given a monograph 

of the fossil species. 

* The Phoenician goddess of the Moon, or (according to Cicero) a 

synonym 

of Venus.

ASTARTE. 309 

The shell of Astarte is a symbol of change; and 

although the genus may be distinguished from others, 

this cannot be said of the species inter se. I do not 

know a more puzzling study. What is true of the pic- 

torial art is equally applicable to the science of classi- 

fication in natural history. Ruskin treats the matter 

thus 

" 

: Nearly all the gradations of nature are so 

subtle, and between degrees of tint so slightly separated, 

that no human hand can in any wise equal, or do any- 

the idea of them." So it is 

thing more than to suggest 

with the forms of organic nature. A net of chainwork 

conveys a very inadequate idea of the intricate way in 

which all these forms are intermingled and blend one 

with another. No method of systematic arrangement 

that is possible for the wit of man to devise will serve to 

decipher this complicated mystery. To read for the first 

time a cuneiform inscription is mere child's play compared 

with the solution of this enigma. All that we 

can do is to observe carefully, and with fit reverence, 

the works of our Creator, and to record faithfullv those 

observations for the instruction or gratification of the 

present and future generations. One cause of 

difficulty 

in discriminating the species of Astarte has happily been 

removed. This consisted in the inner margin of the 

shell being notched in some kinds, and plain in others 

which could not else be distinguished. 

Recluz in 1844 

eliminated this supposed mark of specific difference by 

uniting the A. triangularis 

and A. minutissima of Mon- 

tagu ; Turton had more than twenty years previously 

noticed that A. sulcata and A. Scotica presented only 

the same criterion of separation ; 

and Forbes and Han- 

ley confirmed the justice of that remark by showing 

that these last two so-called species were identical. It 

has been for some time the prevalent opinion that the


crenulation of the inside edge was a sign of maturity, 

although some conchologists suggested that it might 

denote a sexual difference ; but the former is opposed to 

my own observation (especially as regards A. triangularis), 

and no investigation appears to have been made 

to warrant the latter. Dr. Malm has offered another 

explanation, by showing that when the margins 

in the 

course of growth meet on a rib the inside is notched, 

but if they meet on a furrow it is plain ; and he observes 

that the same takes place in species of Murex, which 

have the inside of the outer lip grooved in perfect ex- 

amples. To that extent, therefore, the character is 

correlative with development : but it is exhibited by 

A. triangularis, which never has any ribs; 

I have adult 

specimens of A. sulcata with the margin quite plain and 

smooth in front, but distinctly notched on each side ; 

and A. compress a has always a plain edge, although the 

shell is ribbed. Some of the cardinal teeth are often 

rudimentary or so indistinct that, without a close scru- 

tiny, there appear to be only two teeth in the right, and 

one in the left valve, which locks into a hollow space 

between the opposite pair. 

Astarte may be said to be " at home " in the far north. 

Only two species inhabit the Mediterranean, and those 

while thrice that number abound within the 

sparingly, 

Arctic circle. They frequent sand, more or less mixed 

with mud, at various depths ; but none are littoral. Many 

species of remarkable productiveness swarmed in tertiary 

seas. Fossil shells of that group of Venus which is 

represented by V. fasciata may easily 

be mistaken for 

species of Astarte, some of the characters which distinguish 

the latter genus being lost by the removal of the 

colour and epidermis.

ASTARTE. 311 

A. More or less ribbed. 

1. Astarte sulcata*, Da Costa. 

Pectunculus costatus, Da Costa, Brit, Conch, p. 192. A. sulcata, P. & H. 

i. p. 452, pi. xxx. f. 5, 6 (as A. Banmoniensis), pi. cxxxiii. f. 4 (as A. 

M. f. 5. 

sulcata, var.), and (animal) pi. 

Body more or less tinged with fleshcolour : mantle plain- 

edged, and girt with a narrow belt of orange : tubes scarcely 

separated from each other ; 

the mantle : 

gills of a pale yellowish hue : 

orifices bordered with orange, like 

palps rather large, 

of a lanceolate-triangular shape, strongly striated external!)-, 

and of a pale tawny colour : 

foot not large in proportion to the 

shell, of a pale flesh or fawncolour. [This description has 

been taken from the ' British Mollusca.' I suspect that the 

animal had been killed with hot water before it was examined. 

Being so common, I omitted to make any note of it ; but my 

recollection of the colour and proportions does not agree with 

the above.] 

Shell obtusely triangular, with an oblique outline, some- 

what compressed, thick, of a dull hue : 

sculpture, 2A-AS) strong 

and angular ribs, which are much more crowded towards the 

beaks and gradually vanish or are wholly wanting on the 

posterior side ; the surface is also covered with intermediate 

concentric but irregular striae : colour milk-white beneath the 

epidermis, which is chestnut or of various shades of brown, 

and marked with exquisitely minute and innumerable hair- 

like, slightly undulating, and punctured 

transverse striae : 

margins curved in front and on the anterior side, and slightly 

truncate on the posterior side : beaks excentric, considerably 

recurved towards the anterior side : lunule and corselet deep, 

well defined, and smooth : ligament short, yellowish or horncolour, 

enclosed within the dorsal line, and partly contained in 

a groove excavated out of the hinge-plate : 

liinge-line obtusely 

in the 

triangular : hinge-plate thick and broad, especially 

middle, occupying about one-third of the circumference : teeth, 

in the right valve three cardinals, the outermost and posterior of 

which is very indistinct and laminar, and the other two are 

much larger, obliquely triangular, and diverge outwards, leav- 

ing a deep and triangular cavity between them for the recep- 

tion of the middle tooth of the left valve ; there is also an 

obscure lateral on each side ; the left valve has likewise three 

* Furrowed.


cardinals, of which the middle one is by far the largest, trian- 

gular, and blunt ; the other two are laminar and diverge in 

opposite directions, the anterior tooth being the slightest ; 

lateral teeth as in the right valve : inside chalky-white, with a 

thin superficial layer which is microscopically tubercular and 

glistening ; margin thickened in front and at the sides, and 

finely crenulated or notched : pallia! scar narrow, slightly im- 

pressed: muscular scars irregularly elliptical or conchoidal, 

very distinct. L. 1*1. B. 1*2. 

Yar. 1. paucicostata. Shell smaller, having fewer and 

thicker ribs ; 

inside margin either smooth or notched. 

Yar. 2. Scotica. Shell usually rather compressed ; inside 

margin thin and smooth. Venus Scotica, Maton and Rackett, 

in Linn. Trans, viii. p. 81, t. 2. f. 3. 

Yar. 3. elliptica. Shell commonly still more compressed, 

broader than long, in consequence of the posterior side being 

more produced than in the typical form ; upper or dorsal slope 

nearly straight ; ribs more or less evanescent in front and at 

the sides ; inner margin smooth. Crassina ellvptica, Brown, 

111. Rec. Conch, p. 96, pi. xxxviii. f. 3. A. elliptica, 

i. p. 459, pi. xxx. f. 8. 

F. & H. 

Yar. 4. truncata. Shell more than ordinarily triangular ; 

front margin nearly straight 

or truncate. 

Yar. 5. minor. Shell smaller and more convex. 

Yar. 6. trigona. Shell nearly as small as the last and de- 

cidedly triangular. 

Yar. 7. incrassata. Shell obliquely triangular ; ribs more 

or less evanescent in front and at the sides. Venus incrassata, 

Brocchi, Conch. Foss. Subap. ii. p. 557, tav. xiv. f. 7. 

Yar. 8. multicostata. Shell somewhat triangular ; ribs numerous. 

Habitat : 

Sand 

and mud, in 7-85 fathoms, on all our 

coasts from Falmouth (Couch) to the Shetland Isles. 

Captain Beechey dredged 

it in 145 fathoms off the Mull 

of Galloway. It is most plentiful in the west of Scot- 

land. Mr. Jordan has lately taken numbers of it in 

Milford Haven ; but otherwise it does not seem to be 

common in the south. A. sulcata occurs in many of the

ASTARTE. 313 

upper tertiary strata up to the Red Crag, the variety 

elliptica being the more usual form in glacial deposits. 

This form has not been found south of Great Britain ; 

but the variety hicrassata has a wide range in that 

direction, throughout 

the Mediterranean and Helles- 

pont to the Canaries. Northward this species reaches 

Iceland, Upper Norway, and the White Sea, as well as 

North America (and the variety elliptica as far as Spitzbergen), 

at depths varying from 3 to 160 fathoms. All 

the other varieties which I have specified come from the 

Hebrides and Shetland. 

The animal is very inactive ; 

and when buried in mud 

the shell is often incrusted with a mineral coat like 

tar. Specimens living in tenacious and fetid soil have 

the beaks and umbonal area more or less eroded. Thev 

are now and then distorted; and I found a large and 

malformed pearl in one. The ribs are less numerous 

and developed in southern examples of the typical form 

than in those from more northern parts. 

The inside is 

sometimes of a lovely salmoncolour. In specimens 

from the Northumberland coast and Skye the front 

margin is plain 

and the sides are crenulated. The 

larger kinds of Asterias are said by M. Gay to prey upon 

A. incrassata. 

I have failed to separate intermediate forms from 

either the typical species or the variety elliptica. They 

may belong to one or the other. Particular specimens, 

and indeed the bulk of them, may be readily distin- 

guished ; but although it may not be agreeable to the 

mere collector, whose object is to get as many species 

as he can, I must regard the Crassina elliptica of Brown 

as only a variety and northern form of this most incon- 

stant species. I have never in the course of my dredging- 

experience found them in company on the 

p 

same

314 CYPRINID^. 

g-round : doubtful specimens occur where they might be 

looked for— viz. on the confines of two localities, each 

inhabited by its own form. The above remarks equally 

apply to the A. incrassata of Brocchi, except in its being 

a southern form. Philippi at first considered it the same 

as our species, but he afterwards changed his opinion 

on the authority of M. Koch. Deshayes, in his edition 

of Lamarck, represents A. incrassata and the Tellina 

fasca of Poli as two distinct species ; but Philippi demurs 

to this, on the ground that the extent of sulcation and 

the comparative convexity of the shell are very uncer- 

tain characters. Such a conflict of opinion is easily 

settled by pronouncing the three species to be distinct ; 

but I believe the sounder judgment will be that all are 

identical. It is impossible to ascertain, or even to 

conjecture with any reasonable probability, 

how much 

change prolific and hardy species, like the present, may 

have undergone during the lapse of countless genera- 

tions ; 

" For formes are variable, and decay 

By course of kind and by occasion." 

The A. elliptica of the north, A. sulcata of more tem- 

perate seas, and A. incrassata of the south are evidently 

so closely allied to one another that it is not unphilo- 

sophical to suppose that they originated from the same 

common stock. The slight differences which they pre- 

sent among themselves may have been caused by local 

or accidental conditions. I need not apologize for par- 

ticularizing so many varieties, 

as all naturalists are 

of this mode of discrimination . 

agreed as to the utility 

The time has gone by when varieties were not regarded. 

At present the course of scientific inquiry tends the 

other way ; 

and varieties must be named, or have some 

equivalent symbol of distinction.

ASTARTE. 315 

This species is the Venus Danmonia (properly Dam- 

nonia) of Montagu, V. Petagna of Costa, and Crassina 

Britannica of Leach. The North-American form has 

been called by Hanley A. latisulca, and by Gould A. 

n n data. The variety elliptica is the Venus compressa 

of Linne's ' 

Mantissa Plantarum/ Crassina ovata and 

C. depressa of Brown, C. sulcata of Nilsson, A. Gai- 

rensis of James Smith, and A. semisulcata of myself, 

Loven, Moller, and Philippi, but not of Leach. 

2. A. compres'sa *, Montagu. 

Venus compressa, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 43. t. 26. f. 1. A. compressa, 

F. &H. i. 

p. 464, pi. xxx. f. 1-3. 

Body greyish-white : mantle plain-edged : tabes scarcely 

perceptible outside the shell : foot white. 

Shell acutely triangular, nearly equilateral, rather convex, 

thick, somewhat : glossy sculpture, sometimes only slight, irregular, 

and scarcely elevated ridges in the line of growth, but 

more commonly also close concentric ribs on the umbonal area ; 

the surface is covered, as in the last species, 

with liner inter- 

stitial striae : colour milk-white beneath the epidermis, which 

is of various hues from yellow to chestnut-brown, and is seen 

under the microscope to be reticulated lengthwise by innume- 

rable rows of punctures : 

margins curved in front, obtusely 

angular or truncate on the anterior side, with a sharply rounded 

point, and sloping or gently curved on the posterior 

side to a 

blunter point : beaks almost central, considerably recurved towards 

the anterior side : lunide and corselet deep and nearly 

smooth : ligament cylindrical, of moderate length, yellowishbrown, 

not projecting beyond the dorsal line, partly contained 

in a groove on the hinge-plate : hinge-line nearly rectangular : 

hinge-plate thick and broad, occupying about two-fifths of the 

circumference : teeth as in A. sulcata, but the cardinals are 

proportionally stronger, and the anterior laterals (especially 

that of the left valve) are more : developed inside porcellanous. 

slightly nacreous, and minutely tubercled ; margin sharp and 

smooth, bordered within by a slight but distinct ridge, forming 

* Squeezed together. 

p 2


a bevelled edge : 

pallial 

and muscular scars as in the last 

species, but the latter are more deep. L. 0-5. B. 0*5. 

Tar. 1. globosa. Shell much larger, and usually more con- 

vex, inclining to a circular shape, with flue and regular ribs, 

which in the adult generally disappear towards the front and 

sides. L. 0-8. B. 0*9. A. globosa, Moller, Ind. Moll. Groenl. 

p. 20. 

Yar. 2. striata. Shell more closely ribbed. A. striata 

(Nkania striata, Leach), 

Moll. 1. c. 

Yar. 3. nana. Shell much smaller, either smooth or partly 

ribbed. L. 0-225. B. 0-225. 

Habitat : 

Sand, often mixed with mud, 

in 20-50 

fathoms, off Scarborough (Bean), and Mull (Bedford) : 

the typical form appears to be very local. Subfossil in 

25 fathoms off Larne, co. Antrim. Var. 1. Rather 

common off Skye, the coasts of Argyle and Ross, and 

east of Shetland, in 30-80 fathoms. It resembles in 

shape Corbicula (or Cyrena) fluminalis. Y r ar. 2. Plen- 

tiful on the coasts of Yorkshire, Northumberland, and 

Durham, Firth of Forth, west of Scotland, and outer 

at from 3 to 50 fathoms. 

Hebrides, in sand and mud, 

This variety occurs in all our newer tertiaries, as far 

back as the Red Crag ; and it is peculiar to the glacial 

deposits. Var. 3. Fifteen miles N.W. of Mull (Bed- 

ford) . It seems to present a link connecting the pre- 

sent with the next species. A. compressa, and parti- 

cularly the variety striata, are extensively distributed 

throughout the North Atlantic from Spitzbergen and 

the White Sea to the Cattegat, as well as on the north- 

eastern coasts of America, at depths varying 

from 10 to 

140 fathoms. It is found in the Uddevalla and other 

similar deposits in Scandinavia; Risso has recorded it, 

under the name of Cyprina Montagui, as fossil in the 

tc 

terrains diluviens " at Nice ; and Drexler found it in 

pliostene " strata in Hudson's Bay.

ASTARTE. 317 

It is not less variable than A. sulcata ; and if a spe- 

form were 

cimen of the smooth, flat and triangular 

placed side by side with the fine-ribbed, convex and 

rounded it variety globosa, would be difficult to imagine 

that they were the same species. A. compressa, in all 

its phases, may be known from any of the smooth- edged 

varieties of A. sulcata by its inferior size, the shape 

being always more triangular than square, 

the beaks 

being more central, and by the ribs (where they exist) 

being much finer and more numerous in proportion to 

the size of the shell. I received from Mr. Dawson of 

Cruden a specimen found by him in the Moray Firth, 

which had the hinge reversed, the right valve exhibiting 

the teeth that properly belonged to the left valve, and 

vice versa. The muscular impressions were as usual ; 

but that would be the case, whether the right valve 

had changed place with the left or they had retained 

their normal relation to each other. I am not aware of 

The 

a similar instance of such a partial transposition. 

instances of Lucina Childreni and Chama Lazarus, men- 

tioned by Gray in the c 

Zoological 

Journal ' 

and ' 

Philo- 

sophical Transactions/ are different, inasmuch as those 

shells are inequivalve. Bivalve mollusca can never be 

completely reversed like univalves, because the internal 

and those of the 

organs of the former are symmetrical, 

latter are confined to one side or position. 

I have before observed that this is not the Venus 

compressa of Linne. Among the many synonyms of 

our species may be mentioned V. Montacuti, Turton, 

Nicania Banksii, Leach, Crassina convexiuscula and 

C. obliqua, Brown, A. multicostata and A. Uddevallensis, 

J. Smith, A. pulchella, Jonas, and A. propinqua, Lands- 

borough.

318 

CYPRINID^. 

B. Smootli or slightly striated. 

3. A. triangularis *, Montagu. 

Mactra triangularis, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 99, t. 3. f. 5. A. triangularis, 

F. &H. i. p. 467, pl.xxx. f.4. 

Shell forming almost an isosceles triangle, and more or less 

equilateral, with a somewhat oblique outline, compressed and 

sloping gradually from the umbonal part to the margins, like 

a sharp wedge, thick for its size, rather glossy : sculpture, 

irregular lines of growth, or a few very slight 

and indistinct 

concentric ridges : colour white beneath the epidermis, which 

is of various hues from pale yellow or orange to purplish - 

brown or chocolate, rarely milk-white, often marked with 

streaks of a darker tint, which radiate from the direction of 

the beaks towards the front, where and on the posterior side 

they are chiefly conspicuous ; the epidermis appears under a 

high power to be microscopically punctured all over, but not 

in rows : margins rounded in front, with an oblique curve to 

the posterior angle, more or less straight on the anterior side, 

and inclined to straight or but slightly curved on the posterior 

side : beaks extremely prominent but blunt, almost central, 

recurved a little towards the anterior side : lunule heart- 

shaped and deep : corselet slight and short : ligament very short 

and protuberant, of a yellow or brown tinge, according to the 

colour of the epidermis, partly sheathed in a cardinal groove : 

hinge-line acute-angled : 

hinge-plate extremely 

thick and 


broad, occupying scarcely 

teeth as in the other species, but the chief cardinals are much 

stronger in proportion, and the third or smallest in each valve 

is barely perceptible, the laterals being fine and ridge-like : 

inside polished and nacreous, sometimes faintly striated length- 

wise ; margin either thickened and closely denticulated, or 

else bevelled and quite smooth : pallial and muscular scars 

distinct, especially the latter. L. 0*125. B. 0-125. 

Habitat : 

Local, but gregarious, on all our coasts 

from the northern extremity of Shetland to the Channel 

Isles, in sand, at depths of from 3 to 60 fathoms ; 

remarkably 

it is 

abundant at Lewis in the outer Hebrides 

and at Guernsey. It occurs, but not commonly, in all 

our upper tertiaries and associated with high-northern 

* Triangular.

ASTARTE. 319 

species of shells. The recent diffusion of this species 

appears 

to have been southward : I cannot find it enu- 

merated in any list of Arctic or even Scandinavian 

mollusca; but it has been recorded by Mr. M fAndrew 

and myself as Mediterranean, and by the former as 

dredged at the Canaries. It is probably a pliocene fossil 

of Apulia under von Miinstei^s name of A. laevigata, 

and an inhabitant of the iEgean (in 70-112 fathoms) as 

the A.pusilla of Forbes. 

The animal of this diminutive and pretty species has 

escaped notice. The shells are often drilled by the 

smaller Muricidcs. When fresh they are semitrans- 

parent, so that the marginal 

indentation is visible out- 

side. The young are transversely oval, and in shape 

not unlike Pisidium pusillum. The hinge is now and 

then reversed, as in A. compressa. Probably such mon~ 

sters are not exceedingly rare, but may not have been 

searched for. 

Turton proposed to make another genus (Goodallia) 

out of the present species and its plain-edged variety 

(Mactra minutissima, Montagu), from an erroneous 

notion that the ligament was internal. Two or three 

more generic and specific names have been bestowed on 

the same species by different writers, all of which may 

be treated as obsolete. 

A. crebricostata of Forbes inhabits the Arctic seas : it 

has never been taken alive, or even in a suspiciously 

fresh state, on our coasts. Valves have been dredged 

by Mr. M fAndrew off the west coast of Shetland, and 

also by that gentleman, Mr. Barlee, and myself at dif- 

ferent times in the Hebrides. The species nearest to it 

is A. sulcata, from which it differs in its more oblique 

outline and compressed form, finer and more constantly 

numerous ribs, and its peculiar epidermis, which is

320 cyprinidjE. 

coarsely fibrous. The margin is usually, but not always 

notched ; and as this is the only particular in which the 

CYassina depressa of Brown appears to differ from 

Forbes' s species, they are probably the same. The 

name given by Brown is much prior to the other. I 

believe that in its young state it is the A. crebrilirata of 

Searles Wood from the Red Crag. 

A. borealis, Chemnitz, which rejoices in the various 

synonyms of corrugata, arctica, lactea, semisulcata 

(Leach), islandica, cyprinoides, veneriformis, 

and com- 

pressa (Macgillivray), besides several other designations 

added by palaeontologists, is also a native of bigh- 

northern latitudes, but not of our own seas. Imperfect 

specimens have been dredged in the Hebrides, Moray 

Firth, and on both sides of Shetland. It is a common 

newer pliocene fossil, and found in every glacial deposit. 

The most southern known limit of its habitation is Kiel 

Bay in the Baltic. The shape of this shell is angular 

and nearly flat ; the surface is smooth, or faintly striated 

in the line of growth, except towards the beaks, where 

there are several fine concentric ribs ; 

and the epidermis 

is coarsely fibrous as in A. crebricostata or depressa. 

It attains a larger size than that shell. The occur- 

rence t)f the last two species in our seas, in a semifossil 

state, may be accounted for in the same way 

Pecten Islandicus, page 58. 

as that of 

A. eastanea of Say, a North-American shell, has been 

called British without any sufficient reason. It is the 

Venus sulcata of Montagu, as well as of Maton and 

Rackett. Mr. J. Sowerby gave a specimen as " English" 

to the former; and Mr. Swainson informed the latter 

that he received one from the Duchess of Portland, also 

as "English," and moreover that the shell had since 

been found in the north of Scotland, where it was known

CIRCE. 321 

by the trivial name of the " brown circular-furrowed 

northern Cockle." Fleming justly remarked that this 

descriptive epithet f seems somewhat different from the 

usual provincial appellations." Lamarck has given an- 

other equally extraordinary habitat for this species, viz. 

" Cotes de France, a Cherbourg." 

Genus IV. CIRCE *, Schumacher. PL VI. f. 4. 

Body suborbicular, compressed : mantle rather thick ; edges 

denticulated : tubes very short ; the larger or incurrent one 

bag-shaped, and the other sessile and scarcely 

the shell ; orifices fringed ; foot proportionally large. 

visible outside 

Shell rounded or triangular, compressed, concentrically 

but slightly furrowed : epidermis thin : beaks prominent, not 

much recurved : lunule distinct, lanceolate : corselet narrow : 

ligament partly external and partly 

concealed within the corse- 

let : teeth, in each valve three diverging cardinals, the outer 

one on the posterior side in the left valve cloven lengthwise, 

so as to resemble two ; laterals, one on the anterior side in the 

right valve, and two on the same side in the left valve : scars 

inconspicuous. 

his ' 

The genus Circe was constituted by Schumacher in 

Essai d'un nouveau svsteme des habitations des 

vers testaceV ; and the diagnosis and further description 

which he gave are so explicit, that I have no doubt 

it w T ould include the British shell described bv Mon- 

tagu as Venus minima, and its variety ( V. triangularis of 

the same author), and placed by subsequent writers in 

the genera Cytherea and Cyprina. The deceased Pro- 

fessor C. B. Adams (whose memory is deservedly che- 

rished by his brother naturalists in the United States 

as an assiduous conchologist) proposed another genus, 

having similar characters, with the name of Gonldia, in 

honour of his equally distinguished fellow-countryman ; 

* A Sea-Nymph and noted sorceress. 

p 5

3.22 CYPRINID.E. 

and the latter name has been adopted by Messrs. H. 

and A. Adams, 

in their ' 

Genera of Recent Shells/ under 

the impression that it is different from Schumacher's 

genus. It resembles Venus in many respects; but in 

that genus the tubes are long, and the pallial scar on 

the posterior side of the shell exhibits therefore a deep 

fold or sinus. The typical species quoted by Schu- 

macher is the Venus script a of Linne. It is somewhat 

remarkable that our British shell [Circe minima) , which 

Ulysses 

' 

of Salis Marschlins mentions in his Travels ' 

being found on the Neapolitan coast, was called by him 

V. script a. The name Circe has been used by Mertens 

for a genus of Acalephse ; but the gap is so wide between 

the Ccelenterata and the Mollusca, 

that there is little or 

no risk of confusion in consequence of the same name 

being applied to forms of animal life so diametrically 

opposite, although it is unquestionably better in pro- 

posing new genera to avoid »the possibility of such a 

mistake. 

The habits of Circe are generally cleaner than those 

of Astarte, the present genus apparently preferring nul- 

lipore and shelly sand to a muddy ground. 

Circe mi'nima*, Montagu. 

Venus minima, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 121, t. 3. f. 3. C. minima, F.&H. i. 

p. 446, pi. xxvi. f. 4, 5, 6, 8, and (animal) pi. M. f. 3. 

Body greyish-white, gelatinous: mantle slightly speckled 

with brown : 

tubes of unequal size ; marginal cirri numerous, 

short and cylindrical, covered with specks of a brown-red or 

purplish colour : foot white, extensile, and pointed. 

Shell nearly circular or obtusely triangular, usually depressed 

except towards the beaks, rather solid, opaque, and 

glossy : 

sculpture, numerous flat, broad, laminar concentric 

* Smallest. 

as

circe. 323 

ridges, of a somewhat irregular width, the interstices or 

furrows being very narrow and slightly impressed ; the surface 

is also covered with minute and irregular intermediate stria? : 

colour from milk-white to rich purple, through all the shades 

of jêllow, brown, and red, often variegated or relieved by 

diagonal streaks or rays of some one of those tints, and inter- 

a common 

spersed with spots, or lineated in a zigzag pattern ; 

arrangement of these varied hues consists of two streaks of a 

darker or lighter reddish-brown radiating from the beaks at 

an acute angle, one towards each side, and resembling an inverted 

V the ; colouring is so diversified, that it is almost im- 

possible to describe it : epidermis semitransparent, 

of varnish : margins 

like a coat 

semicircular in front and at both sides, 

for at least half of the circumference, straight on the upper 

part of the anterior side below the beaks, and sloping either 

abruptly or with a gentle curve on the dorsal side to the posterior 

angle: beaks regularly but not much recurved : lunule 

not deep, denned by an impressed line : corselet : slight ligament 

short, horncolour half of ; it is visible outside, and the 

base rests on a groove excavated within the dorsal : margin 

hinge-line rounded : hinge-plate thick, and somewhat flexuous : 

teeth, as in the description of the genus ; the two cardinals in 

the right valve on the anterior side are shorter and thicker 

than the other on the posterior side, which is laminar and 

in the left valve the middle 

nearly parallel to the dorsal line ; 

cardinal is the shortest and thickest, that on the anterior side 

is much smaller than the rest, and the tooth on the posterior 

side (which is double) corresponds with the laminar tooth in 

the right valve ; laterals short and strong, the inside tooth in 

the left valve being considerably smaller than the other: 

inside polished and slightly nacreous, sometimes tinged with 

neshcolour ; margin bevelled and smooth, but occasionally in 

the left valve it is indistinctly crenulated: scars not very 

distinct. L. 0*55. B. 0*6. 

Var. triangularis. 

Shell acutely triangular, in consequence 

of the beaks being more prominent and the sides more truncate. 

Venus triangularis, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 577, tab. 17. f. 3. 

Habitat : 

All our coasts, on a sandy or nullipore 

bottom, in 5-85 fathoms. The variety lias been found 

by Montagu and myself 

in Falmouth Harbour. This 

species occurs in the Red and Coralline Crag. Sars

324 VENERID.E. 

has dredged it in Manger fiord on the coast of Finmark ; 

but it appears on the whole to be a southern form, 

ranging from Vigo along the Lusitanian shores eastward 

to the Mediterranean and iEgean, and westward 

to Madeira and the Canaries, at depths between 4 and 

95 fathoms. 

It bears the following names, besides those given by 

Montagu : 

Venus pumila, Lamarck, V. Cyrilli, Scacchi, 

Cytherea apicalis, Philippi, Cytherea minuta, Brown, 

and probably Venus [Cytherea) occitanica, Recluz. 

*** Mantle open in front, and forming at the posterior side 

two more or less elongated tubes. 

Family XIII. VENE'RIDÊ, Leach. 

Body nearly orbicular, oval, oblong, or globose : tubes produced, 

cylindrical : 

gills unequal : foot tongue-shaped and 

large, adapted for burrowing in gravel, sand, 

or mud. 

Shell equivalve, triangular, rhomboidal, or globular ; variously 

sculptured, or almost smooth: beaks incurved, and 

turned towards the anterior side : ligament external, placed on 

the larger side of the shell : hinge strong, 

furnished with three 

or four cardinal teeth in each valve (one genus having two only 

in the left valve), some of which are cloven or double, and an 

obscure and ridge-like lateral tooth on the posterior side : 

pailial scar deeply 

sinuous : muscular scars oval and distinct. 

The deep sinuation of the pailial scar will always 

serve to distinguish the Veneridce from any of the im- 

mediately preceding 

families. It denotes also a cor- 

responding difference in the structure of the animal, the 

siphonai tubes being extensile and issuing from a sheath 

or fold of the mantle in this family, instead of sessile 

or short as in the other families. The form of the 

shell in the typical genus Venus is similar to those of 

Cyprina and Circe : but the lateral teeth are less distinct,

VEXERID^. 325 

and it even requires some degree of conchological faith 

to believe in their existence. The present family abounds 

in species mostly frequenting southern latitudes. Nearly 

all of them live in soft ground, buried a couple of 

inches in gravel, sand, or mud, or among nullipores. 

A variety of Tapes pullastra, however, inhabits the de- 

serted holes of Pholades and Saxicavce, 

as well as the 

crevices of submarine rocks, wisely accommodating itself 

to the circumstances in which it happens to be placed. 

Their bathymetrical range is very extensive, one kind 

{Venus gallina) inhabiting the shore and the greatest 

depth ever reached by the dredge. From the investi- 

gations of Dr. Carpenter into the microscopical texture 

of their shells, we learn that they are porcellanous and 

hard, containing scarcely any animal matter. Some 

kinds are supposed to occur in secondary formations ; 

but owing to the main feature by which they are known 

from other bivalves of the same shape being internal, 

and therefore difficult to ascertain in petrifactions, their 

geological history is necessarily 

involved in some ob- 

scuritv. Their own svstematic relations and divisions 

into genera are also unsatisfactory. With the exception 

of Lucinopsis, it is difficult to define any of these 

genera by precise characters. Deshayes appears to 

be right in rejecting the claims of Cytherea, and Clark 

has given equally valid reasons for contesting the separation 

of Artemis from Venus. I am not convinced 

that Tapes has a better right to be considered distinct, 

unless restricted to two out of the four British species 

which have been assigned to that genus; but I will 

retain it provisionally, in deference to other conch olo- 

gi'sts. The number of genera into which it has been 

proposed during the past century to distribute the spe- 

cies of Venus alone, is almost incredible.

326 VENER1DJE. 

Genus I. VENUS *, Linne. PI. VI. f. 5. 

Body suborbicular or oval : mantle having its edges fringed 

or cirrous : tubes more or less united. 

Shell triangular, solid, fluted or ribbed concentrically, 

sometimes cancellated, or else nearly smooth: lunule heart- 

shaped or lanceolate : teeth, three or four strong and divergent 

cardinals, besides the typical lateral in each valve. 

The name of this genus conjures up an idea of beauty, 

which is fully realized by contemplating the graceful 

form of the shells comprised in it. Whatever the case 

may be with regard to Diatoms and other low types of 

vegetable life, there is no angularity in the outline of 

animal organisms. Everyone of these objects is "teres 

atque rotundus," and offers a striking contrast to the 

stiff and often inelegant works of man. I do not share 

Herrick's avowal, 

" I must confess mine eye a,nd heart 

Dote less on Nature than on art." 

To enhance the charm of a rounded contour in the 

shells of Mollusca, each part is repeated in the Bra- 

chiopoda and Conchifera by valves resembling the cover 

of a clasped book, in many of the Pteropoda and most 

of the Gasteropoda by a succession of similarly shaped 

whorls arranged spirally on a common axis, and in the 

Cephalopoda by a series of cells or imbricated plates. 

The same principle of repetition is followed in the 

of each mollusk : it has a 

organization of the body 

double mantle, two wing-like expansions, one or two 

pairs of tentacles, 

or a circle of feet armed with rows of 

suckers. An harmonious symmetry pervades the whole. 

Although I do not think there are sufficient grounds, 

as regards the British Mollusca, for any dismember- 

* The Goddess of Love.

venus. 327 

ment of the genus beyond the separation of Tapes and 

Lucinopsis, I will indicate the divisions in the same way 

as I have grouped other genera. Those belonging to 

the genus Dosinia of Scopoli (Arthemis of Poli), Cytherea 

of Lamarck, and Timoclea of Leach are the 

most remarkable; but the gradation from one to the 

other, as well as from each to the typical form, 

slight to warrant such a multiplication 

is too 

of names for 

a few objects which, it must be confessed, are closely 

related. In the species first alluded to, the siphon al 

tubes are united for their entire length, which is not 

the case in most other species. But nearly the same 

diversity 

has been observed between individuals of the 

same species (V. gaUina), and it exists also between 

Tapes pullastra and T. decussatus, which clearly are 

congeneric. The shell of V. exoleta (the type of Dosinia 

or Artemis) differs little in shape from that of Circe or 

of some varieties of V. fasciata. The type of Cytherea 

(V. Chione) has an extra tooth and a nearly smooth 

surface ; but in all other particulars it is a true Venus ; 

and I agree with Mr. Clark that we have something 

more to do than to " ring the changes on trivial points." 

Callista was the name given by Poli to the animal of 

Venus, Tapes, 

and Mactra. 

A. Mantle-tubes united throughout. Shell nearly orbicular, 

concentrically imbricated; inside margin plain. 

1. Venus exole'ta*, Linne. 

V. exoleta, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1134. Artemis exoleta, F. & H. i. p. 428. 

pi. xxiii. f. 3, 4. 

Body suborbicular, pale yellowish-white : mantle having its 

edges fringed with close-set white cilia, which are most distinct 

* Worn awav.

328 veneridjE. 

anteriorly, but as they approach the posterior 

end become less 

pronounced and are resolved into dentations : tubes short, 

scarcely protruding beyond the shell, united, of much the 

same size, rufous around the orifices ; the upper orifice is 

almost plain or has a few scalloped points ; the lower orifice 

has eight short dull-rufous cirri : 

gills pale brown : 

palps 

short and triangular, strongly striated transversely within, 

and less so on the outward surface : 

foot very large, occupying 

nearly the ventral range, and always presenting itself as axe- 

the heel is rather slender and bluntly pointed, but the 

shaped ; 

rest of the foot can sufficiently protract itself to represent a 

thick, short, strong, broad linguiform organ ; its pure white 

colour is relieved by beautiful vertical lines of brilliant snow- 

white. (Clark.) 

Shell almost circular, compressed, solid, opaque, rather 

numerous flattened concentric laminae which 

glossy : sculpture, 

are imbricated or fold backwards, and become closer and irregular 

at the sides ; the surface is also covered with still more 

numerous microscopical longitudinal 

striae which exhibit the 

inner texture of the shell : colour yellowish-white, usually 

variegated with rays or zigzag streaks of reddish-brown, 

purplish-red, or pink of various shades, which are occasionally 

broken and sometimes present the appearance of white rays 

on a dark ground : epidermis thin, yellowish, only observable 

in young specimens, as it is rubbed off in the adult by the 

continual friction of sand : margins rounded on all sides except 

below the beak, where the lunule is excavated ; 

the j)osterior 

side has a blunt angle in the middle, and the anterior side 

appears high-shouldered and also forms an obtuse angle where 

the lunule ends : beaks separated, considerably and somewhat 

obliquely recurved : lunule heart-shaped, defined by a 

deeply impressed line, coarsely striated in an oblique direction, 

usually of a purplish hue ; lips prominent or : pouting corselet 

narrow, but deep: ligament rather long, horncolour, sunk 

within the corselet : hinge-line rounded or obtusely angled : 

hinge-plate thick, broad, and flexuous : teeth, in the right Yalve 

four cardinals, that on the anterior side being small and tubercular, 

and the other three laminar and divergent (the middle 

one cloven or double) ; in the left valve are three divergent 

laminar cardinals, the posterior one being double; lateral 

tooth in each valve long, and more like part of the hinge-plate : 

inside polished and slightly freckled, sometimes stained with 

purple on the posterior side ; margin bevelled : pattial scar

venus. 329 

remarkably deep : muscular scars oval and distinctly marked. 

L. 2 (nearly). B. 2. 

Habitat : 

Sandy 

bays, and occasionally in deeper 

water, from one extremity to the other of the British 

seas. Bright- coloured specimens are common in the 

" 

Coral-sand 

" 

dredged in Bantry Bay for manure. 

Grainger has noticed it as occurring in the postglacial 

bed at Belfast, and Smith in the Clyde beds ; it is also 

a Coralline Crag fossil. Its most northern limit appears 

to be Finmark, and the most southern Sicily, although 

it is possible that Adanson described and figured it 

from the Isle of Goree, under the name of " Le Co- 

tan." M fAndrew obtained specimens at low-water 

in Vigo Bay and at Gibraltar; and Scandinavian au- 

thors give depths varying from 3 to 50 fathoms. Phi- 

lippi records it as found in the South- Italian tertiary 

strata. 

This species was discovered by Lister at Guernsey, 

which locality (as well as Norway) Linne quotes in the 

' 

Systema Naturee.' Clark says " the animal is shy and 

apathetic ; 

the locomotion consists in screwing the shell 

on its axis, and turning it from one side to the other." 

M'Andrew has seen it sold in Vigo market for eating. 

The shell is now and then distorted. I have specimens 

obliquely twisted in the direction of the anterior side, 

so as to be rather longer than broad, and another which 

is inequivalve. 

In one specimen, which had been in the 

earlier stages of growth tinted with pink rays, the sub- 

sequent layers are of a uniform yellowish-white, owing 

probably to a defect of the special colouring-gland. The 

cross or longitudinal striae are easily effaced, and seldom 

perceptible even in living shells. The largest specimens 

are found in Shetland. 

It is the Pectunculus capillaceus of Da Costa, V. lenti-

330 VENERIUM. 

formis of J. Sowerby, and (according to Morch) the Cytherea 

albida of Bolten. 

2. V. lincta*, Pulteney. 

V. lincta, Pult. in Hutch. Dors. p. 34. Artemis lincta, F. & H. i. p. 431. 

pi. xxviii. f. 5, 6. 

Body suborbicular, greyish-white : mantle having its edges 

thickened and closely fringed with short tentacular cirri : tubes 

pale yellow, capable of an extraordinary degree of extension, 

viz. to nearly three times the length of the shell ; they are 

united except at the openings, where they are speckled with 

flake-white and faintly streaked lengthwise with brown ; 

orifices (as in V. ovata) encircled by a ring of purplish-brown 

and fringed with cirri : 

foot large, broad, and wedge-shaped. 

Shell roundish, with a triangular outline, convex, solid, 

opaque, of a silky lustre : sculpture, very numerous, and flattened 

but fine, concentric laminae, imbricated as in V. eocoleta, 

and becoming coarser and more erect at the sides ; the surface 

is also covered with the microscopical lines observable in that 

species : colour milk-white, tinged with pale yellow or light 

brown towards the beaks, which are often of a pink hue : epidermis 

very slight, yellowish-white, disappearing in the adult : 

margins representing 

in front and at the sides an arc of three- 

fifths of a circle ; that of the anterior side on the upper part 

is somewhat excavated by the lunule and bluntly angulated ; 

the posterior margin is less rounded, and impressed by an in- 

distinct fold or flexure, which extends from the beak along 

that side ; the dorsal margin is long and slopes obliquely, or 

is more or less curved to the point of the posterior angle : 

beaks rather prominent and obliquely recurved : lunule as in 

V. exoleta, but colourless : corselet rather broad and shallow : 

sunk within the corselet : 

ligament long, horncolour, deeply 

hinge-line rounded or obtusely angled : hinge-plate thick, 

broad, and flexuous: teeth the same as those of V. exoleta, 

valve the smallest tooth on the an- 

except that in the right 

terior side is more laminar and oblique, and the left valve has 

two similar teeth in the same position to receive the opposite 

one : inside dull chalky-white, all but the scars, which are 

polished and prismatic ; margin thickened and bevelled : scars 

i large &* and well defined. L. 1-3. B. 1*3. 

* Licked with the tongue, or polished.

VENUS. 331 

Var. compta. Shell smaller, more elongated, with coarser 

ribs and stronger teeth. Artemis compta, Lov.Moll. Scand.p.39. 

Habitat : 

Sand, sometimes mixed with mud, on every 

part of the British coasts, from low-water mark to 

90 fathoms, occasionally associated with the last species. 

Var. compta. Single valves only, from Skye (Barlee) ; 

Shetland (J. G. J.). V. lincta is fossil in all our upper 

tertiaries, from the so-called "alluvial" stratum in Belfast 

Harbour and the boulder-clav of Wick to the Red. and 

Coralline Crag, as well as in the redeposited Crag-bed 

of Aberdeenshire. Iceland is its most northern known 

boundary, and the iEgean 

and both sides of the Medi- 

terranean the most southern. Philippi noticed its occur- 

rence in the South- Italian tertiaries. 

Lister, in his ' Historia Conchyliorum/ 

well distin- 

guished this species from V. exoleta, as "rostro production, 

capillaceis fasciis donatus." It is smaller, more 

convex and glossy, the laminar ribs are much more 

numerous, the posterior side is somewhat flexuous, 

it is 

destitute of the coloured markings peculiar to the other 

species, and the umbones are more prominent. The 

small anterior teeth have more the appearance of short 

laterals, and may be analogous to those of Circe. My 

largest specimen does not much exceed an inch and a 

half in length. Monstrosities sometimes occur : a specimen 

now before me is nearly globular, with consequently 

a much more abbreviated lunule ; and Mr. Norman pos- 

sesses one which is remarkably inequivalve. 

The description of V. lupinus in the tenth edition of the 

' 

Sy sterna Naturae' (although not of the variety "maculis 

griseis ") may possibly have been intended for V. lincta; 

but no locality is assigned to it. Poli adopted the 

former name for the present species ; Lamarck called it 

Cytherea lunaris ; Turton V. sinuata ; and Risso Arcto'e

332 VEXERIDÊ. 

nitidissima. It is not the V. lupinus of Brocchi, nor 

the V. sinuata of Gnielin, the latter being a reputed in- 

habitant of the Nicobar Isles. Turton strangely figured 

V. eocoleta for his V. sinuata, in the ' 

Dithyra ' 

specimen of the last-named species is certainly 

He evidently confounded the two. 

: his typical 

V. eocoleta. 

B. Mantle -tubes nearly united throughout. Shell triangular, 

slightly impressed with concentric lines ; inside margin 

plain. 

3. V. Chi'one *, Linne. 

V. Chione, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1131. Cytherea Ckione, F. & H. i. p. 396. 

pi. xrvii., and (animal) pi. L. f. 8. 

Body orange-ueshcolour : mantle fringed with a few tenta- 

cular cirri at the upper part of the anterior side, and scalloped 

or furbelowed in other parts : tubes rather long, united nearly 

to their orifices, each of which is surrounded by a circle of 

cirri ; the tubes are of a deep orangecolour with fleshy stripes, 

and the tips of the cirri are black : foot very large, thick, and 

of a dark pinkish-neshcolour. (Poli.) 

Shell triangularly oval, convex but not tumid, very solid 

and : 

opaque, highly polished sculpture, numerous and irregular 

but slight concentric lines or striae, besides about a dozen 

marks of growth : colour reddish-brown, with often a pink 

tinge, beautifully variegated by rays of a deeper hue and of 

different widths, which diverge from the beak in the direction 

of the anterior side, and extend to the outer margins ; these 

rays are interrupted in the young and become zigzag or exhibit 

lines of intensely coloured spots (bordering the marks of 

periodical growth) of various tints from fawncolour to bright 

orange or sea-green ; a younger state has three longitudinal 

broad white rays, one in the middle, and the others on either 

a coat of var- 

side of the beaks : epidermis thick, resembling 

nish, covered with close-set longitudinal striae, which are 

with the concentric lines of 

arranged in series corresponding 

the shell ; its surface is wrinkled very minutely, like that of 

morocco -leather : margins rounded on the anterior side, whence 

they slope obliquely to the front, which is also rounded ; poste- 

* A mythological name in Ovid.

venus, 333 

rior side elongated, and somewhat wedge-shaped 

but likewise 

rounded ; no decided angularity is shown in any part of the 

contour : beaks nearly contiguous, recurved ; the umbonal part 

of the shell is rather protuberant : hinule lance-shaped, defined 

by a distinct furrow, of a deeper colour in immature 

with shelv- 

specimens ; lips slightly prominent : corselet deep, 

ing sides : ligament rather long, thick and strong, homcolour, 

projecting beyond the corselet: hinge-line rounded: hingeplate 

thick, broad, and flexuous : teeth, in the right valve three 

cardinals, that on the anterior side being blunt, and placed 

obliquely, or nearly at a right angle to the other two, which 

diverge, like an inverted V; in the left valve are three cardinals, 

of which the posterior is long, laminar, and nearly parallel 

with the hinge-line, and the other two are short, close together, 

and triangular this valve has also on the anterior side a 

; 

pair of small teeth placed nearly at a right angle to the middle 

pair, and, with the side tooth in the right valve, probably re- 

the posterior lateral in each 

presenting anterior lateral teeth ; 

valve is long and : ridge-like inside chalky-white, except the 

scars, which are glossy, large and conspicuous, the pallial scar 

thickened. L. 2-75. B.3. 

exhibiting a prismatic lustre ; margin 

Habitat : 

Southern and western coasts of England, 

of from 12 to 25 fathoms. It is 

in sand, at depths 

common on the Cornish trawling-grounds. 

Mr. Lyons 

told me that he had found it at Milford Haven; Mr. 

M fAndrew has taken it in Carnarvon Bay; and Mr. 

Walpole obtained a single valve by dredging off Dalkey 

in Dublin Bay. It has not been noticed on any part of 

our northern coasts ; and although Sir Cuthbert Sharp 

included it in a list of shells from the neighbourhood of 

Hartlepool, published in his history of that place, Mr. 

Alder has given satisfactory reasons for believing that 

it was mistaken for Cyprina Islandica. It is not rare 

in the Coralline Crag. Not one of the Scandinavian 

naturalists has mentioned it; but its range south of 

Great Britain extends from La Manche (De Gerville) 

to the Lusitanian coast (M'Andrew) and every part of 

the Mediterranean, and also to the iEgean (Forbes) and

334 VENERIDiE. 

the Azores (Drouet). Brocchi and Philippi have de- 

scribed it as fossil from the middle and newer tertiaries 

of Italy. It is 

essentially a southern species. 

All we know of the animal is derived from Poli, who 

called it Callista coccinea and devoted three and a half 

folio pages to its description and anatomy. It must be a 

gorgeous spectacle. He gives various recipes for cook- 

ing it, showing that his gastronomic was as strong as 

his conchological taste. The shell attains greater dimen- 

sions than those which I have given, being occasionally 

three inches long and three and a half inches broad, or 

even more. 

In the tenth edition of the c 

appears 

Systema 

Naturae Linne 

to have confounded V. Chione with an allied 

species from tropical seas, the habitat given by him 

being "in O. Asiatico ; forte etiam in Europaeo." It 

is the Pectunculus glaber of Da Costa, who quotes Dr. 

Leigh (the 

author of the ' 

History of Lancashire ') as 

his authority for stating that it was got on the coasts of 

Cheshire ; Agassiz called it Cytherea Icevis, and Leach 

Chione coccinea. The young was described by Lamarck 

under the name of Cytherea nitidula ; but his fossil of 

the same name from Grignon is a different species. 

C. Mantle- tubes partly disunited and diverging. Shell triangular, 

ornamented with concentric laminar ribs, and 

sometimes cancellated by longitudinal striae ; 

inside margin 

notched, except at the posterior side. 

4. V. fascia'ta *, Da Costa. 

Pectunculus fasciatus, Da Costa, Brit. Conch, p. 188, tab. xiii, f. 3. J', 

fasciata, F. & H. i. p. 415. pi. xxiii. f. 3, pi. xxvi. f. 7, and (animal) pi. L. 

f. 7. 

Body suborbicular, compressed, rather thick : mantle muscular 

at the edges, which are fringed with line white filaments 

* Banded.

venus. 335 

and bordered by a reddish line : tubes short, only separate at 

their extremities, sulphur-yellow with pale-red flaky markings 

towards the orifices, covered with minute sand-like red points ; 

with white 

orifices margined with a fine red hue and fringed 

cirri, of which the incurrent (or branchial) tube has about 

20, and the other 15 ; the excurrent (or anal) tube is the 

smaller, slightly curves upwards, 

flexible hyaline valve : 

and is furnished with a 

gills nearly oval, pale brown, the upper 

being much the smaller and strongly striated on both surfaces 

: palps small, pointed, and triangular, externally smooth, 

but striated across the inner surface : foot thick, moderately 

strong, lanceolate, and pure white ; when 

at rest it is axe- 

shaped, and appears amalgamated with the rest of the body. 

Shell triangularly rounded, with a somewhat oblique out- 

line, more or less compressed, very solid and opaque, slightly 

but not : decidedly glossy sculpture, concentric laminar ridges, 

which are numerous, sharp, close-set, and alternately large 

and small in the earlier stages of growth, but afterwards 

become fewer, broader, and equal ; the whole surface is crossed 

by minute, extremely crowded and fine hair-like longitudinal 

striae, as in V. exoleta and V. lincta : colour extraordinarily 

diversified, red, pink, yellow, or brown, of every shade, varie- 

gated by rays, streaks, blotches, or zigzag markings disposed in 

the most lovely fashion, sometimes white: epidermis very slight, 

on each 

only apparent at the edges : margins obtusely angled 

side, semicircular in front, with a curved dorsal slope and an 

excavation belowthe beaks for the lunule : beaks small, consider- 

ably recurved and diverging, as in the above-named species : 

lunule lanceolate, reddish-brown, defined by a slight but dis- 

tinct groove, finely and closely striated lengthwise 

and somewhat prominent: corselet long and deep, excavated 

; lips sharp 

like a furrow with shelving sides : ligament narrow, golden- 

yellow or horncolour, for the most part 

concealed within the 

as in all the 

corselet : hinge-line obtusely angular : hinge-plate 

preceding species : teeth, in the right valve three divergent 

cardinals, the posterior of which is much slighter and longer 

than the "rest, double or grooved lengthwise, and parallel 

with the hinge-line ; the left valve has also three similar cardinals, 

with the addition of a 

tooth just inside the ligament 

slighter but longer laminar 

al groove on the dorsal slope : 

laterals indistinct or merged in the hinge-plate 

hue in the middle, with a deep tinge of purple towards the 

beaks, and often having a white callosity below the cardinal 

: inside of a dull

336 VENERIDyE. 

teeth ; margin very finely toothed or crenuiated in every part 

sea?- broad and 

except on the dorsal or ligamental side : pdllial 

sinus : muscular scars 

polished, with a narrow and not deep 

distinct, semioval and polished, marked by a few symmetrical 

lines, which denote the successive shiftings of the muscles. 

L. 0-8. B. 0-9. 

Yar. 1. radiata. Shell beautifully marked with many reddish-brown 

rays, which sometimes are alternately large and 

small, or double. 

Tar. 2. raricostata. Shell smaller and having proportionally 

fewer ribs. 

Habitat : 

In every part of the British seas, among 

nullipores and in gravelly and sandy ground, from the 

shore to the deepest water. The first variety occurs at 

Exmouth and Falmouth, in Bantrv Bav, off Arran Isle 

(co. Galway), and in Shetland. The other variety is 

from the west of Scotland. This common but pretty 

species is a member of our newer tertiaries, having been 

recorded by Smith from a postglacial deposit at Ayr, 

and bv Searles Wood from the Mammalian and Red 

Crag. Havosund, near the North Cape, appears to be 

in the highest, and the iEgean in the lowest latitude 

where it has been noticed. It is extensively diffused over 

the intermediate area. M 'Andrew found it living be- 

tween tide-marks at Gibraltar. According 

to Brocchi 

and Philippi, it is a fossil of the Italian tertiaries. 

The animal is inactive, and does not seem to be fond 

of exhibiting itself to curious malacologists. In the 

( Cornish Fauna ' 

by 

Mr. Jonathan Couch it is stated 

that this species, as well as V. gallina, frequently creep 

into crab-pots in search of the bait. I should scarcely 

have imagined that any bivalve possessed such an extra- 

ordinary habit. Some specimens 

are more convex than 

others, and the shell is now and then distorted. The 

crenulations which border the inside margin resemble

VENUS. 33? 

minute attached seed pearls. This shell, which I have 

had figured as a representative of the genus, when u fresh 

from the sea/' but not, like its mythological prototype, 

" conscious of her beauty/' is indeed a lovely thing, 

" Composed with Nature's finest care 

And in her fondest love." 

The elegance of its shape, the imbricated arrangement 

of its sculpture, and the variety and brilliance of its 

painting are unsurpassed in any other British bivalve. 

Like many a wild flower, however, it is too common to 

be thought much of. 

There can be little doubt that this was the V. Paphia 

of Linne, who says of it, in the twelfth edition of the 

' 

Systema Naturae/ " Habitat in O. Lusitanico" ; but 

that name is now applied to a West- Indian shell. The 

misnomer originated with Gmelin ; Pulteney 

tagu in vain protested against 

and Mon- 

it. Brocchi called it V. 

dysera, having mistaken it for a tropical species 

so named 

by Linne. The present species is the V. Brongniarti of 

Payraudeau ; Bisso described it as V. biradiata, and by 

other names ; and apparently the V. Dutninyi, V. Bus- 

schaerdi, and V. Philippic of Bequien are also varieties 

of our shell. 

5. V. Casina"*, Linne. 

V. Carina, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1130 ; F. & H. i. p. 405, pi. xxiv. f. 1, 5, 6. 

Body thick and white (Forbes and Hanley). 

Shell shaped like V. fasciata, but not so triangular ; it is 

broader in front, nearly equally solid, and glossy : sculpture, 

concentric imbricated ribs, which in some specimens are broad 

and flattened, and in others sharp and foliaceous—now and 

then slightly fimbriated, with very fine impressed parallel lines 

in the interstices of the ribs— in other respects resembling 

that of the last-mentioned species ; the whole surface is also 

* A kind of Nymph : 

or possibly as a fossil from Monte Casino. 

Q

338 VENERIDvE. 

crossed by similar but stronger longitudinal striae, giving a 

partially cancellated appearance to young shells, especially 

on the posterior side : colour yellowish-white, occasionally 

adorned by three or more rays of reddish-brown, which are 

frequently broken or form irregular lines of spots or zigzag 

markings : epidermis fibrous, brown, thick at the edges but 

elsewhere rubbed off or not : present margins rounded on 

the anterior side, with a slight shoulder or sharp angular 

turn behind, and sloping obliquely to the front, which is 

curved but does not represent so great an arc as in V.fasciata, 

decidedly truncate on the posterior side, and obtusely rounded 

on the dorsal slope, with a slight indentation below the beaks 

for the lunule ; the posterior margin is indistinctly biangulated 

: heals recurved, but not so separate, nor the umbones 

so prominent as in the last species : lunule the same, 

as well as 

the corselet, but the latter is wide and generally not so deep : 

ligament of a similar colour, but more exposed: hinge-line and 

characters : teeth 

hinge-plate also presenting approximative 

undistinguishable, except in the greater size, from those of V. 

fasciata : inside chalky- white within the line of the pallial scar, 

and porcellanous near the margin, which is finely notched in 

front and on the anterior side (in young specimens also up to 

the beaks on that side) but smooth on the posterior side: 

pallial scar broad, with a narrow and not deep sinus : muscular 

scars large and distinct. L. 1*6. B. 1*75. 

Habitat : Local, but widely distributed north, east, 

south, and west, from 5 to 90 fathoms, on a sandy 

bottom. Capt. Beechey dredged it in 145 fathoms off 

the Mull of Galloway. It occurs in all our upper ter- 

tiaries from the Clyde beds to the Coralline Crag, and 

Philippi has included it among the fossils of the Sicilian 

strata. North of Great Britain it has been found on 

many parts of the Norwegian coast in 15-40 fathoms, 

and southwards on the coasts of France, Spain, Portu- 

gal, Italy, and Algeria, 

Canary Isles. 

Scarcely anything 

as well as of Madeira and the 

is known of the animal. The shell 

is remarkably pretty, but usually almost devoid of colour : 

specimens from Bantry Bay 

have the most vivid tints.

venus. 339 

They differ considerably in the comparative convexity, 

and in the ribs being more or less laminar or nnmerons. 

I do not regard the V. reflewa of Montagu as a dis- 

tinct variety ; 

for every possible gradation may be seen, 

connecting it with the typical form. The dorsal margin 

in this species and V. fasciata not unfrequently assumes 

a serrated appearance, arising from the extremities of the 

ribs projecting on that side. V. Casina may be known 

from the last-mentioned species by being much larger 

and broader, the ribs more laminar, delicate, and flounce- 

like, the longitudinal stria? proportionally stronger, the 

umbones usually not so prominent, and the colour more 

sober and less diversified. 

The present species is the Pectunculus membranaceus 

of Da Costa, V. erycina of Pennant (but not of Linne), 

and V. lactea of Donovan ; in its younger state it appears 

to be the V. cancellata of Donovan, V. discina of Lamarck, 

V. Rustericii of Payraudeau, and V. casinula of 

Deshayes. 

6. Y. verruco'sa*, Linne. 

V. verrucosa, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1130; F. & H. i. p. 401, pi. 

xxir. f. 3. 

Body very thick, pale yellowish-white : mantle freely open 

from the tubes to the anterior adductor muscles ; 

its edges are 

serrated or fringed, presenting more or less of a furbelowed 

aspect: tubes short, but well separated, and of a yellowish- 

white colour, with tawny specks or dark-grey spots, lines, and 

small blotches ; the orifice of the branchial tube is surrounded 

by a double series of cirri, the largest of which (about twenty 

in number) are simple ; there are only about ten simple and 

shorter filaments around the orifice of the smaller and upper 

tube, which is furnished with a prominent conical valve : 

gills 

nearly circular, free, of a brown colour, coarsely pectinated ; 

the upper pair is, as usual, smaller than the under: palps 

rather small and narrow : foot white, moderately long, tongue- 

shaped and pointed, when at rest axe-shaped ; 

trace of a byssal groove. 

* Warty. 

it exhibits no 

Q2

340 venerid^:. 

Shell nearly globose, with a squarish outline in young and 

half-grown specimens (which are not so convex as the adult) , 

very thick and opaque, of a dull aspect: sculpture, strong, 

laminar, and pretty equally distant concentric ridges, which 

are imbricated or fold backwards, and become more or less 

warty or tubercular, especially towards the front margin and 

these pro- 

sides, besides much smaller intermediate laminae ; 

cesses as well as the furrows are crossed by numerous but 

slight and sunken riblets, which radiate from the beaks, and 

by intersecting the ridges give the shell in its younger state 

a cancellated appearance, and in its full-grown state the warty 

or tubercular appearance above described ; the entire surface 

is also covered with the microscopical striae noticed in other 

species : colour yellowish-brown, with occasionally three or 

lour reddish-brown or purplish rays, which are sometimes 

broken or : zigzag epidermis fibrous, brown, only to be seen 

on the edges of the valves : margins similar to those in the 

last species : beaks small, not prominent, recurved, and slightly 

separated: lunule rather heart-shaped than lanceolate, reddishbrown, 

defined by a distinct groove, closely imbricated lengthwise 

; lips prominent and nexuous : corselet rather wide, finely 

imbricated obliquely by a section of the inner lines of growth : 

ligament narrow, horncolour, exposed : hinge-line obtusely 

angular : hinge-plate thick, broad, and nexuous : teeth, in the 

right valve three divergent cardinals, of which that in the 

middle is the strongest and double, the anterior is pointed, and 

the posterior is slighter and longer than the others, and nearly 

parallel with the hinge -line ; the left valve has also three 

similar cardinals, the anterior being the smallest, the middle 

one very thick and slightly cloven, and the posterior resembles 

the corresponding tooth in the opposite valve, but is stronger ; 

laterals obscure : inside chalky-white, with a purple stain on 

notched in front and on the anterior 

the posterior side ; margin 

side : scars as in the last two species. L. 1*8. B. 2. 

Habitat: Sandy gravel, in 7-20 fathoms, on the 

south and west coasts of England, in the Channel 

Isles, Milford Haven, Fishguard, 

and Pwllheli in North 

Wales ; Oban (J. G. J.) ; Tyree (Bedford). Laskey says 

that a specimen was 

" 

dredged at Dunbar, of an uncommon 

size," and it has been found by Macgillivray 

at Aberdeen, and by others on several parts of the coast

VENUS. 341 

in the north of England ; but in these cases the shells 

may have been introduced among ballast. That mode 

of importing extraneous shells into our sea-ports has 

happily ceased, owing to the great 

care taken of late 

years to prevent the discharge of ballast in or near any 

tidal harbour. More mischief was caused to navigation 

than to conchology by previous neglect of the above 

precaution. V. verrucosa is common in the south and 

west of Ireland. Sussex tertiaries (Godwin-Austen) ; 

Wexford beds (Sir Henry James) ; Coralline Crag (S. 

Wood). It does not appear to inhabit the north of 

Europe. South of Great Britain it has been found every- 

where, from Brittany to the iEgean and the Canaries, in 

2-60 fathoms. Dr. Menke considers a species from 

St. Vincent to be identical with ours. 

The animal is occasionally eaten in some of the 

Channel Isles, and habitually in county Clare. Wein- 

kauff mentions that it is sold in the market at Algiers. 

V. Casina is its nearest British analogue ; but the present 

species may be always recognized by its more 

globose form, its coarse and rugged look, the ridges 

being nodular or warty, and regularly equidistant (instead 

of numerous in the umbonal part and few on the 

main portion of the shell), and by the longitudinal stria 

being much stronger and more like fine ribs. 

Linne compared the shell with his V. Paphia, of which 

he unaccountably supposed this might be a smooth 

variety. In the ' 

Gazophylacion ' 

the " 5 

Cornwalle hearte-cockle with rugged girdles/ 

of Petiver it is called 

is the " Clonisse " of D' Avila, and Pectunculus sirigatus 

and in its younger state it is 

probably the 

of Da Costa ; 

V. subcordata of Montagu, 

It 

V. cancellata of Turton's 

1 

Conchological Dictionary/ and V. Lemanii of Payraudeau.

342 venerid^:. 

D. Mantle-tubes disunited only at their openings. Shell oval, 

ornamented with longitudinal ribs and cross striae, giving 

partly a tubercular and partly an imbricated appearance ; 

inside margin notched all round. 

7. V. ova'ta*, Pennant. 

V. ovata, Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. p. 97, pi. 56. f. 56; F. & H. i. p. 419, pi. xxiv. 

f. 2, pi. xxvi. f. 1, and (animal) pi. L. f. 6. 

Body suboval, bluish-white interspersed with minute flakes 

mantle with thickened edges, which 

of milk-white or yellow : 

are wavy and fringed by numerous white filaments of different 

lengths : tubes very short, of the same length, yellow, united 

except at the openings, where they diverge 

a little and are 

encircled with a row of reddish-brown spots ; lips of orifices 

slightly reflected, and surrounded by purplish or pale-yellow 

tentacular cirri, each orifice having about 20 of these cirri, 

which are alternately long and short, and each cirrus having 

a coloured spot at its base ; the excurrent tube is furnished 

with the usual anal valve : 

gills suboval, very oblique, pale 

yellow or brown, more striated on the inner than on the outer 

surface : palps short, small, triangular, and striated like the 

gills : foot very long, thick, flexible and extensile, protruded 

with equal facility on the anterior or posterior side. 

Shell triangularly oval, rather solid and opaque, of a dull 

aspect: sculpture, 40-50 fine but rather broad ribs, which 

radiate from the beak and more or less dichotomize or branch 

off in different parts ; these ribs are crossed by about half as 

many more raised and thread-like concentric striae, and, in 

consequence of their intersection, a series of oblong tubercles 

or imbricated scales crests each rib ; the cross striae are often 

wanting on the front angle of the posterior side ; the whole 

surface is also covered with minute and intermediate trans- 

verse striae, which are stronger and more perceptible in the 

furrows : colour yellowish, with occasionally a tinge of pink or 

orange variegated by irregular blotches, broken rays, or vandyke 

markings of red dish -brown: epidermis fibrous and slight : 

margins rounded on the anterior side, with a blunter curve in 

front, wedge-shaped and somewhat produced at the posterior 

end, on which side an obscure angle appears to run from the 

beak, and gently sloping on the dorsal side : beaks small and 

blunt, rather prominent but not much recurved or separated : 

* Egg-shaped.

venus. 343 

lunule lance-shaped, well defined, sculptured like the rest of 

the surface, usually of a darker hue : 

; lips prominent corselet 

wanting : ligament narrow, horncolour, wholly exposed : hingeline 

gently curved : hinge-plate broad and even : teeth, in the 

right valve three divergent cardinals, the middle one being the 

shortest and double, and the others triangular and laminar, 

the anterior is the highest and longest, and the posterior nearly 

parallel with the hinge-line ; in the left valve are also three 

cardinals, the middle one triangular and slightly cloven, the 

anterior the smallest, and the posterior cloven and irregular ; 

laterals indistinct : inside dull chalkv-white, with often a lilac 

stain on the umbonal part or posterior side ; margin finely 

notched on all sides : pallial sear polished and iridescent, an- 

gularly sinuous on the posterior side: muscular scars large, 

roundish-oval. L. 0-55. B. 0*7. 

Var. 1. lutea. Shell plain yellowish or white. 

Var. 2. trigona. Shell triangular and having only about 

twenty ribs. 

Habitat : 

Rather common on a sandy bottom and 

among nnllipores, in the laminarian, coralline, and deepsea 

zones. Dr. Leach says that he found it in Dingle 

under the sand at the 

Bay, Ireland, (i 

very abundantly 

lowest tide " and ; Capt. Beechey has dredged it off the 

Mull of Galloway in 145 fathoms. The first variety is 

from Guernsey, Exmouth, west coast of Scotland, and 

Shetland, in 15-100 fathoms; and the second has been 

taken by me at Guernsey. V. ovata occurs in all our 

upper tertiaries, and the variety trigona in the Coralline 

Crag. It has been observed on every coast between 

Finmark and the Morea, at depths varying from 6 to 135 

fathoms. Subapennine beds (Brocchi) ; South-Italian 

tertiaries (Philippi) ; upper 

miocene strata near Antibes 

(J. G. J.). 

M. Gay finds these shells in the stomachs of Trigla 

gurnardus at Toulon. The colour of some specimens 

from the deepest water within the line of soundings on 

our northern coasts is quite as bright, but not so varie-

344 VENERIB.E. 

gated, as that of southern examples from shallow water. 

Other specimens from each of these localities and habitats 

are either sulphur-yellow or chalky- white. The young 

are squarish, and resemble a Cardium in shape and sculp- 

ture; the fry are round, perfectly smooth, and glossy. 

Sometimes the shell is twisted, and the longitudinal ribs 

are not formed in every part, especially towards the 

front. 

If it were not for the links connecting this with allied 

exotic species, I should have been tempted to separate 

V. ovata generically, and to adopt Leach's reputed 

name Timoclea for it. The very short tubes, oval shell, 

Cockle-like sculpture, and complete striation of the in- 

side margin are not unimportant characters. It is probably 

the V. lusitanica of Gmelin, and certainly the 

Cardium striatum of Walker, V. crenulata of Solander, 

V. radiata of Brocchi (but not of Chemnitz nor of 

G. B. Sowerby), V. pectinula of Lamarck, V. spadicea of 

Renier, and Pasipha'e Pennantia of Leach. 

E. Mantle-tubes for the most part united. Shell triangular, 

ornamented with concentric ribs ; inside margin notched 

on all sides except the posterior one. 

8. V. gallina*, Linne. 

V. gallina, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1130. V. striatula, F. & H. i. p. 408. 

pi. xxiii. f. 4, pi. xxiv. f. 4, and pi. xxvi. f. 9-11. 

Body white : mantle having its edges fringed with short 

line white filaments arranged in tufts, so that it appears to be 

sinuous: tubes rather slender, and when extended they are about 

half the length of the shell (according to Clark ; but Forbes 

and " 

Hanley say, very nearly equalling the breadth of the 

shell") ; they are of the same length and almost united through- 

out, pale sidphur-yellow or bistre, sprinkled with minute redbrown 

points, and in some examples slightly tinged with rose 

* Hen.

at their extremities ; 

VENUS. 345 

both have at their orifices fine red-brown 

cirri, which in the branchial tube are alternately longer and 

shorter : 

gills suboval, pale brown : palps triangular, striated 

more distinctly on the inner than on the outer surface : foot 

pure white, rather thick, slightly bent at the heel. 

Shell triangular, rather convex, solid and opaque, more 

glossy in young than in old : 

examples sculpture, regularly 

imbricated concentric ribs, which vary much in number and 

fineness, the course of imbrication being backward ; they are 

now and then forked or become divided towards the posterior 

end, and are crowded at each side and in front ; the whole 

surface is also covered with extremely numerous and delicate 

longitudinal striae which are only perceptible 

with the aid of 

a strong magnifier : colour pale yellowish-white, usually va- 

riegated bv three reddish-brown longitudinal ravs of dif- 

ferent widths, composed 

of numerous and short broken streaks 

or spots of the same tint, which sometimes cover the whole 

of the shell and give it a beautifully stippled (or now and 

then a vandyked) appearance ; occasionally 

gated, nor are there any coloured markings 

it is not varie- 

on the funda- 

mental hue: epidermis extremely slight, only present on the 

corselet and in young specimens : margins obliquely rounded 

in front, curved upwards on the anterior side, and forming an 

obtuse angle at that extremity in consequence of the excava- 

tion of the lunule, produced and wedge-shaped on the posterior 

side, which is somewhat flexuous and confined by an 

acute angle formed by a junction with a long and nearly 

straight slope on the dorsal side : leaks small, recurved and 

separated ; umbonal area : prominent Ivnule varying in shape 

from cordate to lanceolate, rather deep and defined by a distinct 

groove, longitudinally striated, sometimes tinged with 

reddish-brown ; lips flexuous, much : projecting corselet broad 

and somewhat deep, with shelving sides, obliquely striated : 

: ligament narrow, yellowish-brown, wholly exposed hinge-line 

obtusely angular : 

hinge-plate thick, broad, and flexuous : teeth, 

in the right valve three divergent cardinals, the middle one 

being somewhat conical and by far the thickest, the anterior 

is the smallest but a little higher than the others, and the 

posterior is very long, slight, laminar, and sometimes double ; 

the left valve has also three cardinals nearly corresponding in 

size and position with those in the opposite valve ; laterals 

sometimes distinct, being apparently formed by the extension 

of a ridge, which runs on the dorsal slope outside the posterior 

q 5

346 veneriDjE. 

cardinal tooth: inside dull chalky-white in the middle and 

towards the beaks, with occasionally a slight stain of purple 

inside the lips of the lunule ; margin crenulated on the ven- 

tral and anterior sides, and more minutely on the inside edges 

of the lunule : pallia! scar broad and polished, with a narrow 

and tongue-shaped indentation varying in depth, on the posterior 

side : muscular scars distinct, triangularly oval. L. 1*15. 

B. 1-3. 

Var. 1. laminosa. Shell more compressed, and produced on 

the posterior side ; ribs fewer and regular ; longitudinal striae 

more distinct. V. laminosa, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 38. 

Var. 2. triangularis. Shell smaller, and larger in proportion 

to its breadth. 

Var. 3. gibba. Shell more ventricose or tumid and rather 

glossy ; 

ribs numerous, irregular, and at intervals confluent or 

bifurcating on the posterior side. 

Habitat : Abundant everywhere on sandy ground 

from low-water mark to 85 fathoms. Var. 1. Nearly 

equally common; found in Balta Sound between 3 and 

5 fathoms and off that coast in the deepest water. Var. 2. 

Exmouth (Clark); Tenby and Fishguard (J. G. J.). 

Var. 3. West coast of Scotland, and Shetland. This last 

variety agrees with the Mediterranean form. Grainger 

has noticed the present species in the Belfast deposit, 

and Smith in the Scotch " glacial" beds. Steenstrup 

has taken it in Iceland ; 

it has been recorded by all the 

writers on Scandinavian conchology (under the name of 

V. striatula), at depths varying from 3 to 70 fathoms, 

and by writers on the conchology of other parts of the 

European seas, from Normandy to both shores of the 

Mediterranean and the Black Sea (under the name ot 

V. gallina), at rather less depths. Brocchi and Philippi 

have enumerated it as fossil in the Italian tertiaries. 

This is not the least of the numerous discoveries for 

which we are indebted to Lister. Macgillivray has 

justly remarked that it is a very " instructive " species,

venus. 347 

because of its tendency to vary. Although the general 

shape and colouring are the same, an endless diversity 

occurs. In young and half-grown specimens of the 

variety laminosa the edges 

of the ribs at the sides are 

sharp and prickly, as in V. Casina. In adult examples 

of the variety gibba the crenulations on the inside mar- 

gin are apt 

to become more or less obliterated. I have 

one from Oban which is twisted and inequivalve. 

Availing myself of the candid admission made by the 

authors of the ' 

British Mollusca/ that " it is perhaps a 

matter of controversy whether the Venus galli7ia of Lin- 

naeus is specifically distinct from the one so designated 

by the British writers/'' I have reunited with that spe- 

cies the Pectunculus striatulus of Da Costa. The only 

difference that I can detect between the shells from the 

Mediterranean and our own coasts is, that the former 

have usually (but not invariably) a purplish-brown stain 

inside at the posterior extremity ; this I cannot regard 

as a sufficient mark of distinction. The only other 

points of comparison indicated by Forbes and Hanley 

are common to both forms, as will appear from a critical 

examination of the characters given in my description 

of the species and several varieties. Linne named the 

northern form in his l Fauna Suecica' V.gallina; and 

in the tenth edition of his ' 

although, Systema Naturae/ 

he mentions the Mediterranean only, in the more com- 

plete and universally recognized edition (the twelfth) he 

first cites the ' 

Fauna Suecica ' 

and then says, ' c 

Habitat 

in M.Mediterraneo, Norvegico, Asiatico." His diagnosis 

would include both the northern and southern forms. 

Muller, 

in his e 

Zoologies Danicse Prodromus/ describes 

the Scandinavian shell as V. gallina. I am aware that, 

according to Deshayes, the siphonal tubes in specimens 

which he examined on the Algerine coast are much

348 VENERID-S. 

shorter than they have been stated to be in ours, and 

diverge considerably; but there is a discrepancy between 

the accounts published by Forbes and Hanley on the 

one hand, and by Clark on the other, as to the length 

of the tubes, and a variation with respect to the extent 

of their divergence is shown in the figures of Poli and 

Deshayes. The cirri which fringe the orifices of the 

tubes appear to be as numerous and conspicuous in the 

one form as in the other. Many unnecessary names 

have been bestowed on this common species and its 

variety laminosa. I have noted ten, 

besides those above 

mentioned. The V. pallida of Turton is not even a 

variety : the outer layers have been dissolved by muriatic 

or some other acid; and the types are " doctored" shells, 

such as unscrupulous dealers sell to ignorant collectors. 

All specimens have longitudinal striae. My description 

of the teeth in ordinary examples will explain the seem- 

ing peculiarity in the dentition of Montagu's V. laminosa, 

as noticed by Forbes and Hanley. 

V. dysera of Born and Chemnitz (but not of Linne), 

one of the many t( ben trovato " discoveries of Laskey, 

is West-Indian. It is the V. cingenda of Dillwyn. 

V. granulata of Gmelin, V. Paphia of Linne (according 

to modern authors), and V. circinata of Born (V. Gui- 

neensis, Montagu) may be classed in the same category 

of spurious species. V. subrhomboidea of Montagu is 

apparently the adult of Petricola lithophaga, Retz,— his 

My a decussata (P. Ruperella, Lamarck) being certainly 

the younger state of that shell : this species has not been 

authenticated as British, although 

it is rather common 

in the Mediterranean and the west of France ; 

Mr. J.D. 

Humphreys's collection of Irish shells contains a specimen 

found by him in Cork Harbour, but I have reason 

to suspect that it came from a piece of ballast stone.

TAPES. 349 

Genus II. TAPES * MUhlfeldt. PL VI. f. 6. 

Body oval or oblong : mantle having its edges plain : tubes 

more or less united : foot usually furnished with a byssal 

groove. 

Shell triangular or rhomboidal, rather solid, grooved con- 

centrically but not deeply 

: lunule lanceolate or indistinct : 

teeth, three cardinals, which are erect and slender, and an 

obscure lateral (as in the other genera) in each valve ; inside 

margin plain. 

I must confess that this is an unsatisfactory genus. 

The passage from Venus striatula to T. aureus and 

thence to T. virgineus makes one distrust the character 

derived from shape ; and neither of the two last-men- 

tioned species is known to be byssiferous. The only 

evident marks of distinction that I can find are the 

mode of sculpture and the slender and nearly parallel 

teeth : the general configuration and aspect of the shells 

may also assist us in recognizing the species. It was 

named Pullastra by the late Mr. George Sower by. 

Morch and Chenu have treated Tapes and Pullastra as 

different genera, but without assigning any reason. It 

is comprised in the genus Venerupis of Lamarck. Tair^ 

being masculine, that gender must of course be applied 

to the species. 

1. Tapes au'reus-j-, Gmelin. 

Venus aurea, Linn. Syst. Nat. (ed. G-mel.) p. 3288. T. aurea, P. & H. i. 

p. 392, pi. 

xxv. f. 5. 

Shell triangular, convex, moderately solid and opaque, 

more or less glossy: sculpture, flattened and slightly imbri- 

cated concentric ribs, or bands divided by shallow and oblique 

grooves, which are occasionally forked towards the posterior 

end, besides a few irregular longitudinal lines or scratches, 

* From the ornamentation of the shell resembling that of tapestry, 

f Golden.

350 VENERID^. 

and the same numerous microscopical striae which have been 

already noticed in several species of Venus : colour yellowish- 

white with a golden tint, mostly variegated by several broken 

rays, or marbled with zigzag streaks or blotches of reddish- 

brown or light purple, sometimes of a uniform pale yellow or 

milk-white: epidermis horny, usually retained only on the 

lunule and corselet : margins obliquely rounded in front, and 

more sharply curved on the anterior side, produced or wedgeshaped 

at the posterior end, which is also curved with a gradual 

and rounded slope on the dorsal or ligamental side: beaks 

umbonal area ra- 

small, slightly recurved, and close together ; 

ther : prominent lunule lanceolate, not deep but distinctly excavated 

and denned by a separating line or groove ; it is usually 

stained with purple or of a darker hue than the prevailing 

colour ; the lips do not project : corselet narrow and indistinct, 

sculptured in the same way but not so strongly 

as the rest of 

the shell : ligament rather narrow, yellowish-brown, wholly exposed, 

contained in a groove between the dorsal margin and 

the hinge-line, which is obtusely angular: hinge-plate short, 

thick, and flexuous : teeth, in the right valve three cardinals, 

of which those in the middle and on the anterior side are 

erect, double, and but slightly divergent, and the posterior 

is smaller and triangular ; the left valve has the same number 

of cardinals, but the smallest is on the anterior side, and the 

other two are erect, double, and nearly straight ; laterals on 

the anterior side sunken but distinct: inside rather glossy, 

tinged with orange and often having a purple stain at the 

sinuous on 

hinge : pallial scar broad and iridescent, deeply 

the posterior side : muscular scars triangular, large, and deep. 

L. 1-3. B. 1-5. 

Var. 1. quadrata. Shell compressed, and having a squarish 

outline owing to the dorsal margin being straighter. 

Var. 2. ovata. Shell more compressed and produced at 

each end. 

Habitat : Southern and. south-western coasts of 

England and Ireland, as well as the Channel Isles, in 

sandy gravel, 

at from 3 to 18 fathoms. Cullercoats and 

Whitburn (Alder, fide J. H. F. and Abbes) ; Tenby 

(Lyons) ; Pwllheli (M'Andrew) ; Belfast (Hyndman) ; 

Lough Strangford (Dickie) ; Clyde district (Smith and 

others) ; Jura Isle (Bedford). It occurs in a fossil state

TAPES. 

351 

at Belfast and in the Sussex tertiaries and Mammalian 

Crag. Var. 1. Cork (Humphreys). Var. 2. Bantry Bay 

and Falmouth (J. Gr. J.). Two other varieties were 

found by Dr. Turton in a semifossil state imbedded in 

blue clay at Clontarf near Dublin. One of them he 

described and figured in his 'Conchological Dictionary' 

as Venus cenea, and the other as V. nitens. These last 

are much smaller and thinner than the typical form, 

and may belong to some of Lamarck's species from the 

Mediterranean which have been carved out of T. aureus. 

Clark referred Turton's varieties to T. virgineuSj and he 

questioned 

if that and T. aureus were not the same 

species. Sars has taken the ordinary sort of a large 

size by dredging off the Loffoden Isles ; and Loven, 

Asbjornsen, Danielssen, and Malm have also recorded 

it from the Scandinavian coasts, at depths varying only 

from 5 to 10 fathoms. South of Great Britain it is 

found everywhere as far as the iEgean, where Forbes 

took it in 4-10 fathoms ; Middendorff gives the Black 

Sea as a habitat. It is strange that the animal of a 

species so common as this on many of our shores should 

never have been described or noticed. I hope the 

" 

hiatus valde deflendus" will soon be filled up, with 

others of the same kind. The shell, which is very pretty, 

was figured by Lister as English. In Turton's collection 

is a monstrosity which he mistook for the Venus sinuosa 

of Pennant. It has an oblique fold extending from the 

umbonal area to the front towards the posterior side. 

I possess another distortion which is less flexuous. 

The present species appears to be the Venus Iceta of 

Poli, the animal of which he has described as follows : 

— Body whitish : mantle having its edges waved and 

fringed : tubes of unequal size, rather wide, united for 

three-fourths of their lengths ; orifices cirrous, and en-

352 veneridjE. 

circled with reddish-brown spots, the surface of the tubes 

being frequently marked in the same way. Loven considers 

it the V. literata of the ' 

Fauna Suecica/ but not 

of the ' 

System a Naturae/ Gmelin and Lamarck made 

each three species out of the present. It is the V. ne- 

bulosa of Solander and Pulteney, and Capsa deflorata of 

Leach. 

2. T. virgi'neus *, Linne. 

Venus virginea, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1136 (according to modern authors). 

Tapes virginea, F. & H. i. p. 388, pi. xxv. f. 4, 6. 

Body pale yellowish-white or cream-colour : mantle having 

its edges dentate on the anterior side, sinuous in front, and 

scalloped on the posterior side, with a few short yellow filaments 

at each end: tubes united for three-fourths of their 

length, and separate for the other fourth towards their ex- 

tremities ; 

dish-brown at the bifurcation, and often tipped with purple ; 

their colour is delicate pale lemon, tinged with red- 

they are of the same size ; the incurrent tube has its orifice 

truncate, and fringed with 14 pointed cirri, which are alter- 

nately large and small, the former being marked at then bases 

on each side with a patch of bistre, and the latter being white ; 

the excurrent tube curls upwards as in other species, and, in 

consequence of its outer edges being a little inflected, does not 

this tube has 16 short white cirri at the ori- 

appear truncate ; 

fice, which is encircled by a fine reddish-brown line ; the tubes 

when extended do not measure more than half the breadth of 

the shell : 

gills nearly circular, pale drab, hung very obliquely ; 

the under pair are at least double the size of the upper, and 

are strongly marked across by the vessels of circulation : palps 

subtriangular, short, and distinctly striated: liver apparently 

small and : pale green foot thick and fleshy, not much bent, but. 

flexible and capable of being attenuated to a fine point ; 

no byssal groove. 

it has 

Shell rhomboid-oblong, moderately convex, solid and 

flattened ribs as 

opaque, polished and rather glossy : sculpture, 

in the last species, but they are less regular and often wanting 

on the umbonal area and consequently in young specimens ; 

there are occasionally a few obscure longitudinal lines, and 

* Virgin.

TAPES. 353 

invariably the microscopical strise : colour yellowish-white, 

often painted with two or three reddish-brown or purplish 

rays of different widths, which are seldom entire, being generally 

interrupted and divided into streaks, zigzag markings, or 

spots of a most diversified kind ; the rays frequently appear 

white, owing to the greater breadth of the darker bands ; 

some specimens, as in T. aureus, are of a uniform pale yellow 

or milk-white : epidermis horny, rubbed off in nearly every 

part : margins obliquely but not much rounded in front, sharply 

curved and produced on the anterior side, behind which the 

line from the beaks is nearly straight, produced and wedgeshaped 

on the posterior side, which is obliquely truncate and 

ends in a blunt point, straight on the dorsal side in the young 

but sloping gradually and with a slight curve in the adult : 

beaks small, somewhat inflected, and close together ; umbonal 

area not prominent : lunule lanceolate, longer than in T. aureus 

but similar in other respects : corselet indistinct : ligament 

rather long, yellowish-brown, wholly exposed, contained in a 

marginal groove : hinge-line and hinge-plate as in the last species 

: teeth, in the right valve three erect cardinals, of which 

the posterior is the smallest, triangular, and set obliquely, the 

middle cardinal is the largest and double or cloven ; the left 

valve has the same number of cardinals, the smallest of which 

is on the anterior side and set obliquely, and the other two are 

double ; laterals indistinct : inside rather glossy, with a purplish 

or orange tinge towards the beaks in bright-coloured specimens: 

scars as in T. aureus. L. 1*6. B. 1*9. 

Yar. 1. Sarniensis. Shell thicker, less produced at both 

ends and consequently of an oval shape. V. Samiensis, Turt. 

Dith. p. 153, tab. 10. f. 6. 

Var. 2. elongata. Shell more produced and pointed at the 

posterior end, being consequently more oblong 

proportion to its length. 

Habitat : 

Every part of the British coasts, 

and broader in 

in sand 

and among nullipore3, from the shore to 145 fathoms, 

at which latter depth it was dredged by Capt. Beechey 

off the Mnll of " " 

Galloway. Garnsey was the first 

recorded locality, as appears from Lister's ' 

Historia 

Conchyliorum/ It occurs in all our upper tertiaries 

from the Belfast deposit (Grainger) and glacial beds at

354 VENERID2E. 

Bushbury Hill near Wolverhampton (Rev. W. Lister) 

and Great Yarmouth (Rose) to the Coralline Crag. The 

variety 

Sarniensis has been found in the Channel Isles 

and south of England, on the Irish coasts, and at Loeh 

Carron and Lerwick, with the usual form. Yar. 2. 

BantryBay, west coast of Scotland, and Lerwick (J. G.J.) ; 

Larne, co. Antrim (Hyndman). Its extra-British dis- 

tribution includes Upper Norway (10-30 fathoms) and 

the Lusitanian coasts, Mediterranean and iEgean (shore 

to 30 fathoms) ; it appears to be more a southern than 

northern species. 

The elegant shape of this shell and its bright and 

variegated (often particoloured) painting help to redeem 

a collection of our native Testacea from the common 

opprobrium that they are poor and dingy compared with 

foreign shells. Not in their form alone, but 

. . . . "in the effusive warmth 

Of colour mingling with a random blaze. 

Doth beauty dwell." 

Specimens are found of larger dimensions than those 

above described. I have one 2 inches long by 2| inches 

broad. The fry are square and perfectly smooth. Dis- 

tortions are not common, unless the variety Sarniensis 

may be so regarded. 

In one specimen of this sort the 

right valve has an obscure and broad furrow running 

from the beak in the direction of the front margin. 

Philippi states that the animal is eaten at Naples and 

in Sicily, and is called by the lazzaroni " vongola.^ 

T. virgineus is oblong, and T. aureus triangular. The 

present species is also distinguishable by the ribs being 

partly obliterated. 

Although it is most unlikely 

that this can be the 

Venus viryinea of Linne (described as resembling V. 

decussata, but more round and inhabiting India), it has

so long gone by that name, 

TAPES. 355 

that it would be unadvisable 

to change it. It is probably his V. lata. Dale called 

it Pectunculus fasciatus ; and this name has the precedence 

of all others. I will adduce a few out of the 

numerous synonyms published by different authors : 

V. edulis, Chemnitz ; V. rhomboides, Pennant ; V. Beu- 

dantii, Payraudeau ; and V. virago, Loven. In its 

younger state it appears to be the V. nitens of Scacchi, 

but not of Turton. 

3. T. pullas'tra*, Montagu. 

Venus pullasfra, Mont. Test. Brit. p. 125. T. pullastra, F. & H. i. p. 382, 

pi. xxy. f. 2, 3, and (animal) pi. L. f. 5 & 5 a. 

Body thick, oblong, greyish, yellowish, or very pale bluish- 

white, sometimes tinted with pink : mantle having wavy or 

jagged edges, which project a little beyond the valves ; the 

indentations or folds are stronger at the sides than in front ; 

within the margin are a few scattered white tentacular papillae : 

tubes nearly equal in length and diameter, the upper being a 

trifle longer than the lower, but not quite so large and more 

conical and contracted at the opening ; they vary in length 

from being only one-half to quite as long as the shell is broad ; 

the upper serves for excretal and the lower for alimentary 

purposes; both are cylindrical or funnel-shaped, and joined 

together until about one-fourth of the distance from the orifices, 

where they diverge, the upper curved backwards and the lower 

forwards ; they are closely wrinkled across, and the upper or 

outer third portion is irregularly traversed with brown streaks 

or hues; the orifice of each tube is tinged with brown of 

various shades, red, orange, or flake-white, and fringed with 

short finely ciliated filaments, those of the upper tube being 

plain, and the other set arranged in a double row ; the inner 

row consists usually of a few only, which are erect and longer 

than the outer row, and branched or studded at their sides 

with short points, like the gills of some iS'udibranchs ; the 

outer row is twice as numerous, very much shorter, and folded 

outwards; the edge of the lower orifice is considerably ex- 

panded, like a bell, when the animal is feeding : 

* A pullet. 

gills pale

356 VENERIDiE. 

brown ; the upper pair do not cover the lower, and they are 

decussated on both surfaces by the network of the circulatory 

vessels : palps small, triangular, striated on the inner, and 

smooth on the outer surface : 

foot muscular, slightly bent or 

geniculated, and lance-shaped. 

Shell rhomboid-oval, moderately convex, solid and opaque, 

not so glossy as the last species : sculpture, 

numerous and 

close-set flattened concentric bands, which are divided by 

faintly impressed lines, so that the shell appears to be grooved 

or tooled rather than ribbed these bands ; 

occasionally dichotomize 

or branch off, and are much stronger and more raised 

(becoming laminar) on the posterior side ; they are crossed by 

line, irregular, but equally numerous longitudinal strise decus- 

sating the surface ; the microscopical markings are also present 

: colour yellowish-white, often variegated by reddishbrown 

rays, zigzag streaks, or blotches of every conceivable 

width, shade, number, and form, sometimes tinged with purple, 

umber, or the darkest brown, occasionally yellowish or 

pure white : epidermis horncolour, fibrous, seldom persistent 

in any part : margins nearly straight or but little bent in front, 

trending upwards with a sharper curve to the anterior end, 

which is rounded and terminated behind by an excavation for 

the lunule, produced and obliquely truncate at the posterior 

side, the end of which is rounded, straight and horizontal on 

the dorsal side in the young but sloping gradually in the adult : 

beaks small, somewhat recurved, and close to each other ; umbonal 

area rather prominent : lunule lanceolate, deep but not 

very distinct, nearly smooth, mostly 

of a darker hue : corselet 

narrow, defined on each side by the edges of the ligamental 

groove : ligament rather long, yellowish -brown or horncolour, 

wholly exposed and projecting beyond the lips of the corselet, 

contained in a marginal groove, minutely striated across when 

fractured, showing its compact 

structure and tendinous tissue: 

hinge-line representing a very obtuse angle : hinge-plate solid 

but not very broad except under the beak, where it forms a 

kind of shelf: teeth, in the right valve three erect, slender, 

parallel, and nearly equal-sized cardinals, the posterior of which 

is rather the smallest, and the other two are double or bifid 

at the crown ; the left valve has the same number and kind 

of cardinals, the anterior being the smallest, and the others 

double ; laterals ridge-like and indistinct : inside towards the 

beaks porcellanous, and covered with minute and irregularly 

confluent tubercles, pure white or stained with purple at the

TAPES. 357 

hinge or posterior side : 

pallial scar broad and polished, deeply 

and widely sinuous at the posterior end : muscular scars trian- 

gular, large, and also polished. L. 1-5. B. 1*7. 

Var. 1. perforans. Shell more or less distorted, and either 

longer, broader, or shorter than usual, or having the anterior 

Mont. Test. Brit, 

margin abruptly truncate. Venus perforans, 

p. 127, 

t. 3. f. 6. 

Var. 2. ovata. Shell more convex, longer, and contracted 

at each end. 

Var. 3. oblonga. Shell much broader, being more produced 

at each end. 

Var. 4. plagia. Shell more produced at the posterior side, 

which bends upwards (as in Lutraria elliptica, 

var. oblonga). 

the anterior margin having a corresponding curve and being 

obliquely truncate. Venus plagia, Jeffr. in Ann. Nat. Hist, 

vol. xix. p. 313. 

Habitat : 

gineus ; 

Equally common and diffused, with T. vir- 

but it is usually littoral, living in muddy gravel 

or sand, and is seldom found below 7 or 8 fathoms. It 

occurs in the Clyde, Belfast, and Sussex tertiary beds. 

The T. perovalis of Searles Wood from the Coralline 

Crag scarcely differs from the present species. Var. 1. 

In crevices of rocks, and in deserted holes of Pholades 

and Saxicava arctica, generally attached by a byssus, 

from Unst to Jersey. Var. 2. Exmouth (Clark) ; Cork 

(Humphreys). This is analogous to the variety Sar- 

niensis of the last species. Var. 3. Cork (Wright); 

Bundoran, co. Donegal (J. G. J.); Shetland (Barlee). 

Var. 4. Lerwick and Deal Voe (J. G. J.). T. pullastra 

inhabits the coasts of Norway, South Sweden, and Den- 

mark, and those of the north and west of France ; and 

(as Venus geographica, which I consider a variety of the 

same species) it is spread over all the sea-bed lying be- 

tween Gibraltar and the Morea. It is also one of the 

Uddevalla fossils. 

According to Montagu these shells are called " pull-

358 VENERIUM. 

ers w or " pullets " in some parts of Devonshire. De 

Gerville says that the people of La Manche sell this 

kind for eating, under the name of " Coque." Its vulgar 

appellation in Shetland is "Kullyak," being probably 

derived from the Norse word " kiiHe," a haddock, this 

mollusk being a favourite bait for fish. It is also not 

an unpalatable article of human food. I tasted one 

raw at the recommendation of Dr. Edmondston, and 

fancied that its flavour was not inferior to that of an 

oyster. He indeed gave this the preference. The gills 

appear to be aerated by means of the mantle- edges, 

which are always swaying about with a wave-like motion. 

The fry are shaped like the adult, but are quite smooth 

and glossy. My largest specimen was found by Edward 

Forbes in Skye, and is 2 inches long by 2£ inches broad. 

Monsters of another kind occasionally make their ap- 

pearance, being distorted in one way or another, chiefly 

in being twisted or inequivalve. 

This shell differs from T. virgineus in being oval in- 

stead of oblong, less glossy and never polished, and in 

the ribs being much finer, more numerous, and de- 

cussated by longitudinal striae. Forbes was the first 

who publicly repudiated (in his ' 

Malacologia Monensis') 

the claims of Venus perforans to specific distinction, 

justly considering it to be only a variety of T. pullastra. 

Nine years previously, when I was also a juvenile con- 

and in the mean 

chologist, I formed a similar opinion ; 

time Clark made the excellent observations, which were 

transferred from his note-book to the pages of the ( Bri- 

tish Mollusca/ embodying the views of the consentaneous 

triumvirate. The normal coloured markings are 

present in some specimens 

of this form which had been 

immured all their lives in rocks and secluded from the 

garish light of day. One living example, 

which occu-

TAPES. 359 

pied the former burrow of a Pholas dactylus, 

has a 

group of Serpula triquetra attached to it on the poste- 

rior side, the hole being large enough to contain both. 

This is a confirmatory proof that T. pullastra does not 

perforate any hard substance. 

Although Mr. William Wood figured this species in 

the ' Linnean Transactions ' 

(vol. vi. 1. 17. f. 13, 14), and 

showed that the structure of its hinge was different from 

that in T. decussatus, he did not assign any specific name 

to it. I believe our shell is the Venus literata of Linne 

and Poli ; but that name is now used for a tropical species. 

As I have before remarked, the V.geographica of 

Chemnitz is the southern form or variety, to which the 

V. eremita of Brocchi, V. bicolor, V. catenifera, V. retifera, 

and Veneriipis nucleus of Lamarck, and the Venus 

Tenorii of Costa may also be referred. 

4. T. decussa'tus *, Linne. 

Venus decussate, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1135 (according to modern authors). 

T. decussaia, F. & H. i. p. 379, pi. 

xxv. f. 1. 

Body thick, oval, very pale creamcolour or greyish-white ; 

with white : 

margins having their edges scalloped or fringed 

tubes subcylindrical, separate throughout, and (at the will of 

the animal) diverging in various directions, of the same length, 

which when they are extended is equal to the breadth or 

transverse admeasurement of the shell; they are at times 

greatly distended ; their colour, to within a quarter of an inch 

from the orifices, is pale yellowish-white, interspersed with 

minute flakes of pure white, streaked or speckled near the 

orifices with confused tawnv-vellow, reddish-, or dark-brown 

markings ; orifices encircled with cirri, that of the lower (or 

alimentary tube) having about 12 long and as many alternate 

shorter ones, and the upper (or excretal) tube being furnished 

with about 20 equal-sized ones ; these cirri are of a brown or 

bistre colour : 

gills suboval, pale brown sprinkled with minute 

darker points ; as usual, the upper pair is the smaller ; they 

* Intersected bv lines crosswise.


are more strongly pectinated on the inner than on the outer 

surface : palps very small for the size of the animal, triangular, 

and striated like the branchial laminae : foot large, white, mus- 

cular, lanceolate, bent, and furnished with a byssal groove. 

Shell having a general resemblance to T. puUastra, but 

distinguishable by the following characters. It is usually not so 

convex, and less broad (or shorter from one end to the other) : 

sculpture much coarser, the longitudinal striae being quite as 

strong as the transverse ribs and often more raised the surface 

; 

is thus reticulated, and marked (especially on the posterior 

side) by 

rows of tubercles : colour of a more sombre and 

uniform hue, mostly yellowish and variegated with rays and 

zigzag streaks or spots of dark or light brown : dorsal margin 

more straight and the posterior slope decidedly truncate. 

L. 1-75. B. 2. 

Var. quadrangula. Shell smaller, square-shaped, and more 

convex. 

Habitat : 

Muddy gravel and sand at low-water mark, 

with T. pullastra, on the shores of our southern and 

western counties, Wales, and Ireland. Cheshire coast 

(Hall) ; Scarborough (Bean) ; Northumberland and 

Durham (Alder) ; 

Berwick (Johnston and Maclaurin) ; 

Clyde district (Eyton); Oban (J. G. J.); Sound of 

Iona (Bedford) ; Skye (Forbes) ; Aberdeen (Macgil- 

f 

livray) Shetland ; (Forbes and M Andrew). 

Var. 

Cork (Humphreys); Bantry Bay (Barlee). This species 

is subfossil in the Loch of Spynie, and in the 

" Kjokkenmoddings," Morayshire (Gordon) : fossil in 

the Scotch glacial beds (Smith) ; Belfast " alluvial " 

deposit (Hyndman and Grainger) ; Sussex tertiaries 

(Godwin-Austen) . 

It also occurs with shells of Arctic 

species in the newer pliocene strata of Bohuslan (Malm), 

Uddevalla (J. G. J.), and Christiania (Sars) ; and with 

shells of southern species in the Sicilian tertiaries (Philippi). 

It has not been noticed in a living or recent 

state by any writer on the northern or Scandinavian

TAPES. 361 

fauna ; but it is universally common southwards as far 

as the iEgean and probably Senegal. 

The shell was well figured by Lister as English. 

He 

noticed the purplish-violet stain inside, and inquired 

whether the dye of the ancients could have been procured 

from bivalves as well as from univalves. This 

question has never been answered by any physiologist 

or antiquary. He also mentions that the shells are 

called " purrs n in some parts of England ; Petiver and 

Dale give the same provincial name. According to 

Collard des Cherres, the Breton designation is " palourde/' 

which is also applied in that province to Pec- 

ten maximus. M. Gay informs us that it is known at 

Toulon as " clouvisso." The animal makes a favourite 

dish in continental seaports ; and Mr. Dennis writes 

me word that both this and T. pullastra are eaten in 

Sussex. It has been observed bv Mr. Rich to be more 

tenacious of life than T. pullastra. He kept some of 

the present species alive in fresh water for eight or nine 

days, but none of T. pullastra survived for half that 

time. He also found the colour of the shells of both 

these species, when put into hot water or near a fire, to 

change from dark purplish- brown to a brick-red hue. 

Montagu justly remarked that the siphons differ from 

those of T. pullastra in being divided to their origin ; 

but he was mistaken in supposing that both tubes were 

protruded in search of food. Mr. Clark says, "This 

species is much more common than the P. pullastra ; 

they live together in the same shingles, and have precisely 

the same habitudes; notwithstanding this com- 

munity they are very distinct." His opinion 

on the 

last point is the more valuable because he was by no 

means a species-maker. 

The young of T. decussatus are 

nearly square, while those of T. pullastra are oblong. 

R


My largest specimen measures two and a half inches in 

length by three inches in breadth : others are twisted 

and irregular or keeled on the posterior side. 

The habitat assigned bv Linne to Venus decussata is 

(C O. Indico"; but the description in the ' Mus. Ulr. 

Keg./ as well as those in the 10th and 12th editions of 

the f 

Syst. Nat./ suit the European shell which now 

bears the above specific name. Specimens from the 

Indian Ocean cannot be distinguished from this in 

form, sculpture^, or colour, although they 

are called T. 

Indica. The synonyms are numerous ; I have noted 

about a dozen. If the name could now be changed, I 

would suggest the adoption of that proposed by Da 

Costa, viz. " reticulatus." Adansoir's " le Lunot " ap- 

pears to be the present species, and not T. pullastra. 

Genus III. LUCINOP'SIS • Forbes and Hanley. 

PI. VII. f. 1. 

Body roundish: mantle having its edges furbelowed or 

puckered : tubes separate throughout. 

Shell globose, thin, striated concentrically : lunule in- 

distinct : teeth, in the right valve three, and in the left valve 

two cardinals, besides the usual lateral in each valve : pallia! 

scar exhibiting a remarkably deep sinus. 

To the learned authors of the ' 

British Mollusca 3 is 

the credit due of proposing and establishing the present 

genus, which connects the Venerida? with the Tellinidce, 

and almost forms the type of an intermediate family. 

In the structure and position of the siphonal tubes it is 

more like Tellina than Venus ; and in the orbicular form 

of the shell, as well as in the number and shape of the 

teeth, it differs from any genus 

* Having the aspect of the genus Lucina. 

in either of the above-

lucinopsis. 363 

mentioned families. The microscopical striae, charac- 

teristic of the shells of the Veneridce, are absent in 

Lucinopsis. In its general appearance this genus agrees 

with Lucina ; but the recurved beaks, sinuation of the 

pallial scar, and length of the tubes offer conclusive 

reasons for their separation. 

Lucinopsis unda'ta *_, Pennant. 

Venus undata, Penn. Brit. Zool. p. 95, pi. 55. f. 51. Z. undata, F. & II. 

i. p. 435, pi. xxviii. f. 1, 2, and (animal) pi. M. f. 2. 

Body milk-white, or of a pale pinkish 

drabcolour : mantle 

having its edges wavy, or sometimes partially jagged, but 

never serrated or fringed ; ventral opening small : tubes more 

or less divergent, occasionally tinged with orange, conical, 

capable of being considerably extended ; incurrent tube the 

smaller in diameter, but longer of the two, its orifice margined 

by a circle of very short and minute dark specks, and fringed 

with 16-20 white cirri of various sizes and lengths excurrent 

; 

tube having its orifice encircled with 12-15 white cirri, which 

are uniformly short and without the marginal row of dark 

gills pale drab, the upper plates being much smaller 

specks : 

than the lower and half overlapping them ; pectinations rather 

fine, but not very distinct : palps 

of the same colour as the 

gills, fleshy, rather long, triangular, pointed, strongly striated 

on the outside and smooth within : foot of moderate size, white, 

flat, pointed, not much bent, destitute of a byssal groove, and 

issuing 

from the front or ventral side. 

Shell almost circular, tumid, semitransparent, rather glossy : 

sculpture, numerous and fine, but irregular, concentric stria?, 

colour milk-white, with often 

and occasional lines of growth : 

a yellow or ochreous hue, especially near the beaks : epidermis 

thin, like varnish and slightly iridescent, longitudinally (but 

very minutely) striated or puckered: margins more or less 

straight on the ventral side in the adult and rounded in the 

young, regularly curved on the anterior side, excavated below 

the beaks, obtusely angular at the posterior end, with an 

abrupt slope or truncation on that side ; dorsal or ligamental 

margin very gently curved in the adult and sloping in the 

* Wavy. 

R.2

364 VENERID2E. 

young : beaks small, slightly turned towards the anterior side, 

and nearly contiguous ; umbonal area prominent : lunule lan- 

ceolate, rather deep, but rarely defined by a separating groove : 

ligament long, yellowish -brown or horncolour, projecting beyond 

the dorsal margin, and conspicuous from the contrast of 

its colour with that of the shell : hinge-line obtuse -angled in 

the adult, and rectangular in the young: hinge-plate solid: 

teeth, in the right valve three cardinals ; 

the middle one short, 

thick, triangular, and double, crowned with jagged edges or 

points ; the other two laminar, and equally diverging from 

the central tooth, the anterior being much the longest of all ; 

the left valve has only two cardinals, representing the letter 

Y reversed, the posterior being double, and the other erect and 

laminar ; the intermediate space receives the central tooth of 

the right valve ; the anterior tooth in each valve is elongated 

or continued in the form of an oblique ridge, which has the 

appearance of a lateral tooth : inside chalky-white ; margin 

smooth and bevelled towards the : edges pallial scar broad, 

removed far from the margin sinus ; very large, extending to 

within one-third of the diameter in the direction of the beaks : 

muscular scars strongly marked, the anterior much longer 

than the other, which is oval. L. 1*25. B. 1-35. 

Yar. 1. ventrosa. Shell smaller and more ventricose. 

Yar. 2. cequaiis. Shell equilateral, compressed in front : 

healcs more prominent and central. 

Habitat : 

Fine and muddy sand, in all our bays 

and within the line of soundings, at from 3 to 100 

fathoms. It is fossil at Belfast, " in vast numbers and 

very large" (Hyndman and Grainger); Ayr (Smith); 

Kyles of Bute (Crosskey). Var. 1. Arran I., co.Galway 

(Barlee) ; Shetland (J.G.J.) . Var. 2. Scilly Isles (Lord 

Vernon); Bantry Bay (Humphreys); 

Scotland (Barlee). 

Loffoden Isles (Sars) to Mogador (R. T. Lowe) 

West coast of 

This species is distributed from the 

and the 

iEgean (Forbes). South-Italian tertiaries (Philippi). 

The animal is sluggish. The tubes of individuals 

which I examined were very short, although not united. 

Mr. Clark says that " the siphonal apparatus has the

TELLTNID.E. 365 

entire aspect of the typical Tellinida" but that its 

position differs in being very little posterior 

to the 

centre of the ventral range, instead of the tubes being 

from the 

(as is more usual in that family) protruded 

posterior angle. He also remarks that the colour of the 

animal, when killed by hot water, often changes to the 

various hues of orange, red, and brown,— a condition 

which prevails more or less in all the testaceous Mol- 

lusca, and particularly in the bivalves. We must look 

to the carcinologists for an explanation of this phe- 

nomenon, remembering the old simile of Aurora : 

" And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn 

From black to red began to turn." 

This species is the Venus inquinata of Lamarck, V. 

incompta of Philippi, and, according to him, the Lucina 

caduca of Scacchi. Deshayes, in his Catalogue of the 

Bivalve shells in the British Museum, places it, with a 

doubt, in his genus Cijclina. 

Family XIV. TELLI'NID.E, Latreille. 

Body oval or oblong : 

mantle fringed with tentacular appen- 

dages : tubes very long, separate throughout, unequal in length, 

issuing from a sheath or fold of the mantle : 

gills unequal in 

and flexible. 

size : palps large : foot tongue-shaped 

Shell sometimes inequivalve, triangular, oval, oblong, rhomboidal, 

or cuneiform, striated concentrically, and in certain 

kinds also longitudinally or obliquely: epidermis generally 

thin, but existing in all the members of this family : beahs 

incurved, nearly straight: ligament external, placed on the 

in each valve furnished with 

smaller side of the shell : hinge 

two cardinal teeth (one of which is frequently cloven or double ), 

and, in certain genera and species, 

with a lateral tooth on 

each or but one side in either or only in one valve : pallial scar 

more or less deeply sinuous or indented : muscular scars dis- 

tinct.

386 TELLINID.E. 

This large and well-known family differs from the 

Venerida in the pallial tubes being invariably long and 

separate, the beaks being less recurved, and the ligament 

placed on the smaller side of the shell, and also in 

having fewer cardinal teeth. The comparative length 

of the tubes in each individual, caused by their exten- 

sion or contraction, seems to depend on the will of the 

animal; sometimes the incurrent, and at other times 

the excurrent tube is the longer of the two. In families 

which have these tubes united, there can, of course, 

be no such inequality. Carpenter has shown that the 

shells of the Tellinidce are of a solid texture, and that 

their external and internal layers present appearances 

of a prismatic cellular structure ; he termed these cells 

" fusiform," and observed that they were arranged in 

the two layers in opposite directions. 

The Tellinida inhabit sand, and occasionally mud, at 

all depths ; 

some kinds are littoral. 

Poli proposed the name Peronaea for the animals of 

the genera comprised in the present family. 

Genus I. GASTEA'NA *, Schumacher. PL VII. f. 2. 

Body oval, tumid and thick : tubes having cirrous orifices. 

Shell equivalve, inequilateral, wedge-shaped, ventricose, 

decussated by concentric ridges or laminae and longitudinal 

striae : teeth, one large cloven cardinal and a minute triangular 

one by its side in the left valve, and two equal-sized divergent 

cardinals in the right valve ; no laterals : inside margin 

smooth. 

The solitary species which represents this species in 

the European fauna may be regarded by some as an 

aberrant Tellina. The generic difference consists in 

Gastrana having a more decidedly cuneiform and ven- 

* So named from the turgidity of the shell.

GASTRANA. 367 

tricose shell, as well as in the greater size of the anterior 

cardinal tooth in the left valve, and the want of lateral 

teeth. But all these characters exist in species of the 

parent or typical genus. The shell of T. balaustina is 

nearly equally convex; T. squalida and other species have 

the anterior cardinal tooth in the left valve as large in 

proportion to the other tooth ; and T. balthica has no 

lateral tooth. However, as I have before remarked, there 

are no lines of absolute demarcation between any two 

allied genera and there ; may be as good reason for separating 

Gastrana from Tellina, as Tapes from Venus. 

in 1845 the name of Diodonta for 

Deshayes proposed 

this genus, being (it may be presumed) unaware of 

Schumacher's publication, which bears the date of 1817. 

The one selected a European, and the other tropical 

types ; 

but all are congeneric. 

Gastrana fra'gilis *, Linne. 

Tellina frag His, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1117. Diodonta fragilis, F. & H. i. 

p. 284, pi. xxi. f. 3, and (animal) pi. K. f. 2. 

Body yellowish- white : tubes almost twice as long as the 

shell is broad, one having eight and the other six rays or 

points at their orifices ; alimentary 

tnbe sheathed at its base 

foot rather large (Deshayes). 

Shell triangular, considerably produced at the posterior 

end, more convex towards the beaks, rather thin but opaque, 

somewhat glossy when young but afterwards becoming lustre- 

less : sculpture, more or less irregular, thin, concentric ridges 

or laniinse, which are slightly imbricated on the posterior side, 

besides numerous minute and close-set parallel strise in the 

interstices of the ridges ; the whole surface is also covered 

with fine longitudinal striae which radiate from the beaks, and 

are three times as many as the transverse ridges, but very 

much more slight and scarcely raised where these cross the 

; 

ridges the crests of the latter are indistinctly beaded: colour 

* Brittle.

368 TELLINIDiE. 

worn off and 

pale yellowish-white : epidermis fibrous, usually 

only visible near the beaks and at the edges of newly-formed 

layers : margins curved, but not deeply, in front, nearly semicircular 

on the anterior side, acutely angular but bluntly 

pointed at the posterior end, whence there is a long and nearly 

straight slope backwards : beaks small, incurved, and con- 

tiguous (frequently becoming worn by attrition) : ligament 

strong and prominent, horncolour, annulated at irregular intervals 

: 

hinge-line obtusely angular : hinge-plate thick, reflected 

outwards on the dorsal side, where it terminates ab- 

ruptly near the extremity of the ligament : teeth, in the right 

valve two cardinals of unequal size representing the letter V 

reversed, and receiving between them the larger tooth of the 

opposite valve ; in the left valve two cardinals, that on the 

posterior side being very large, recurved, irregularly divided by 

a groove, or double, and the other on the anterior side very 

much smaller, triangular, and parallel with the hinge-plate : 

inside partially nacreous, stained with yellow near the beaks 

and on the posterior side : 

pallial scar exhibiting a wide but 

not deep sinus : muscular scars of irregular shape, equal-sized. 

L. 1-05. B. 1-5. 

Habitat: Not uncommon, although very local, in sand, 

from low-water mark to 12 fathoms. Weymouth (Thompson) 

; Guernsey (J. G. J.) ; near Tenby (Lyons) ; coast 

of Pembrokeshire (M'Andrew) ; 

south and west of Ire- 

land (Turton, Humphreys, Battersby, King, and others) ; 

Shetland Isles (Forbes, in Brit. Assoc. Bep. 1850). Dr. 

Turton found it in a semifossil state at Clontarf in 

Dublin Bay, imbedded in blue clay with Tapes aureus. 

The only northern locality that has been noticed for 

G. fragilis is Drontheim, where Mr. M'Andrew dredged 

a single valve. The southern localities are very nume- 

rous, and comprise all the coasts of the Atlantic from 

Brittany to Gibraltar, the Mediterranean on both sides, 

x\driatic, and iEgean. The greatest depth that I can 

find recorded is 30 fathoms ; and it is littoral at Vigo 

and in the iEgean. Searles Wood has noticed its 

occurrence in the " faluns " of Touraine, and Philippi

GASTRANA. 369 

in the newer tertiary strata of the sonth of Italy. 

This 

species being common in some parts of the west of Ireland 

which have been often explored by many of our 

best zoologists, it is surprising that the animal has not 

been noticed bv any writer on the British or Irish Mollusca, 

and that it should have devolved on a German 

conchologist 

to examine it on the distant shores of 

Sicily, and on a French savant to investigate 

its ana- 

tomy in North Africa. Their descriptions, however, 

differ from that of Poli, as well as among themselves. 

According to Philippi the siphonal orifices are not cirrous 

; the characters of the animal which I have quoted 

from Deshayes give the number of cirri which surround 

the aperture of each tube ; while Poli states that the 

cirri encircling the branchial tube are scarcely perceptible, 

even by the aid of a lens, and that the mouth of the 

other tube is plain. The lesser tooth in the left valve 

is thrown into the shade by its huge companion, and 

the genus is represented by authors as having only one 

tooth in that valve. Montagu says 

that his Tellina 

polygona has, " besides the very large, triangular, bifid 

tooth, an approximate small one, that might easily be 

passed unnoticed." I believe that shell was only a 

half-grown and distorted G. fragilis ; I have one exactly 

answering to the particulars and figure given in the 

( Testacea Britannica/ The young are more oval, and 

not so inequilateral. 

A specimen in my collection con- 

tains a small incipient pearl close to the posterior scar. 

The regularity of sculpture varies in individuals from 

different localities. 

It is the Tellina striatula of Olivi, T. jugosa of Brown, 

Petricola lamellosa and P. ochroleuca of Lamarck, and 

(in its younger or immature state) his Psammotcea 

tarentina. 

r 5


Genus II. TELLI'NA *; Linne. PI. VII. f. 3. 

Body oval, compressed : tubes slender ; orifices cirrous, or 

plain. 

Shell oval, triangular, or oblong, in some species slightly 

inequivalve, more or less inequilateral, sculptured by concentric 

laminae or stria?, arid occasionally by longitudinal (or 

partially by oblique) striae ; posterior side flexuous : teeth, two 

cardinals in each valve ; 

laterals on either side or on one only 

of each or one valve, but not always present : inside margin 

smooth. 

name is de- 

According to Aldrovandus the generic 

rived from the quick growth of the shell. He cites 

Aristotle as his authority; but the expression of the 

latter (ore raîara jlvovtcii reXelai) was used with re- 

ference to every sort of shell-fish. Mr. William Wood's 

work, f General Conchology/ published in 1815, con- 

tains a monograph of all the species of Tellina which 

were at that time known : it is well executed and prettily 

illustrated. He explained, better than Montagu 

had done a few years previously, the use of the siphonal 

tubes, as well as of the linguiform organ usually termed 

a " foot." As Lamarck observed, the two valves of the 

same individual are not always perfectly alike -, some- 

times one valve is more convex than the other. This 

inequality of size occurs to a certain extent in our T. 

crassa and T. squalida. The species are exceedingly 

numerous, both in a recent and fossil state ; according 

to Chenu there are 220 of the former, and nearly half 

as many in secondary and tertiary strata. Searles Wood 

says that " the genus appears as early as the Coral Rag, 

with some doubtful forms in the Palaeozoic Formations." 

Their shells are of an elegant shape, and often variegated 

by bright-coloured rays and other markings. 

* The name given by Dioscorides to a kind of shell-fish.

TELLINA. 371 

Even this consistent genus has a dozen synonyms, 

two of them prior, and the rest subsequent to Linnets 

time. 

A. Shell oval, nearly equilateral, concentrically laminated ; 

lateral teeth conspicuous. 

1. Tellina balatj'stina *, Linne. 

T. balaustina, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1119 F. & H. i. 

; p. 290, pi. xxi. f. 2. 

Body gelatinous, greyish-white : tubes clear white and trans- 

parent ; 

orifices apparently not fringed 

or ciliated. 

Shell triangularly oval, or inclined to globular, ventricose, 

thin, semitransparent, rather glossy : sculpture, regular, deli- 

cate, and but slightly raised concentric laminae, which are easily 

rubbed off or broken, more crowded at the sides, besides minute, 

close-set, parallel striae in the interstices ; the whole surface is 

also covered with microscopical and excessively fine but irre- 

gular longitudinal striae : colour whitish with a faint tinge of 

yellow, variegated by narrow streaks of a pinkish hue, which 

radiate from the direction of the beaks and are more conspicuous 

towards the margins ; these rays differ in number and 

width, and frequently are broken and variously disposed, sometimes 

two or three being close tegether, and now and then con- 

fluent : epidermis thin, filmy and iridescent, imparting 

surface a silky lustre : margins 

to the 

semicircular on the anterior 

side, regularly but more bluntly curved in front, slightly an- 

gular on the posterior side, which is flexuous and separated 

from the rest of the shell by an obscure and broad ridge; dorsal 

margin short, straight in the young and nearly 

so in the adult : 

umbones some- 

beaks small, incurved, and almost contiguous ; 

what raised : lunule lanceolate, deeply incised, with shelving 

sides : ligament short, not very prominent, homcolour : hinge- 

line more rounded than angular : 

hinge-plate slight, 

of mode- 

rate breadth : teeth, in each valve two symmetrical, short, 

erect, and diverging cardinals, the posterior of which in. the 

right valve and anterior in the left valve are bifid or double ; 

laterals, one on each side in both valves, remote and laminar, 

more developed in the right than in the left valve: inside 

glossy, tinged with orange, microscopically wrinkled and lon- 

* Colour resembling that of a pomegranate flower.

372 tellinim:. 

but not extend- 

gitudinally lineated : pallial scar slight, large, 

far ii into the interior : muscular scars well defined. L. 0*75. 

ing 

B. 0-85. 

Habitat : 

Rare (in the sense of local), in fine sand, 

at the undermentioned places and depths : Falmouth, 

among trawl refuse from about 20 fathoms (Miss Vigors, 

Mrs. Gulson, and Mr. Cocks) ; Birterbuy Bay, co. Gal- 

way, 18-20 fathoms (Barlee and J. G. J.) ; Stornoway 

and Skye, 40-50 fathoms (Barlee) ; Moray Firth, in deep 

water (Macdonald) ; Shetland, 18-78 fathoms (J. G. J.). 

Fossil in the Coralline Crag (S. Wood). It inhabits 

every part of the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Êgean, 

at from 6 to 50 fathoms, and M'Andrew has dredged 

it off Madeira and the Canary Isles in 20-25 fathoms. 

Philippi enumerated it as a Sicilian tertiary r shell. 

This is one of the much sought-for treasures of the 

British conchologist, apparently scarce, 

many parts of the North Atlantic, 

" All scatter'd in the bosom of the sea." 

but found in 

The market-price of perfect specimens may be said, 

in mercantile phrase, to " rule " from £2 to .£5. Separate 

valves and fragments have not unfrequently been 

brought up in the dredge 

on the eastern coasts of Shet- 

land, at a considerable distance from land, and far be- 

the course or influence of the Gulf-stream. The 

yond 

fry are triangular, and in shape not unlike those of 

Lucina borealis. My largest specimen (a single valve) 

is about an inch in breadth. The dimensions of British 

examples greatly exceed those of any from the Mediter- 

ranean; and they can always be thus distinguished. 

Although the present species may be considered a 

southern form, it is a striking illustration of the fact 

that the development of size in individuals of the same 

species in the Mollusca increases northward. Lilljeborg

TELLINA. 373 

and Sars have made similar observations with regard to 

the Crustacea and other Invertebrata which are common 

to northern and southern latitudes. An explana- 

tion (although perhaps an imperfect and unsatisfactory 

one) 

of this law has been offered in the l 

to my first volume, p. xxxii. 

Introduction * 

The synonyms of this pretty species are few and ob- 

solete. I am aware of two only, viz. T. orbiculata, Re- 

nier, and T. serratula, Chiereghini. 

2. T. crassa *, Gmelin. 

Venus crassa, Linn. Syst. Nat. (ed. Gmel.) p. 3288. T. vrassa, F. & H. i. 

p. 288, pi. xx. f. 1,2. 

Body yellowish-white : mantle thick ; edges closely fimbri- 

ated : tubes funnel-shaped and long ; 

and fringed with 6 short tentacular cirri ; the excretal or 

orifice of each narrow, 

upper tube in an individual examined by me was three or four 

times the length of the other tube ; mouth of the alimentary 

tube much contracted and like a snout in shape : 

gills nearly 

circular, of a very thin texture ; lower pair twice the size of 

the upper ; both are coarsely but not distinctly pectinated : 

iMilps narrow, slender, pointed, of an elongated triangular form, 

quite smooth externally, but conspicuously striated on the inner 

side : liver dark brownish-green : foot very large. 

Shell obtusely triangular rather than oval, compressed, 

thick, opaque, moderately glossy ; the left valve is somewhat 

larger and deeper than the other: sculpture, numerous strong, 

threadlike, concentric ribs, which are more crowded and become 

the narrow interstices 

laminar at the sides also in the young ; 

of these ribs are impressed with finer parallel striae, and crossed 

by deeper, more regular, and close-set longitudinal striae, none 

of which, however, are visible except by the aid of a magnifier 

: colour the same as in the last : species epidermis fibrous, 

yellowish-brown, slight, and effaced in nearly every part by 

continual friction : margins curved in front, and obtusely an- 

gular with rounded points at each end ; posterior side decidedly 

valve : beaks small, incurved, 

fiexuous, especially in the right 

* Solid.


and contiguous umbones ; projecting, but not disproportionately 

convex : lunule deep, lanceolate, elongated, and of a reddish-brown 

hue : ligament long, rather prominent, dark horncolour 

: hinge-line curved : hinge-plate thick, broad, and flexu- 

ous : teeth similar to those in T. balaustina, but stronger ; the 

anterior lateral in the right valve is very large and conspicuous 

: inside highly glossy and nacreous, longitudinally marked 

towards the margin with faint and indistinct lines, and sometimes 

streaked irregularly from the hinge to the centre with 

bright pink or rosecolour : pallial scar well defined, large, extending 

across nearly to the anterior adductor muscle, and 

slightly lineated in the same direction : muscular scars deep, 

particularly that of the anterior adductor, which is pearshaped. 

L. 1-8. E. 2-1. 

Yar. albicla. Shell whitish and without coloured rays. 

Habitat : 

All our sandy coasts, from the Shetland to 

the Channel Isles, from low-water mark to 55 fathoms. 

Var. 1. Lerwick (Barlee and J. G. J.). This species is 

fossil at Ayr (J. Smith), and in the Mammalian, Red, and 

Coralline Crag (S.Wood). Nyst has recorded it from 

the Belgian Crag, and Philippi from the Sicilian upper 

tertiaries. It is not uncommon in the North Sea from 

Drontheim (Sars) to the Bohuslan district (Loven and 

Malm), and south of Great Britain from Normandy 

(Bouchard-Chantereaux) to Gibraltar and the Gulf of 

Tunis (M'Andrew and Deshayes), at depths varying from 

8 to 35 fathoms. 

Turton noticed that one of the valves is more convex 

than the other ; 

the inequality is not great, but very per- 

ceptible. Independently of this character, and of its 

being infinitely more common, 

T. crassa differs from 

T. balaustina in being at least six times the size, having 

a more solid texture, and the ridges being stronger and 

more compact; the fry are oval instead of triangular. 

The one is the " porcelain of creation"; the other is 

common ware. 

According to Brown, the present species is the type

TELLINA. 375 

of Leach's genus Arcopagia, which Leach himself has 

since denominated Cydippe. It is the Pectunculus de- 

pressior of Da Costa, T. rigida of Pulteney, T. subrotunda 

of Deshayes, and Cydippe Listeriana of Leach; the 

young appears to be the Arcopagia ovata of Brown, and 

(in a " depauperated " and dirty state) is certainly the 

T. maculata of Turton. Adams's species of the last 

name is probably the T. bimaculata of Linne, a very 

common West-Indian shell. 

B. Shell triangular, inequilateral, produced at the posterior 

end to an angular point, concentrically striated (one spe- 

cies having the right valve sculptured also by oblique 

longitudinal striae); lateral teeth wanting or imperfectly 

developed. 

3. T. balthica*, Linne. 

f. balthica, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1120. T. soluhda, F. & II". i. p. 304, 

pi. 

xx. f. 6. 

Body thick, pale yellowish, tinged 

brown : 

white filaments : 

with different shades of 

mantle of a firm texture, fringed with fine, but short, 

tubes nearly hyaline, varying considerably in 

length both collectively and individually ; the excretal one is 

curved upwards, and usually longer than the other, being often 

exserted to almost twice the length of the shell, plain at its 

the alimentary tube has from four to six very minute 

orifice ; 

dentations at its aperture : 

gills two only, one on each side, 

rather elongated: palps enormous, triangular, broad at their 

bases and pointed at their extremities, smooth without and 

distinctly striated within : foot white, very large, muscular, of 

moderate length, slightly bent. 

Shell more triangular than round, usually convex and 

sometimes almost globular, varying in thickness according to 

the nature of its : 

habitation, opaque, glossy sculpture, fine, 

minute, and close-set but irregular concentric striae, diversified 

by occasional lines of growth : colour, of all hues and shades 

from milk-white or yellow to crimson, often relieved by narrow 

zones or concentric belts of a deeper tint, rarely pink in the 

Inhabiting the Baltic.

376 TELLINIDÊ. 

earlier stages of growth and abruptly becoming 

white after- 

wards : epidermis minutely wrinkled, fibrous at the sides and 

edges of the shell, light brown, or occasionally greenish, mostly 

effaced in : full-grown specimens margins rounded in front and 

on the anterior side, somewhat produced on the posterior side 

and ending in an obtuse angle, with a greater or less degree 

of flexure, and frequently with an angular ridge running from 

the posterior end to the beaks ; dorsal margin sloping with a 

slight curve : beaks small, inflected, nearly contiguous ; urnbones 

scarcely projecting : lunule lanceolate, not very distinct : 

ligament strong, prominent, dark horncolour, now and then ex- 

tending between the beaks to the lunule : hinge-line curved : 

hinge-plalet hick and broad, occupying between a third and a 

fourth of the circumference : teeth fixed in a shallow cavity or 

depression in the middle of the hinge-plate, and set either 

consist of two small 

across it or in opposite directions ; they 

symmetrical cardinals in each valve, the posterior in the right 

valve and anterior in the left being bifid or cloven lengthwise 

: inside glossy and nacreous, often partaking of the ex- 

ternal colour, and microscopically wrinkled : pallial scar large, 

triangular, extending in a line parallel with the front margin : 

muscular scars deep and distinct. L. 0*7. B. 0*8. 

Yar. 1. attenuata. Shell smaller, more compressed, and of a 

thinner consistency, often eroded ; epidermis also thin, partially 

iridescent ; teeth very slight ; inside chalky-white. 

Var. 2. minor. Shell smaller and more triangular. L. 5. 

B. 0-55. 

Var. 3. nivea. Shell of the same size as the last variety, 

but more compressed, snow-white. 

Habitat : 

and mud between tide-marks 

Sand, gravel, 

on every shore. Var. 1. Southampton (J. G. J.); Or- 

well estuary (Dr. Clarke). This is the Baltic form. 

Var. 2. Bantry Bay (Humphreys and J. G. J.) Var. 3. 

Llanrhidian Marsh in the estuary of the Burry River, 

Glamorganshire (J. G. J.) Our usual form (which may 

be termed soliduld) abounds in all the later tertiary deposits, 

including the ' 

boulder-clay or tilP and the Mammalian 

Crag. It may therefore be regarded in the main 

as a northern species ; but it is likewise common in

TELLINA. 377 

many parts of the south of Europe, as will appear from 

the following epitome of its geographical distribution : 

Behring^s Straits to Kamtschatka, White Sea, and 

Nova Zembla to the Black Sea (Middendorff ) ; Finland 

(Nordenskiold and Nylander) to Kiel Bay (Meyer and 

Mobius), at depths varying from zero to 60 fathoms; 

North of France (De Gerville and others) to the coast of 

Spain (Gay); Toulon (Gay) to Mogador (R. T. Lowe) and 

Sicily (Scacchi and others) ; Labrador (Brit. Mus.) to 

Massachusetts (Say) and north-west coast of America 

(P. Carpenter) 

Sicilian pliocene strata. 

. It is also fossil in the Uddevalla and 

This species, so familiar to modern geologists, and such 

an important test for the discrimination between older 

and newer or quaternary deposits, was well characterized 

and figured by Lister. His method of giving the dimen- 

sions of a bivalve shell is generally correct and that 

which is now recognized, viz. the length representing the 

line of growth in the direction of the beaks, and the 

breadth the extent from side to side. Chemnitz has given, 

in a vignette in the sixth volume of his ( 

Conchy lien- 

Cabinet' (p. 76), a diagram illustrating this mode of 

admeasurement. The animal has been excellently de- 

scribed by Bouchard-Chantereaux, who says that some- 

times the only tube exserted is the branchial one, which 

the animal stretches out five or six inches in length, with 

a diameter of only a line, absorbing with" an astonishing 

rapidity any minute object 

within its reach. It is essen- 

tially a hardy mollusk, accommodating itself to all degrees 

of temperature, and to every kind of water from nearly 

fresh to the saltest. The typical or original form inhabits 

the brackish and land-locked Baltic Sea. Loven was in- 

clined to consider this a degenerate variety 

of the same 

species as the T. solidula of Pulteney, but for the pallial

378 TELLINIDJ5. 

fold being less deep in the latter form : Searles Wood, 

however, shows, 

in his ' 

Crag Mollusca/ 

that the extent 

of this mark depends on the comparative tumidity of 

the shell in many species of Tellina and allied genera. 

The last-named author has properly adopted the spe- 

cific name balthica. It was at one time said that all 

geographical or local names are objectionable ; and 

entertaining this opinion I even went the length of 

substituting fresh names whenever they occurred in the 

List of British Pulmonobranchous Mollusca, published in 

the c Transactions of the Linnean Society/ But that 

was more than thirty years ago ; 

and I have since been 

convinced that the objection to all such names is not 

tenable. The Committee appointed by the British 

Association to consider the subject of Zoological nomen- 

clature did not even recommend that they should be 

entirely discontinued in future. In the present instance 

the word balthica is not only correct, but com- 

memorative of the original discovery and of the habitable 

conditions which belong to the species. Although it 

does not tell the whole truth, there is no falsehood in- 

volved in the use of it, nor can it mislead any one. The 

size of my largest specimens from open bays, where the 

sea-water has the usual degree of saltness, is an inch in 

length and one and a quarter 

in breadth. Clark ex- 

pressed an opinion that the animal " differs greatly 

from the typical Tellina in the branchial plate and cha- 

racter of the palpi, and thick obtuse foot." Morch has 

referred this species to the genus Macoma (according to 

Gray Macroma) 

of Leach. 

Da Costa gave it the appropriate specific name of 

rubra ; 

and besides being the T. solidula of Pulteney, it 

is the T. carnaria of Pennant (but not of Linne), Psam- 

mobia fusca of Say, and has four or five other lessknown 

names.

TELLTNA. 379 

4. T. te'nuis * Da Costa. 

T. tenuis, Da Costa, Brit. Conch, p. 210; F. &H. i. p. 300, pi. six. f.8, 

and (animal) pi. K. f. 3. 

Body very flat, yellowish-white : mantle : finely fringed tubes 

white, nearly equal in length and diameter, the upper one 

being usually curved upwards : 

gills two only, one on each side, 

veiy large and membranous, nearly triangular, most delicately 

pectinated, and pale brown : palps triangular, not very long or 

pointed, nor so disproportionately large as in the last species, 

pectinated more strongly inside than outside, of a sombre hue, 

marked with paler lines which give them a mottled appearance 

: foot large, broad, compressed, not very pointed, slightly 

bent. 

Shell triangularly oval, flattened, thin, semitransparent, 

remarkably glossy and polished ; the right valve is a trifle 

and indistinct 

larger than the left : sculpture, exceedingly slight 

concentric strise, with occasional deeper lines of growth ; 

surface is also marked with a few short and obscure longitu- 

dinal lines : colour white, yellow, flesh, orange, pink, or rose, 

of various shades, sometimes whitish with a large rosy mark 

on the umbonal area, or with two divergent streaks of yellow 

or pink, one on each side of the beaks, or pink with similar 

whitish rays, or else with transverse bands of a deeper hue : 

epidermis slight and brilliantly iridescent : margins generally 

not much curved in front, more so and often bluntly angular 

on the anterior side, somewhat flexuous on the posterior side 

and produced to a rather sharp point, from which a slight 

ridge runs to the beak in each valve, separating the posterior 

area ; this margin is obliquely truncate ; the dorsal or ligamental 

margin has a straight slope to the upper angle of the 

posterior side : beaks small, nearly straight, scarcely inflected, 

but turned towards the posterior side : ligament short, but 

large, very prominent, light horncolour : hinge-line obtusely 

angular : 

hinge-plate much broader on the posterior than on 

the other side, and abruptly truncate at the end of the ligament 

: teeth, cardinals as in the last species sometimes the 

; 

left valve has a posterior, or the right an anterior lateral : in- 

side glossy, having the same coloured markings as the outside, 

microscopically wrinkled, and striated towards the margin : 

pallial scar as in the last species : muscular scars oblong, large 

and conspicuous. L. 0*65. B. 0-95. 

* Thin. 

the

380 TELLINIDjE. 

Habitat : 

All sandy beaches, at the low-water mark 

of neap tides or at the depth of a few fathoms. Fossil 

in the Belfast deposit (Grainger), Scotch glacial beds 

(J. Smith and Crosskey), as well as (on the authority of 

Philippi) in the Neapolitan and Sicilian newer tertiary 

strata. Its northern range comprises Upper Norway, 

in 10-40 fathoms, (and possibly Finland,) Sweden, and 

Normandy ; and southward it has been noted on the 

4* ' 

Lnsitanian shores, in the Mediterranean from Spezzia, 

Corsica, and Mogador to Sicily, and also in the Black 

Sea. 

Known to Lister, who figured it as English in the 

' 

Historia Conchyliorum/ Being also a Swedish shell 

it could hardly have escaped the notice of Linne, and it 

probably was his T. incarnata. That species is described 

in the l 

Fauna Suecica/ and the size given (" extimi 

pollicis") is the same as that of T. bimaculata. The 

identity of our shell with the first-mentioned Linnean 

species was suspected by Mr. W. Wood but as another 

; 

species has been called incarnata, and Da Costa's name 

tenuis is now universally adopted for the present species, 

it is better to retain the latter name. According to 

Philippi, Mediterranean examples are much smaller than 

those from the German Ocean. In a specimen from 

Tenby the lateral tooth in the right 

valve is extraordi- 

narily developed. The present species differs from T. 

balthica in the shell being oval, flat, thin, and remark- 

ably glossy, with a sharp angle at the posterior extremity. 

Mr. Clark suggested the removal of both species 

to another genus. Possibly the Tellinula of Chemnitz, 

or Tellinides of Lamarck, might receive these and other 

species comprised in the section now under consider- 

ation. 

T. tenuis does not burrow deep in the sand ; and the

TELLINA. 381 

shells may often be seen lining the upper tide-mark in 

large bays, having been torn from their soft beds and 

cast up by the waves. Helplessly stranded, amid sea- 

weeds and foam, they lie in the rays of the setting 

sun, wet and glistening, ruby, gold, amber, and opal. 

These petty wrecks always accompany a storm ; and 

afterwards the sea puts on a sorrowful face *, as if half 

conscious and repenting of the havoc he had lately 

made. Who has not enjoyed at such a time a ramble 

on the wide beach, perhaps 

not unobservant of the 

various debris with which it is now strewn, 

pensive 

mood and 

" Framing wild fancies to the ocean's swell " ? 

albeit in a 

The Ettrick shepherd may have had in his eye a 

scene of this kind when he wrote, 

" While fairy shells in myriads lying, 

The smooth hard sand in lustre dyeing, 

Encircle with a far-seen chain 

Of glory the most glorious main." 

The sea in a happier aspect, decorating with shells the 

tawny brow of his bride, the shore, has been portrayed by 

a more modern poet in some well-known lines ; and the 

conchologist ought to be doubly gratified by his favourite 

theme being so immortalized by the northern muse. 

The T. tenuis of Chemnitz is a different species. Our 

shell is his T. incarnata, and probably that of Bisso ; 

but the descriptions of the latter are so vague and in- 

sufficient, that it is almost a waste of labour to attempt 

any identification of his species. It is the T. planata 

of Pennant and T.polita of Pulteney (but not either of 

the species so named by Linne), and the T. extgua of 

Poli. 

* " Whispering how meek and gentle he can be."


5. T. fa'bula*, Gronovius. 

T.fabula, Gron. Zoophyl. iii. p. 268, t. 18. f. 9 ; F. & H. i. p. 302. pi. six. 

f. 9. 

Body clear white : tubes apparently rather longer than in 

T. tenuis, which the animal closely resembles (Forbes and 

Hanley). 

Shell triangularly oval or inclining to oblong, flattened, 

thin, semitransparent, glossy, and having a resplendent and 

prismatic lustre: sculpture, extremely fine, numerous, and 

sharply incised concentric striae, which in the right valve are 

at first regular and parallel, but afterwards become stronger, 

more remote, imbricated, and flexuous, and slant diagonally 

from the upper part of the anterior side towards the front and 

posterior margin ; the surface is also covered with much more 

numerous and close-set microscopical transverse striae, as well 

as with a few slight longitudinal lines, as in the last species ; 

the posterior side (and occasionally the anterior side 

also) 

is 

not marked by the larger striae ; the lines of growth are well 

defined and sometimes form distinct zones : colour pearl-white 

with frequently a tinge of yellow or occasionally of light 

orange : epidermis very thin and brilliantly iridescent : mar- 

gins not much curved in front, semioval on the anterior side, 

flexuous on the posterior side and elongated to a rather sharp 

point, from which an obscure ridge runs to the beaks as in 

T. tenuis ; the posterior margin is short and obliquely trun- 

cate ; the dorsal margin is more or less straight, and slopes to 

the upper angle of the posterior side : beaks small, scarcely in- 

flected, contiguous, and turned a little towards the posterior 

side : ligament as in the last species : hinge-line and hinge- 

plate also similar : teeth, in the right valve two erect, small, 

deeply cloven cardinals ; in the left valve a cardinal of the 

same kind just under the beak, and a much smaller and 

laminar cardinal on the posterior side, which diverges from 

the other at about a right angle ; each valve has a short in- 

distinct lateral on the anterior side : inside chalky-white, 

except the line of the pallia! 

cular scars, which are polished : pallial 

scar and the whole of the mus- 

scar as in the last two 

species, but larger, with the upper angle extending much further 

towards the beak, and infringing on the posterior muscular 

impression: muscular scars irregular, but distinct and 

visible outside. L. 0-5. B. 0-85. 

* A small bean.

TELLINA. 383 

Var. ovata. Shell smaller, of a more oval form in consequence 

of the posterior side not being so much produced, the 

oblique striae partially evanescent, and the epidermis of a 

greenish tint. 

Habitat : 

Common 

in sandy bays and voes, from 

low- water mark to 15 fathoms, on all our coasts. The 

variety is from the Hebrides, Lerwick, and Deal Yoe. 

This species is fossil in the Belfast deposit (Grainger), 

and Mammalian Crag (Searles Wood). Landt has re- 

corded it from the Faroe Isles (as T.> fragilissima) ; 

Lilljeborg, M 'Andrew, and Malm have taken it in the 

Scandinavian seas, at from 3 to 17 fathoms; North of 

France (De Gerville and others) ; Carthagena, 7 fathoms 

(M f 

Andrew) ; Gulf of Lyons (Martin) ; Nice (Verany) ; 

Corsica (Requien) ; Algeria (M'Andrew in 35 fathoms, 

and Weinkauff) ; 

and Sicily (Scacchi, Maravigna, and 

Philippi). 

This differs from the last species (T. tenuis) in its 

smaller size, more oblong shape, and attenuated extre- 

mity, fragile texture, much finer sculpture, and especially 

in the oblique striation of the right valve. Malm 

found the present species in the stomachs of Platessa 

vulgaris and Gadus ceglefinus. Gronovius says that the 

vernacular name of this shell is " Sny-Boontje." Few 

would have suspected that the Dutch, as a people, had 

been nearly a century back such discriminating con- 

chologists. 

It is the Tellinula fragilissima of Chemnitz, 

T. vitrea 

of Gmelin (from the last-named author, who more suo 

changed the original name without taking any notice of 

it), T. semistriata of Solander's MS. (according 

wyn), and T. discors of Pulteney. 

to Dill

384 TELLIXIDiE. 

6. T. squa'lida*, Pulteney. 

T. sqtealida, Pult. in Hutch. Dors. p. 29. T. incarnata, F. & H. i. p. 298, 

pi. 

xx. f. 5. 

Body whitish with a rosy or fleshcolour tint : mantle having 

its edges strongly fringed : tubes speckled ; orifices plain : foot 

large. 

Shell triangularly oval, somewhat inequivalve (the left 

valve being larger than the right), flattened, rather thin but 

almost opaque, of a satiny lustre : 

sculpture, numerous and 

fine concentric striae, which are more close-set in the young 

and afterwards become slightly laminar and imbricated ; the 

posterior side has none of these striae, but is marked across 

with oblique, flexuous, and more compact striae, giving that 

side a rough or scabrous appearance ; the right valve is more 

striated than the left; the surface is also covered with the 

same parallel and microscopical striae as are observable in the 

last species : colour pale orange or yellow, with often a reddish 

mark near the beaks and occasionally one or two faint longitudinal 

rays of a whitish hue on the posterior side, which extend 

from the beaks to the lower margins of the fold : epidermis 

fibrous and brown, usually rubbed off except at the edges : 

margins rounded in front, semioval on the anterior side, ab- 

ruptly sloping upwards, and produced at the posterior end to 

a sharp point something like that of a ploughshare ; 

the poste- 

rior side is decidedly flexuous, as well as obliquely truncate ; 

the dorsal margin on the posterior side is straight, and that 

side is divided lengthwise by two more or less deep and dis- 

tinct furrows, which run from the beak to the posterior angle : 

beaks projecting, small, pressed together and worn by the con- 

tact, turned towards the posterior side : ligament rather large, 

prominent, dark horncolour, separating the valves by a long 

lanceolate gap or depression : hinge-line obtusely angular : 

hinge-plate rather narrow : teeth, cardinals as in T.fabula ; the 

right valve only has a lateral, placed 

on the anterior side near 

the beak and of an obtusely triangular shape : inside polished, 

longitudinally striated towards the margin, 

coloured more 

deeply than the outside : pallial scar large, of the same shape 

as in all the other species of this section : muscular scars simi- 

lar to those of T. fabula. L. 1*1. B. 1-8. 

Habitat : 

Not 

common, on sandv coasts of the 

* Hough.

TELLIXA. 385 

south and west of England, Wales, Ireland, and west 

of Scotland, from 7 to 15 fathoms; Dunbar (Laskey). 

The last-mentioned locality has been designated the 

" hotbed " of our spurious Mollusca : it is notorious 

that much confusion originated in species having been 

formerly stated to be found there, which are now ascertained 

to belong only to tropical seas. Fossil in the 

Kyles of Bute (Crosskey); Sicily and Tarento (Phi- 

to have been found in the 

lippi) . It does not appear 

north of Europe ; 

but its southern range is very exten- 

sive, from the north of France to the iEgean (where 

it is littoral), Madeira, the Canary Isles, and Azores, at 

various depths not exceeding 49 fathoms. 

I have stated in the particulars of T. tenuis my reasons 

for considering that species the T. incarnata of Linne. 

He described it as a Swedish shell, but erroneously referred 

to Lister's figure of Psammobia Fe?Tdensis. The 

present shell is not known as Scandinavian, and is at least 

three times the size stated by Linne for his T. incarnata. 

I believe the species which I have last described is 

partly the T.planata of the ' Mus. Ulr. Reg/ 

and e 

Syst. 

Nat.'; but as the latter name is now used for a larger, 

although similar, Mediterranean shell, it may prevent 

confusion by continuing the old name (squalida) pro- 

posed by Solancler and adopted by Pulteney. It would 

require a vivid imagination to suppose that this can be 

the T. depressa of Gmelin, the meagre description of 

which was taken verbatim from Gualtieri. Our shell has 

certainly none of the colours there indicated, "nunc 

Candida, nunc purpurascente, nunc subrosea." Gual- 

tieri's wretched figures appear to represent two different 

species ; and no habitat is given. Poli called the present 

species T. incarnata, and Donovan T. depressa.

.'386 tellinidê. 

G. Shell oblong, inequilateral, angulated, and slightly gaping 

at the posterior end, concentrically striated ; 

more developed. 

lateral teeth 

7. T. doxa'cina *, Linne. 

T. donacina, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1118 ; F. & H. i. p. 292, pi. xx. f. 3, 4, 


Body oblong, compressed, white : mantle not fringed, bnt 

finely dentated (Clark) (" conspicuously fringed," 

Forbes and 

Hanley) : tabes long and slender, with plain orifices, marked 

at their sides by whitish lines, which appear to represent rows 

of cilia : 

gills suboval, nearly of the same size, pale brown, 

smooth outside, and striated inside by about 30 delicate vessels 

of the branchial circulation: palps subtriangular, narrow, lon- 

gitudinally furrowed, but otherwise smooth outside and pectinated 

within : 

foot pure white, flat, broad, long and pointed. 

Shell triangularly oblong, compressed, of a moderate thick- 

sculpture, numerous fine 

ness, opaque, more or less glossy : 

concentric and rib-like striae, which are more close-set in 

the young, and consequently cover the umbonal area in the 

adult, besides intermediate and more delicate striae, only observable 

by means of a high magnifier, and then chiefly in the 

interstices of the larger striae : colour yellowish-white, rarely 

saffron, ornamented with bright pink longitudinal rays and a 

more conspicuous but shorter streak of a deep rosy or carna- 

tion hue just below the beak in each valve on the ligamental 

side ; the rays are generally broken or interrupted, and fre- 

quently confluent, and they vary in number and arrangement, 

being often in pairs ; in some specimens the ground-colour is 

rosv and the rays white : epidermis fibrous, light reddishbrown, 

seldom retained except in the young : margins rounded 

in front, with an oblique and somewhat flexuous curve to the 

posterior end, also rounded and wedge-shaped on the anterior 

side, truncate and flexuous on the posterior side, which ends 

in a blunt angle ; dorsal margins on both sides straight, the 

anterior twice as long as the posterior, forming between them 

at the point of junction a well-defined obtuse angle ; the posterior 

side slightly gapes, and has an obscure ridge in each 

valve, extending from the beak to the point of the lower angle : 

beaks small, sharp, and contiguous, turned towards the pos- 

terior side : ligament large, prominent, dark horncolour, sepa- 

* So named from its resemblance to a Donax.

TELLINA. 387 

rating the valves by a lanceolate gap or depression, which 

would be a lunule if the ligament were not interposed and 

were seated (as in the Veneridce) on the other side of the beak : 

corselet long and rather deeply excavated ; its colour, 

as well 

as that of the ligamental depression, is carnation : Junge-lirw 

obtusely angular: hinge-plate thick, twice as broad on the 

valve two 

posterior as on the anterior side : teeth, in the right 

small cardinals, that under the beak on the posterior side being 

the larger, triangular, and slightly cloven, besides a short but 

strong anterior lateral near the cardinal tooth on that side, and 

a remote and smaller lateral on the other side ; the left valve 

has similar cardinals, reversed in position, but no lateral tooth: 

inside highly polished and glossy, longitudinally striated towards 

the front margins, which are thickened, of an orange 

tint, usually marked with the posterior ray, and sometimes 

with another ray or streak of the same colour on the anterior 

side : pallial scar having a triangular sinus, which is shaped 

like a foot and ankle (as it is also in all the species of the pre- 

ceding section), very large, extending at the upper end for 

three-fourths of the distance from the front margins to the 

beaks, and at the sides to the edges of the muscular scars : these 

last are large and irregularly oval. L. 0-8. B. 1. 

Var. 1. Lantivyi. Shell of a thinner texture, whitish or 

faintly tinged with yellowish-pink, not rayed. T. Lantivyi, 

Payraudeau, Moll. Cors. p. 40, i. 

pi. 

f. 13-15. 

Var. 2. distorta. Shell rather more compressed, and less 

inequilateral in consequence of the posterior side being more 

produced and not so truncate as in the typical form, with a 

sharper point at that end. T. distorta, Poli, 

f. 11. 

Test. Sic. 1. 15. 

Habitat : Southern, western, and eastern coasts of 

England, North and South Wales, all Ireland, and west 

of Scotland, in shell-sand and among nullipores, in 4-25 

fathoms. Scarborough (Bean); Northumberland and 

Durham, rare (Alder) j Holy Island (Eyton). I am 

not certain of any more northern locality, at home or 

abroad. Var. 1. Ullapool (J. G. J.). Var. 2. Exmouth 

(Clark); Loch Carron (J. G. J.); Hebrides (Barlee). 

This species occurs in a fossil state at Banff (J. Smith) ; 

Coralline Crag (S.Wood); Subapenninetertiaries (Brocs2

388 TELLlNIDiE. 

chi) ; Sicily (Pliilippi). Its southern limits comprise 

the North Atlantic from the Boulonnais to the Lusi- 

tanian coasts and Madeira, the Mediterranean, Black 

Sea (Krynicki), and iEgean, at depths between 7 and 50 

fathoms ; and the two varieties have a range of nearly 

equal extent. 

This elegant little shell can scarcely be mistaken for 

any other of the Tellens above described. Specimens 

in the 

vary in having the strise more or less compact ; 

young these are laminar on the posterior side. 

It is the T. trifasciata of Pennant (but not of Linne), 

T. vanegata of Poli, and T. subcarinata of Brocchi. This 

and the following species have many characters in common 

with Psammobia, and appear to form a connecting 

link between the two genera. 

8. T. pusil'la *, Philippi. 

T. pmi/la, Phil. Moll. Sic. i. p. 29, t. iii. f. 9, a, b. T. fygmaa, F. & H. I 

p. 295, pi. xix. f. 0, 7. 

Body shaped like that of T. clonacina, whitish and transparent 

: mantle plain-edged and not fringed : tubes nearly con- 

tiguous, although separate; incurrent tube bag-shaped, ex- 

exeurrent much longer, very broad and dilated 

tremely short ; 

at the base, and then becoming cylindrical, four or five times 

the length of the other tube ; orifices of both plain : foot very 

large, 

serrated at the sides. 

Shell so closely resembling a dwarf or miniature form of 

the last species, that it is only necessary to point out the dif- 

ference. This never attains one -fourth of the cubical contents 

of T. clonacina : it is more convex in every part and propor- 

tionally more solid : the sculpture 

is much finer and more 

regular : the colouring is brighter and more varied, being rose, 

pink, namecolour, orange, sulphur, lemon, or milk-white, frequently 

of a uniform hue, but more often diversified by rays 

as in the other species, besides having the longitudinal streak 

on each side of the beaks ; specimens have occasionally trans- 

* Little.

TELLINA. 389 

side is not 

parent rays on a white ground : the posterior 

flexuous, gaping, produced, or angular, but abruptly truncate 

and somewhat rounded : both of the lateral teeth in the right 

valve are near the beak, instead of the posterior lateral being 

placed at a distance from it, owing 

side in the two species. L. 0-2. B. 0-35. 

Habitat : 

to the relative extent of that 

Sandy ground, at depths of from 3 to 

85 fathoms, on most of our coasts. I will enumerate 

a few localities :— Balta Sound and the deep sea or 

11 outer haf " in Shetland (J. G. J.) ; Orkneys 

and north 

of Scotland (M'Andrew) • west of Scotland (Bedford 

and others) \ Cork (Humphreys) ; Galway (Barlee) ; 

Dublin Bay (Walpole and Kinaghan) ; Coquet and 

Berwick Bay (Mennell) ; Holy Island, Northumberland 

(Alder) ; Fowey (Barlee) ; Land's End (Hockin and 

Mus. Turton.) ; Plymouth, Exmouth, and Channel Isles 

(J. G. J.). It is not uncommon on the Scandinavian 

coasts, from West Finmark to Bohuslan, 

in 10-25 fa- 

thoms ; but it does not appear to have been found or 

noticed south of Great Britain. Philippi 

first described 

it as a fossil of the Sicilian tertiaries, adding te in Ger- 

mania, ad Casselam, Freden, &c." 

The shell exhibits in every stage of growth the marks 

of difference above specified with regard to T. donacina ; 

and I have never seen any intermediate specimens. Yet 

such may exist. It is somewhat suspicious that the 

present species is only found north, and the other south 

of Great Britain. Both conjointly seem to inhabit no 

other coasts but our own. Further investigations may 

clear up the point as to the specific value of T. pusilla. 

Philippi must have inadvertently communicated to 

Loven the MS. name of 9t 

pygm&a," this species having 

been published by the former in 1836 as "pusilla" 

The T. calcarea of Chemnitz == T. lata, Gmelin = T. 

sabulosa,S])eT\g\eY-= T.inco?ispicif a, Uroderi]) and Sowerby


== Macroma tenera, Leach = T. proximo,, Brown = T. 

sordida, Couthouy, may be classed with Hypothyris 

psittacea, Pecten Islandicus, Astarte crebricostata, and 

A. borealis as having long ago existed in that part of 

the Atlantic which then covered the greater part of the 

British Isles; but all of them are now extinct in our 

seas. I have dredged valves of T. calcarea, but always 

in a semifossilized state (although retaining part of the 

epidermis), among the Hebrides and Shetlands; M'Andrew 

has taken similar specimens in Loch Fyne ; and 

Professor Macgillivray mentions that one was brought 

up by a fishing-line off Aberdeen. This species survives, 

however, on the Danish coasts of the Baltic, and northwards 

to Spitzbergen, as well as on the shores of Asia 

and America from Behring's Straits to Massachusetts. 

It is one of the shells most characteristic of " glacial 9 

deposits, and occurs in every tertiary bed up to the Red 

Crag. Its name ought always to be associated with 

that of the veteran geologist James Smith of Jordan 

Hill, who was the first to detect the remains of an 

Arctic fauna in this country. This was a quarter of 

a century ago; and we can even now understand the 

delight with which the discovery was hailed by scientific 

men, including of course Edward Forbes, whose pithy 

saying on the occasion—" Conchology is ris' "— will not 

easily be forgotten. 

T. remies of Linne (T. fausta, Pulteney), T. reticulata 

of Linne (T. proficua, Pulteney), T. lineata of Turton 

(T. BraziRana, Lamarck), T. bimaculata of Linne, and 

T. similis of J. Sowerby are tropical species, and have, 

from accidental mistakes as well as from ignorance of 

the laws which regulate the geographical distribution 

of the Mollusca, been considered indigenous 

to this 

country. There is a greater probability that the T.

FSAMMOBIA. 391 

punicea of Ginelin (T. lata, Pulteney, and T. incequi- 

striata, Donovan) may belong 

to the southern fauna of 

Great Britain, as it inhabits the Mediterranean ; but I 

do not think it ought to be admitted without further 

evidence. Pultenev is believed to have found it on the 

coast of Dorsetshire Brown is ; 

reported to have dredged 

a specimen off Holy Island, and " 

gives Leith 

" 

shore 

on the authoritv of Sir Patrick Walker ; and Mr. 

Spencer brought me a couple of valves from Heron. T. 

elliptica and T. pellucida of Brown are irrecognizable • 

the former is possibly the young of Tapes pullastra, and 

the latter the frv of Lucina borealis. 

Genus III. PSAMMO'BIA * Lamarck. PL VII. f. 4. 

Bodt oblong or elongated, compressed : tubes longitudinally 

lineated or marked with rows of cilia ; 

orifice of each tube, or 

only of the incurrent or alimentary one, furnished with dentate 

points. 

Shell oblong or elliptical, equivalve, nearly equilateral, 

compressed, striated concentrically as well as longitudinally ; 

: teeth, two car- 

posterior side somewhat truncate and gaping 

dinals in each valve, the posterior one in the left valve being 

disproportionately small and set obliquely, the others cloven ; 

no laterals. 

Tellina and this genus are near neighbours ; but in 

Psammobia the tubes are furnished externallv with Ion- 

gitudinal rows of cilia, the shell is more or less equalsided 

and sculptured by longitudinal as well as con- 

centric strire, and the posterior extremity has a decided 

gape. 

Two other generic names (Lux, Chemnitz, and Gari, 

Schumacher) have precedence of that given by Lamarck, 

but they are antiquated. 

* Living in sand.


1. Psammobia tellinel'la *, Lamarck. 

P. tettinella, Lam. An. sans Vert. v. p. 515 ; F. & H. i. p. 277, pi. xix. f. 4, 


Body oblong, pure white : mantle dentated in front and 

fringed 

behind from the beaks to the tubes: the latter are 

moderately long, tapering, and divergent ; 

the excurrent tube 

is the more slender, and curved upwards, marked lengthwise 

with eight fine lines of intense frosted white running from one 

end to the other, and having its orifice encircled with exceed- 

orifice of incurrent tube 

ingly 

minute and short white cirri ; 

furnished with six similar cirri and intermediate shorter ones : 

gUls suboval, pale brown, hanging obliquely, and coarsely 

striated on both sides; upper very small: palps rather subtriangular, pointed, 

long, 

pale brown, outwardly smooth, and 

inwardly coarsely pectinated transversely, not furrowed as in 

Tellina donacina : foot flat, sharp-edged, slightly bent, and 

lanceolate at the point. 

Shell oblong, compressed, rather thin than solid, opaque, 

slightly glossy: sculpture, very delicate and close-set but 

somewhat irregular concentric striae, with occasional and more 

strongly-marked lines of growth ; 

the concentric or transverse 

striae are crossed by others, which are longitudinal and equally 

fine, but sometimes become larger and almost rib-like on the 

posterior slope ; in fresh specimens the surface is thus faintly 

decussated, but the longitudinal striae always predominate : 

colour yellowish-white tinged with violet or flamecolour, varie- 

gated by rays of either of those hues, or of pink, and diversified 

by short longitudinal streaks or wavy and irregular lines 

of the same tint ; usually on the anterior (and frequently also 

on the posterior) side of the beaks are short but broadish rosy 

the colour is uniform 

streaks as in Tellina donacina ; rarely 

milk-white or : purple epidermis thin, pale yellowish-brown, 

generally obliterated : marc/ins slightly and obtusely 

curved in 

front, more acutely so on the anterior side, and bluntly pointed 

at the posterior extremity, from which the margin in each 

valve slopes with different degrees of curvature to the beak, 

the deflection on each side of the umbo being nearly equal; 

the posterior side is somewhat angular, and both sides are 

wedge-like: beaks small, sharp, contiguous, turned towards 

the posterior side : ligament short, prominent, at first of a 

* Eesembling a small kind of Tellina.

PSAMMOBIA. 393 

golden yellow, but afterwards horncolour, more or less annu- 

lated, separating the valves (as in T. donacina) by an ellip- 

tical gape : corselet short but deep : hinge-line almost straight 

or very little curved in the adult, obtusely angular 

in the 

young, occasionally stained inside with rose-colour : hinge- 

plate narrow and thick, abruptly 

truncate at the outer end of 

the ligament : teeth, in the right valve two small knob- like 

and diverging cardinals, the anterior being a trifle the larger ; 

in the left valve a small erect cardinal in the centre of the 

hinge, seated in a cavity, 

besides another minute laminar 

one in a line with the beak and at a right angle to the edge 

of the hinge-plate ; the three largest teeth are bifid : inside 

polished and very glossy, coloured and rayed like the outside, 

and sometimes having a short white longitudinal streak 

below the beak, microscopically fretted indistinctly 

throughout, and 

striated lengthwise towards the edge, which is 

thickened: pdtlial scar well defined ; sinus oval, not very large 

or deep, extending from the posterior muscular scar about 

halfway across the interior, apparently double in consequence 

of a shifting or enlargement of the tubular base : muscular 

scars irregularly triangular, anterior the larger of the two. 

L. 0-6. B. 1-15. 

Var. gracilis. Shell broader in proportion to its length, 

flatter, and of a slighter consistency, somewhat gaping at both 

ends ; a few of the concentric striae assuming the form of 

irregular grooves or ridges ; colouring more delicate, sometimes 

bright orange or marked with short purplish streaks, 

and not unfrequently milk-white with dusky or pure white 

streaks. 

Habitat : English, Welsh, Irish, and Scotch coasts, 

from one extremity to the other, in sand and among 

nullipores, at depths betAveen 4 and 85 fathoms, but 

locally distributed. The variety is from deep 

water off 

Shetland, and resembles Galeomma Turtoni in shape. 

P. tellinella is a fossil of the Coralline Crag. It inhabits 

the upper and western coasts of- Norway, in 3-40 fa- 

thoms ; and M'Andrew has taken it on the Lusitanian 

coasts, 

in 15-30 fathoms. 

It is an active little mollusk burrowing and swimming 

s 5


with rapidity, the latter operation being effected by a 

series of jerks. The tubes are capable of great exten- 

sion ; the larger or imbibing one is sometimes as long- 

as the shell is broad, and thrust out in everv direction 

as if in search of food. 

Montagu considered it the young of P. vespertina, 

which is invariably a natter and more oval shell. Pay- 

raudeau seems also to have mistaken the two ; 

the present 

species is probably his P. fragilis. It is the P. 

fiorida of Turton, 

but not of Lamarck. 

2. P. costula'ta *, Turton. 

P. costulafa, Turt. Conch. Dith. p. 87, t. 6. f. 8 ; F. & H. i. p. 279. pi. six. 

f.5. 

Body milk-white, delicately suffused with pink: mantle 

having thickened edges, which project beyond 

the valves in 

front and at the sides, and are slightly cirrated, especially at 

the posterior end : incurrent (or lower) tube very long, cylindrical, 

and octangular; each angle is clothed with a row of 

minute cilia and terminates at the orifice in a tooth-like 

point : excurrent (or upper) tube conical, contracted at the 

orifice, which is plain and covered with eight longitudinal rows 

of cilia like those of a Beroe; both tubes diverge from each 

other at a right angle, the lower one being straight or but 

slightly bent, and the other (which is much the shorter of the 

two) turned : upwards foot flexible and pointed. 

Shell resembling that of P. tellinella, var. gracilis, 

in almost 

every respect but the peculiar sculpture of the posterior slope. 

Instead of this part being simply marked by minute or deli- 

cate longitudinal stria?, it has from twelve to twenty strong 

and sharp thread-like ribs, radiating from the beaks to the 

outer margin in each valve, which is consequently scalloped or 

notched ; this ribbed area is distinctly defined, and separated 

from the comparatively smooth portion of the surface. The 

shell is also of a thinner texture ; the colour of the rays is 

the streak on 

deeper and usually purple, but not so regular ; 

the anterior side of the beak is broader and more like a ; patch 

and the posterior side is rather broader and more truncate. 

L. U-45. B. 0;75. 

* Sli^htlv ribbed.

Habitat : 

In 


fine sand, at from 15 to 85 fathoms, off 

Guernsey (Turton, Metcalfe, Hanley, and Barlee); Tor bay 

(Turton) ; Exmouth (Clark) ; Goran and Port Cnrno 

Cove, Cornwall (Peach and Miss Lavars) ; Birterbuy 

Bay, co. Galway (Walpole); Cork (Humphreys) ; Belfast 

Bay (J. G. J.) ] Ayr (J. Smith) ; Skye (Barlee) 3 Shet- 

f 

land M ( Andrew, Barlee, and J. G. J.). I observed a 

specimen in Mr. Searles Wood's collection in the British 

Museum mixed with P. tellinella, and marked " Coral- 

line Crag " j Apulia (Philippi). Sars has recorded it 

from Christ iansund, and Lilljeborg from another part 

of the Norwegian coast; M fAndrew has dredged it 

off Gibraltar, Madeira, the Canaries, Mogador, 

Gulf of 

Tunis, Algiers, Balearic Isles, and Pantellaria, at depths 

Martin has taken it in 

varying from 3 to 60 fathoms ; 

the Gulf of Lyons ; Requien has enumerated it as a 

Corsican shell ; Philippi described it as Sicilian ; "Coasts 

of Greece (Graves and Spratt)," according to Forbes and 

Hanlev. The number and extent of the localities above 

mentioned on the authority of Mr. M fAndrew are proofs 

of the energy and scientific skill with which his dredging 

operations have been conducted throughout a great part 

of the European seas. His tabulated results have been 

of the greatest service to me in the preparation of this 

work. 

The animal is not less agile than that of P. telli/iella, 

occasionally leaping like Donax vittatus and repeating 

the action three or four times in succession. The shell 

does not appear to attain quite the same size as the 

other species ; my largest specimen is only half an inch 

long 

cors, 

and nine-tenths of an inch broad. 

Philippi at first gave this species 

the name of P. dis- 

but afterwards substituted that which had been 

previously published by Turton.

396 TELLINID^. 

3. P. Ferroensis *j Chemnitz. 

Tettina Ferroensis, Chemn. Conch. Cab. vi. p. 99, 

eizsis. F. & H. i. 

p. 274, pi. xix. f. 3. 

1. 10. f. 91. P. Ferro- 

Body elongated, white or of the palest brown : mantle clothed 

with a short white fringe, or rather with fine dentations : tubes 

of nearly equal size and length ; the branchial is somewhat 

the larger and longer, and when not fully extended it appears 

finely corrugated and marked with two longitudinal bars, and 

its orifice has six plain cirri; the excretal tube curves upwards, 

and its orifice has no cirri : 

gills and palps nearly as 

and bevelled to a 

in P. tellinella : foot very large, flat, long, 

sharp edge. 

Shell oblong and somewhat rhomboidal, compressed, rather 

solid, opaque, more or less glossy when not covered by the 

the right valve is usually larger than the other and 

epidermis ; 

slightly overlaps it : sculpture, numerous fine, but not raised, 

concentric ridges, which are sharper on the anterior side and 

often laminar or slightly imbricated on the posterior side, be- 

sides minute and close-set parallel stria? in the interstices of 

the ridges ; the surface is also covered with slight and indis- 

tinct longitudinal or radiating lines, and the posterior slope or 

area is often more or less marked with half a dozen slight 

ribs, which radiate from the beaks and (especially in the 

young) produce a cancellated and prickly appearance by their 

intersecting the transverse ridges : colour beneath the epidermis 

pink of different shades, diversified by longitudinal rays 

of yellow or milk-white, some of which are broader than the 

rest and frequently confluent or broken ; the surface also is 

often marbled with short white lines or streaks ; 

now and then 

(but rarely) the colour is uniform purple : epidermis thick, 

fibrous, more persistent than in either of the preceding species, 

dusky in the adult and yellowish with a green tint in the 

half-grown and young : margins not much rounded in front, 

and occasionally almost straight, semioval, and wedge -like on 

the anterior side, abruptly and obliquely truncate on the posterior 

side, with an indentation or flexure on the ventral side 

of the posterior angle ; a keel extends from the beak to this 

angle, and the area thus separated is flat or depressed, and 

sculptured by the radiating ribs above mentioned ; the dorsal 

or ligamental margin is serrated in specimens strongly sculp- 

* Belonging to the Faroe Isles.


tured and forms the upper side of an obtuse angle : beaks 

small, pointed, somewhat calyciform, almost contiguous, slightly 

turned towards the posterior side : ligament rather short, pro- 

minent, keeping the valves asunder in that part : hinge-line 

obtusely angular : hinge-plate thick, broader on the posterior 

side, abruptly truncate at the outer end of the ligament : teeth, 

in the right valve two triangular, somewhat diverging, and 

nearly equal-sized cardinals ; 

in the left valve a central car- 

dinal of the same size and a minute laminar one set obliquely 

the three largest teeth 

or at a right angle to the hinge-plate ; 

are bifid : inside thickened, highly polished, and partially iri- 

scar dis- 

descent, usually stained with purple or lilac : pallial 

tinctly marked, sinuated as in the two last : species muscular 

scars 

irregularly triangular. L. 1. B. 1*8. 

Var. elongata. 

Habitat : 

Shell broader or more produced at each end. 

Rather common on all the British coasts, 

in sandy and nnllipore ground, at depths of from 4 to 

90 fathoms. The variety is from Ullapool. Fossil at 

Preston (J. Smith); Belfast (Grainger); Coralline Crag 

(S. Wood). The exotic distribution of this species, both 

north and south, is extensive, and embraces Iceland 

(Leach), Faroe Isles (Chemnitz), Scandinavia (Loven 

and others), north of France (De Gerville and Mace), 

coasts of Spain and Portugal and the Canaries (M 'Andrew), 

both sides of the Mediterranean (Scaechi, Wein- 

kauff, and others), and iEgean (Forbes), the range of 

between 3 and 40 fathoms in the former 

depth being 

case, and between 8 and 40 fathoms in the latter. Broe- 

chi and Philippi have included it in their lists of tertiary 

shells from Italy. 

Couch mentions having taken a specimen from the 

stomach of a Picked Dog-fish, one of a predaceous tribe 

that might have been supposed to disdain such " small 

deer." The shells are always to a certain extent twisted, 

and sometimes so much so as to be distorted. The fry » 

are triangularly oval.

398 TELLIXID.E. 

P. Ferroensis was probably the Tellina trifasciata of 

Linne, as Muller believed. According 

to Loven it is 

the T. incarnata of the ' Fauna Suecica/ but not of the 

' 

Systema Naturse/ It is strange 

that Linne referred to 

the same figure in Lister's f Historise animalium Angliae 

tractatus" (App. t. 1. f. 8) both for T. incarnata and T. 

trifasciata. That figure undoubtedly represents the pre- 

sent species. It is the T. angulata of Born (but not of 

Linne), T. incarnata of Pennant, T.radiata of Da Costa 

(but not of Linne), T.fervensis and T. Bornii of Gmelin, 

T. truncata of Spengler (but not of Linne), and (in its 

immature state) the T. muricata of Renier; S. Wood 

has noticed four other names given by palaeontologists. 

4. P. vesperti'na *, Chemnitz. 

Lux vespertina, Chemn. Conch.-Cab. vi. p. 72, t. 7. f. 59, 60. P. vesper- 

Una, F. & H. i. p. 271, pi. xix. f. 1, 2. 

Body suboval, elongated, yellowish-white : mantle finely 

fringed : tubes long, and apparently rather wider than in P. 

Ferroensis ; the branchial has six points at its orifice ; the 

other is curved, and its terminal margin is irregular: gills 

hanging obliquely from the dorsal range, of a brown colour, 

rather coarsely pectinated; the upper pair are shorter and 

smaller than the lower: palps triangular, elongated and 

pointed, of a lighter colour than the gills, smooth on their outer 

surfaces and distinctly pectinated within ; they are of equal 

length, and each pair is connected with the other by 

a mem- 

brane surrounding the mouth : foot very large, broad, and 

rather thick. 

Shell of a form between oval and oblong, or partly rhom- 

boidal owing to the angularity of the posterior side, compressed, 

rather solid, opaque, more or less glossy when not covered by 

the : 

epidermis sculpture, numerous irregular and usually obscure 

concentric ridges, which are more observable in large 

the parallel and occasional lines 

specimens near the margins ; 

* Name derived from the similarity of the coloured streaks on the 

shell to the rays of the setting sun.


of growth are conspicuous ; the whole surface is marked by 

slight and irregular longitudinal or radiating lines, as well as 

by close-set microscopical striae in the same direction, but 

these stria? are generally effaced ; in young shells the posterior 

slope is sculptured by radiating ribs as in P. Ferroensis, but 

much less : distinctly colour beneath the epidermis yellowish- 

white, variegated by bright rays of a purplish-brown 

or lilac 

of different widths ; whether the rays are present or not, the 

shell is frequently marbled, speckled, or spotted with white, and 

lineated with short dusky streaks ; now and then specimens 

are found having the umbones of a uniform purple hue : epidermis 

rather thick and persistent, light yellowish-brown in the 

young, and of a deeper or olive-brown in the adult : margins 

not much rounded in front, obliquely curved towards the an- 

terior side, where they are semioval and wedge-shaped, slightly 

indented or flexuous on the ventral side of the lower or posterior 

angle, abruptly and somewhat obliquely truncate but not 

sharply angular on the last-mentioned side, which is indistinctly 

denned by an obscure ridge extending from the beak to 

or but little 

the lower angle dorsal ; margin nearly straight 

inclined, and ending in an obtuse angle which forms the upper 

side of the posterior : margin beaks as in the last : species 

ligament short, extremely prominent, annular and of a closely 

fibrous texture, funnel-shaped, with the smaller end proceed- 

the large 

ing from between the beaks and widening outwards ; 

end is closed and held down to the dorsal edge by a membrano 

as extension, which in the young is of a yellowish colour, 

the body of the separated 

ligament being horncolour; the valves are 

in that part as in the other species : hinge-line ob- 

tusely angular or gently curved : hinge-plate rather thick, 

broader on the posterior side, abruptly truncate at the outer 

end of the ligament : teeth as in P. Ferroensis : inside thick- 

ened, porcellanous, highly polished and slightly iridescent, yellow 

or lemoncolour tinged with purple near the beak, sometimes 

of a uniform lilac, marked with faint longitudinal striae 

towards the front margins, and microscopically wrinkled like 

shagreen : pallial and muscular scars as in the other species. 

L. 1-25. B. 2-25. 

Yar. 1. lactea. Shell milk-white ; all the teeth more erect 

and recurved, and the smallest in the left valve triangular and 

pointed instead of laminar or ridge-like. 

\ r ar. 2. livida. Shell more oval, or longer in proportion to 

its breadth, of a uniform fawncolour, but shaded, and marked


with the usual short dusky streaks ; posterior ridge more de- 

veloped and conspicuous. 

Habitat : Local, but generally diffused, from low- 

water mark at spring-tides to a few fathoms, in sand. I 

will mention a few of the localities : Cornwall, Devon, 

Dorset, Channel Isles, Scarborough, Northumberland 

and Durham, Pembrokeshire, Pwllheli (M f 

Andrew), 

south and west of Ireland, Stranraer in Wigtonshire 

(Bedford), west of Scotland, Firth of Forth (Laskey, 

Brown, and Collins), Moray Firth (Dawson). Var. 1. 

Exmouth (Clark); Kenmare River (J. G. J.). Var. 2. 

Bantry Bay (Humphreys). This species has been found 

in a fossil state at Belfast by Mr. Grainger, and in the 

Coralline Crag by Mr. Searles Wood. Abroad it in- 

habits the Scandinavian sea from Finmark to Bohus- 

lan, and southwards the coast-line from the North of 

France to the Canaries, as well as the European and 

African shores of the Mediterranean as far as Sicily and 

the iEgean, at depths varying from 7 to 40 fathoms. 

Sicilian tertiaries (Philippi). 

At Kenmare this kind is eaten, as well as Venus ver- 

rucosa ; and heaps of their shells may be seen about the 

huts of the peasantry. Twisted distortions now and 

then occur. My largest specimen 

is one and a half inch 

long by two and a half inches broad ; but some collected 

by Lilljeborg in Upper Norway are of still greater dimensions. 

Muller apparently considered this the Tellina radiata 

of Linne ; 

and ' 

Systema 

and the descriptions in the ' 

Naturae ' 

more detailed particulars given in the ' 

Fauna Suecica ' 

are not unsuitable ; but the 

Mus. Ulr. Reg/ 

mention a character which our shell does not possess, 

viz. lateral or marginal teeth. Possibly the angular 

points of the hinge-plate were meant. The words are,

DONAX. 401 

" Marginales utrinque solitarii, remoti a Cardinalibus, 

distincti fossula in ipso margine." It is the T. varu 

abilis of Pulteney, T.depressa of Pennant, Solen pictus 

of Spengler, T. gari of Poli (but not of Linne), Psam- 

mobia florida of Lamarck, and T. albida of Dilhvyn (but 

not of Linne). Leach proposed the generic name of 

Gobrceus for the present species. 

Sanguinolaria deflorata is a tropical shell, and was 

wrongly 

introduced into the British fauna. 

Genus IV. DO'NAX*, Linne. PI. VII. f. 5. 

Body oblong, compressed, rather thick : mantle having a 

double margin, the outer one of which is clothed with three 

rows of fringe : tubes not so long as in the other genera, lon- 

gitudinally lineated ; 

orifices cirrous. 

Shell wedge-shaped, equivalve, inequilateral, rather solid, 

mostly smooth and covered with a glossy epidermis, but some- 

times and partially sculptured by longitudinal striae, some of 

which are decussated by concentric strire : posterior side ob- 

liquely truncate : teeth consisting 

of a double and central car- 

dinal, with a slight diverging laminar one on either side in the 

right valve, and two diverging cardinals (representing a reversed 

V) with a minute tooth between them at their junction 

in the left valve, besides laterals on each side of both valves 

near the beaks : inside having the margin usually more or less 

notched or crenulated. 

Systematists are not agreed as to whether this genus 

should constitute the type of a family apart from the 

TeUinidce. It is bv no means easv to say how many 

and what kind of characters are essential for the formation 

of such a group. The animal of Donax resembles 

that of Psammobia, especially in the ciliated lines of 

the tubes or siphons ; but the mantle has an outer and 

inner margin, the former being ornamented with three 

rows of cirri : the shell is not unlike that of some species 

* A kind of fish mentioned bv Athena'us.

402 tellinidjE. 

of Tellina (e. g. T. donacina) in its cuneiform shape ; 

but the dentition is more complicated. The ligament 

is placed at the smaller end of the shell, as in all the 

other genera belonging to this family. Under the above 

circumstances I have thought it best to unite the Dona- 

cidce with the Tellinidae, considering 

also that we have 

only Donax to dispose of. 

The habits of the present genus are gregarious, and 

usually littoral, although in suitable localities, where a bed 

of sand extends out to sea, the Donaces may be found at 

some depth. According to M. Pictet it did not make its 

appearance until the Tertiary epoch. 

Chemnitz called it 

Serrula, and Poli Peronaa. Lamarck's genus Capsa is 

described as having no lateral teeth, and only differing in 

that respect from Donax : the late G. B. Sowerby added 

another character, viz. a smooth inside margin, 

and in- 

stanced our D. politics as one of the types ; but that 

species certainly 

has lateral or side teeth. 

A. Inside margin strongly notched. 

1. Donax vitta'tus*, Da Costa. 

Guneus vittatus, Da Costa, Brit. Conch, p. 202, pi. 

F. & H. i. p. 332, pi. xxi. f. 4, 5, and (animal) pi. K. f. 7. 

xiv. f. 3. D. anatinns, 

Body elongated, purplish-red or yellow: mantle open for 

two-thirds of its extent, thickened at the edges and having a 

double margin ; one margin is short, with sinuous or scalloped 

edges ; the other and outer one is fringed with three rows of 

cirri, the inner two consisting of moniliform white beads of two 

sizes, and the outermost or third row having short, close-set, 

the cirri become longer and 

fine filaments of the same colour ; 

side : tubes trans- 

stronger as they approach the posterior 

parent, of equal length, and when fully exserted not more than 

incurrent tube ornamented with eight lon- 

half an inch long ; 

gitudinal ciliated lines of an opaque- white colour, which give 

* Banded.

DONAX. 403 

it an octagonal appearance ; these lines terminate at the orifice 

in eight small fimbriated prongs, which fold over and enclose 

the tube whenever anything passes into it ; 

the excurrent tube 

has only six of these lines and as many terminal prongs ; 

when the tubes are withdrawn, they are protected by 

a small 

pouch formed out of the mantle ; siphonal 

a very pale orange colour : 

gills large, suboval, light brown ; 

upper pair much smaller and shorter than the lower : palps 

rather long, triangular, pale yellow, smooth externally and 

orifices and cirri of 

distinctly striated internally : foot very large, much compressed, 

bevelled to a sharp edge and lanceolate point when fully extended 

; but when at rest or half exserted, it is puckered and 

transversely ridged. 

Shell triangularly oblong, not very inequilateral, somewhat 

compressed but more convex towards the beaks and sloping 

from that part to the margins, rather thick, opaque, glossy and 

polished: sculpture, numerous fine longitudinal stria?, which 

radiate from the beak but do not extend to the anterior or 

larger side, and only cover about two-thirds of the surface ; 

they are more crowded on the posterior slope ; the posterior 

side is also marked with a few concentric or transverse stria?, 

which are scratch-like and veiy irregularly disposed, never 

reaching to the ventral area ; these last stria? are usually 

llexuous, and observable on one or more parts of the posterior 

area but never on all parts of it ; they are not found in the 

earlier stages of growth, and occasionally (but rarely) they are 

where the two sets of stria? intersect each 

altogether wanting ; 

other a partial decussation is of course the result : colour 

yellow, brown, or purple of different shades, often variegated 

(especially in the young and half-grown specimens) with three 

rays of white, one proceeding from the beak, another crossing 

the ventral range, and the third running along the posterior 

ridge ; the lines of growth are generally marked by broad con- 

centric bands of a deeper hue ; sometimes the colour is uniform 

milk-white : epidermis thin and smooth, like varnish, 

delicately and microscopically 

striated in a transverse direc- 

tion : margins gently curved in front, with a slight indentation 

or sinuosity near the posterior side, which is gibbous, strongly 

angulated, obliquely but not abruptly truncate, and ends in a 

blunt and somewhat rounded point ; the ridge which encloses 

a great part of this side is prominent and extends from the 

beak in each valve, enclosing a kind of enormous lunule with 

projecting lips; anterior margin semioval and wedge-shaped;

404 TELLINIBvE. 

dorsal margin on the anterior side long and sloping but not 

curved, that on the posterior side being much shorter, diver- 

ging from the other at considerably more than a right angle, 

and nearly straight : beaks small, pointed, incurved, and 

turned towards the posterior or ligamental side : ligament very 

short, partly prominent, the lower half being imbedded in the 

with thick- 

hinge-plate, horncolour : corselet long, rather deep, 

ened and : projecting edges hinge-line obtusely angular : hingeplate 

thick, much longer but narrower on the anterior than on 

the posterior side, abruptly truncate at the end of the ligament 

: teeth, in the right valve a triangular and cloven car- 

dinal immediately below the beak, flanked on each side by a 

longer and laminar cardinal, the anterior of which is set ob- 

liquely and the posterior or* larger one in a line with the ligament; 

laterals in this valve two on each side, receiving between 

each pair the single lateral of the opposite valve ; the left 

valve has two diverging cardinals and an intermediate minute 

tooth or denticle ; the laterals (one on each side) in that valve 

are short and sometimes tubercular: inside highly polished 

and usually glossy, more or less stained with violet, especially 

on the posterior side ; margin finely and regularly notched 

from the anterior end to the ligament; the posterior dorsal 

margin is more closely notched or crenulated, and the other 

dorsal margin is quite smooth : pallial scar slight, with an 

oval and rather small sinus : muscular scars strongly marked, 

of an irregular shape. L. 0*6. B. 1*1, 

Yar. 1. turgida. Shell larger, ventricose, longer in proportion 

to its breadth, and nearly lustreless except in the young. 

L. 1. B. 1-6. 

Yar. 2. nitida. Shell somewhat smaller than usual and 

more convex, broader in proportion to its length, of a brilliant 

lustre. 

Habitat : Large sandy bays, 

from low-water mark 

to a few fathoms within the Laminarian zone. Var. 1. 

Stornoway in the outer Hebrides (Barlee). Yar. 2. 

Dredged in 18 fathoms, ten miles off Shields (Damon) 

; and on the Dogger bank in 12-15 fathoms, 

thirty miles from Scarborough (Leckenby) . This species 

is fossil in the Belfast deposit (Millen) ; Wexford 

(James); Ayr (Smith); Moel Tryfaen, Carnarvonshire,

at the height (accurately ascertained) 

DONAX. 405 

of from 1330 to 

1360 feet above the present level of the sea, together 

with about fifty other species of shells mostly of an arctic 

character ! (Darbishire) ; Mammalian Crag, Bramerton 

(S. Wood) ; Sicilian tertiaries (Philippi). M fAndrew has 

taken it on the coasts of Upper Norway in 3-25 fathoms ; 

I noticed specimens from Jutland in the Royal Museum 

at Copenhagen; and southwards it occurs from Schel- 

ling on the Dutch coast to Vigo, as well as in the Mediterranean, 

iEgean, and Black Sea. 

Marvellous accounts have been given of the agility of 

this little shell-fish, one of them being that when it is 

taken out of the sand it will endeavour to regain the sea 

bv a succession of well-directed leaps. 

It certainly can 

twist itself about almost as actively as Nassa neritea 

does in the lagun.es of Venice ; and that is saying a good 

deal for it. The fry have triangular shells, with the 

posterior end more rounded and the beaks prominent ; 

in this stage of growth it is the D. rubra of Turton. A 

specimen in my cabinet is inequivalve, 

overlapping and partly enveloping the other, 

the left valve 

as in Cor- 

bula. The colours of this shell do not soon fade; they 

are, as Tennyson says, of the kind 

"That keep the wear and polish of the ware." 

This is the D. trunculus of Linne, although 

his re- 

ferences to the works of Adanson, Buonanni, Klein, and 

Argenville belong to an allied species which now generally 

bears that name. His descriptions in the ' Fauna 

Suecica' as well as in the tenth and twelfth editions 

of the ' 

Systema 

Naturae ' 

exactly apply to the present 

species ; and the first authority which he cites is Lis- 

ter's f 

Treatises on English Animals/ Da Costa finds 

fault with these inconsistent references ; but he seems


to have lost sight of the fact that Linne knew little 

more of exotic shells than he could glean from the 

meagre accounts and inartistic figures of the authors 

who had preceded him. It is also the D. trunculus of 

Midler's f 

Zoologia Danica/ and of all British conchologists 

except Forbes and Hanley. But since the name 

trunculus has been appropriated by Continental writers 

for the Mediterranean species, I have followed Searles 

Wood in adopting that which was given by Da Costa 

to our shell. The latter is the D. vittata of Lamarck, 

but not his D. anatinum, which appears to be the same 

species as that which is now called D. trunculus. The 

principal difference between his diagnoses 

of the last 

two species is that the former is described as " ob- 

longa," and doubtfully identified with Tellina donacina 

and with Gualtierr's figure of another species of Tellina 

which it is impossible to make out ; while the latter is 

designated "elongata;" and Linne, Lister, Adanson, 

Knorr, and other heterogeneous authorities are cited. 

M. D'Orbigny (pere) gave me in 1830 a specimen of 

the Mediterranean shell, named " Donax anatina" on 

the authoritv of Lamarck, with whom he had been in 

frequent 

communication. Lamarck described his D. 

vittata from British specimens which he had received 

from Dr. Leach. Our shell is also the D. semistriata 

of Poli, and probably the D. fabagella of Lamarck. The 

merits of the last-named author as a natural philoso- 

pher and the founder of the modern school of inquiry 

but 

into the origin of species are unquestionably great ; 

his analytical powers were of an inferior order. He 

evidently did not possess 

what Aristotle considered the 

highest excellence of human wisdom— the faculty of 

discriminating things very much alike.

DONAX. 407 

2. D. trun'culus *, Linne. 

D. trunculus, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1127 (partly) ; F. & H. i. p. 338. 

Body pale yellowish-white : tubes rather long, cylindrical, 

thick, and smooth but lineated ; 

branched : 

cirri of the alimentary tube 

foot compressed, lanceolate, sinuous. (Poli.) 

Shell distinguishable from that of D. vittatus by the follow- 

ing characters :— it is acutely rather than obtusely triangular, 

more inequilateral and bright-looking : the longitudinal stria? 

are finer and less impressed, and there are no transverse or 

concentric stria? : the 

colour is usually olive, blended with 

chestnut and variegated by numerous white rays, or yellow 

with chestnut rays, sometimes orange outside and flamecolour 

within, or milk-white : the posterior margin is more or less 

abruptly truncate, and not sloping gradually to a blunt point : 

the umbones are more prominent : the lateral teeth are much 

less developed, and often rudimentary or indistinct : and the 

inner margin is quite smooth below the ligament, instead of 

being notched or crenulated as in I), vittatus. It attains a 

larger size than that species, although my British specimen is 

only -p^ths °f an incn l°n © an^ ^ncn broad. 

lyiJ 

Habitat : 

Only one specimen 

Exmonth 

(Clark) ; Torbay (Battersby). 

was obtained in each of these lo- 

calities, mixed with the other species. It occurs in the 

Red Crag (S. Wood), and also in the Italian tertiaries 

(Brocchi and Philippi). South of Great Britain it is 

universally diffused, from the coasts of Brittany (De 

Gerville and Collard des Cherres) to Gibraltar (M fAn- 

drew) and throughout the Mediterranean, iEgean 

(Forbes), and Red Sea (Von Hemprich and Ehrenberg), 

both littoral and at depths varying from 2 to 30 fa- 

thoms. 

This may be the Senegal shell-fish named " Pamet " 

by Adanson, and which he says the negroes cook and 

eat, believing 

that it acts as a laxative. We are told bv 

Poli that in his time there was no better kind of shell- 

fish sold at Naples, either for making sauces or season- 

* Having a small piece cut off.


ing small rolls of bread ; and lie adds that it was col- 

lected by means of a rake and net called a "rullo." 

According to Philippi 

D. trunculus is still esteemed a 

delicacy in the sonth of Italy, and known in Sicily as 

" cozzola." M'Andrew says it is as common on the 

table as on the shore at Malaga, being procured by men 

wading with nets as in England for shrimps. It may 

also be seen with other " frutti del mare " in the fish- 

market at Genoa. 

The present species is the Serrula laviyata of Chem- 

nitz (not his Donax laevigata) and D. anatinum of La- 

marck; Risso contrived to make half a dozen species 

out of it. 

B. Inside margin smooth, or minutely crenulated in the adult. 

3. D. politus*, Poli. 

Tcllina polita, Poli, Test. Sic. i. p. 44, t. xxi. f. 14, 15. D. politus, F. & H. 

i. p.33($,pl.xxi.f.7. 

Body yellowish-white : tubes cylindrical, short, thick, smooth 

but lineated, crowned with plain cirri : foot lanceolate, white. 

(Poli.) 

Shell triangularly oblong, not very inequilateral, much 

compressed, with a greater convexity in the umbonal part, 

rather thick, opaque, lustrous : sculpture, scarcely any other 

than a few slight and indistinct concentric lines, and occasional 

marks of growth which alone are perceptible by the naked 

eye : colour chestnut blended with olive, beautifully marbled or 

necked with creamcolour and marked with a conspicuous longitudinal 

ray of the same tint, which proceeds from the beak 

on the 

and is obliquely curved towards the ventral margin 

anterior side ; this ray becomes broader as it approaches the 

margin, being there of a considerable width in full-grown 

specimens ; the beaks are usually violet or flamecolour, and 

variegated by a blotch of dusky purple under the ligament, 

and sometimes by a similar but fainter stain on the other side 

of the beak ; the lines of growth are also distinguished by 

narrow bands of violet when that hue appears : epidermis thin 

* Polished.

DOXAX. 409 

and smooth, olivaceous : margins gently curved in front, without 

any indentation or sinuosity, obliquely and gradually truncate 

on the posterior side, which ends in a blunt and rounded 

point and has a slightly angular slope ; 

oval and wedge-shaped ; 

nearly straight, and on the posterior 

anterior margin semi- 

dorsal margin on that side long and 

side about two-thirds as 

long and equally straight, the point of their divergence representing 

an angle of about 70 degrees : beetles small, pointed, incurved, 

and turned towards the posterior side : ligament very 

short, partly prominent, the lower half being 

imbedded in the 

with thick- 

hinge-plate, horncolour : corselet long, rather deep, 

ened and somewhat : projecting edges hinge-line set at a very 

obtuse : angle hinge-plate thick, much longer but narrower 

on the anterior than on the posterior side, abruptly truncate at 

the end of the ligament, in consequence of the latter being 

partly imbedded in it : teeth, cardinals as in D. vittatus, but 

much slighter and ordinarily not so distinctly cloven laterals 

; 

as in that species, developed in the young but nearly oblite- 

rated in aged individuals : inside highly polished and glossy, 

tinged with violet, or else milk-white with a flamecolour stain 

on the anterior dorsal side, besides a dusky-purple streak near 

the beak on that side and two others of the same hue on the 

posterior side ; margin closely and minutely crenulated in every 

part except the hinge-line : pallial scar slight, with a tongue- 

shaped sinus extending from the posterior side about halfway 

across the interior of the shell : muscular scars distinct, anterior 

triangularly oblong and irregular, posterior smaller and 

nearly 

circular. L. 0*7. B. 1*35. 

Habitat : 

In sand, at the low-water mark of springtides, 

and at the depth of a few fathoms, in the Channel 

Isles and on some parts of the Devonian and Cornish 

coasts ) frequently in Ban try Bay among the " Coral- 

sand " procured for manure, and which is so productive 

of good shells. Leach states that it is common on most 

of our shores, and specifies South Wales as one of the 

localities ; but, although that was for the greater part of 

my life my home and chief " hunting-ground/'' I never 

found this species in the 

Principality nor learnt from 

any of my correspondents 

that it had been discovered 

there : D. vittatus must have been mistaken for it. The


present species occurs in the Coralline Crag. It does 

not appear now to inhabit any part of the European sea 

so far north as the Suffolk coast, its recent distribution 

southern. De Gerville has recorded it 

being entirely 

from the north of France, Cailliaud from the Departement 

of Loire Inferieure, M'Andrew from the coasts of 

Portugal and Gibraltar in 8-30 fathoms, Payraudeau 

and Requien from Corsica, M fAndrew and Weinkauff 

from Algiers, Scacchi and others from Sicily, and 

Forbes from the iEgean. According to Philippi it is 

a fossil of the South-Italian newer tertiaries. 

Linne did not notice this elegant shell, although he 

might have seen a good representation 

' 

Historia Conchyliorum ' 

of it in Lister's 

(A. pi. 385. f. 232, " L Garn- 

sey "). Besides being local, and therefore comparatively 

scarce, it may be readily known from either of the two 

foregoing species by being natter, more oblong, and not 

so inequilateral, and by the surface being more polished 

and lustrous, and never striated; the single white ray 

is also a peculiar feature; the inside margin appears 

smooth, and the crenulations are only to be seen under 

a tolerably strong magnifier ; 

much less distinct. 

and the lateral teeth are 

It is the Tellina variegata /3 of Gmelin, and probably 

his T. vinacea from Buonanni (" Habitat in mari britan- 

nico et balthico " !), D. complanata of Montagu, D. longa 

of Bronn, and D. glabra of Searles Wood. 

D. Laskeyi [Tellina Las key i, Montagu) is not unlike 

the last species in shape, but is much smaller, the 

streaks on each side of the beak are more conspicuous, 

and the lateral teeth are more blunt and obscure. I 

have one of the original specimens (a single valve), 

owing to the kindness of my late friend Mr. Dillwyn, 

who received it from Colonel Montagu. It is supposed

to be a West-Indian shell ; 

MACTRID^. 411 

and there is no satisfactory 

evidence that it has ever been found in the British seas, 

much less in the Firth of Forth. 

D. clenticidatus (Linne) is West Indian, and likewise 

Chemnitz called it D, punctata, Da Costa 

f spurious." 

Cuneus truncatus, and Donovan D. crenulata, the last 

common on the western coasts 

alleging that it was " very 

of England and also on those of Ireland and Scotland." 

Linne assigned to this species the Mediterranean as a 

habitat, on the authority of F. Logie, one of his pupils ; 

Payraudeau 

same locality ; 

and others afterwards recorded it from the 

and the Rev. R. T. Lowe lately observed 

specimens at ' ' 

Mogador. It is the Nusar v of Adanson. 

Family XV. MAC'TRIDÊ, (Mactrache) Fleming. 

Body oval or : oblong mantle closed to some extent, fringed 

at its : edges tubes more or less elongated, in some genera 

united and in others : 

separate gills consisting of an unequal 

on each side : 

pair foot tongue-shaped and flexible. 

Shell equivalve, triangularly oval or oblong, sometimes 

gaping at the posterior end or at both ends, usually sculptured 

by fine concentric striae : epidermis fibrous : ligament double, 

the external one slight and placed on the larger side of the 

shell, and the internal one (or cartilage) solid, placed 

on the 

same side, and occupying a large pit or cavity in the hinge : 

teeth, two cardinals in each valve (except in tScrohicularia, 

which has only one in the left valve), besides more or less dis- 

tinct laterals : 

distinct. 

pallial scar sinuated : muscular scars deep or 

The present volume will conclude with this family, 

being the last of those which have the mantle open. 

is remarkable for possessing a double ligament, one ex- 

ternal and the other internal ; 

It 

but otherwise it is not of 

much repute, whether we look to the shape 

colour of the shell. Usually 

or to the 

the former is short or 

stumpy, and the latter pale and unattractive. It is, 

t 2

412 MACTRID.E. 

however, a numerous and widely spread group 

: its 

favourite habitat is sand or mud. Dr. Carpenter has 

ascertained that the texture of the shells presents the 

same general characters as in the Tellinida?, but that the 

indications of organic structure are more distinct. In 

those of Mactra and Lutraria the cells are especially 

observable, although irregular in the one and elongated 

in the other. 

Genus I. AMPHIDES'MA*, Lamarck. PL VIII. f. 1. 

Body oval, compressed : mantle thick, united for two-thirds 

of its length : tubes separate and unequal, not very long, and 

having their orifices fringed 

with cirri. 

Shell oval, only slightly inequilateral, wedge-shaped, closed 

at both ends, longitudinally as well as concentrically striated 

in some : species beaks turned towards the posterior side : teeth, 

two cardinals, of unequal size, in each valve ; 

less distinct. 

laterals more or 

Although, as Lamarck observed, the Amphidesmata 

in the aggregate appear to form an artificial — group 

and, as originally constituted, they were truly 

a hete- 

rogeneous assemblage of species — the characters of this 

and it serves to 

genus in a restricted sense are peculiar, 

connect the present with the immediately preceding 

family. In the outward form of the shell (as well as 

in the siphonal tubes) it resembles Donax, and in the 

structure of its hinge Mactra. Whether the genus 

Mesodesma of Deshayes is different may be an open 

but there is much less cause to separate Tur- 

question ; 

ton's genus Ervilia, which not only was very inade- 

quately and inaccurately defined, but did not even include 

the only British species lately assigned to it by 

Forbes and Hanley, and which will be now described. 

* Having a double ligament.

AMPHIDESMA. 413 

Amphidesma casta neum *, Montagu. 

Donax castanea, Mont. Test. Brit. App. p. 573, t. 17. f. 2. Ervilia castanea, 

R & H. i. p. 341, pi. xxxi. f. 5, 6. 

Shell obliquely and triangularly oval, or inclining 

to ob- 

long, convex, thick, opaque in the adult and semitransparent 

in the young, glossy : sculpture, slight and irregular concentric 

striae, which now and then become laminar on the anterior 

side : and in fresh specimens may also be observed numerous 

and minute longitudinal striae, especially on the posterior side, 

which radiate from the beaks and extend to the margins : 

colour reddish-chestnut, of a deeper tint on the posterior side, 

with a short chocolate streak or ray in each valve, curving 

from the front or ventral margin to about two-thirds of the 

distance from the beak ; this streak is narrow at the top and 

rapidly enlarges to its base as in Donax politus ; occasionally 

the colour is milk-white : : 

epidermis slight, yellowish margins 

nearly straight or but little curved in front, rounded and semioval 

at each end, sloping behind from the beaks at an obtuse 

angle, where the dorsal margins are straight, and half as long 

again on the posterior as on the other side : beaks veiy small, 

blunt and calyciform, incurved, turning a little towards the 

posterior side umbones rather tumid but not : 

; 

projecting ligament 

extremely small and caducous : cartilage thick, contained 

in a triangular pit which shelves inwards and is enclosed by 

strong walls or sides : hinge-line gently curved : hinge-plate 

very strong, solid, and broad : teeth, in the right valve a large 

erect, triangular and oblique cardinal on the anterior side, and 

a smaller diverging one on the other side of the cartilage-pit, 

besides a long but indistinct laminar lateral on each side in 

; 

the left valve are similar cardinals but of more equal size, and 

the laterals are usually obliterated or obscure : inside polished 

and glossy; margin minutely and closely crenulated: pallia! 

scar well defined, with a rather short oval sinus which does 

not reach half way across : muscular scars oval, the anterior 

being the deeper and more conspicuous. L. 0-3. B. 0-5. 

Habitat : Coasts of Cornwall and Scilly Isles, in 

20-54 fathoms, but more frequently thrown up on sandy 

beaches ; Herm (Macculloch) ; Cork (Humphreys and 

J. G. J.) ; dredged off Arran Isles, co. Galway, in 10-12 

* Chestnut- colour.

414 MACTRIDvE. 

fathoms (Barlee) . In the latter case only were the specimens 

perfect, although young, and without the animal. 

Laskey gives " Dunbar/'' which (to say the least) is a 

questionable locality. The notices of its extra-British 

occurrence are as follows : Cherbourg (Recluz) ; coasts 

of Spain and Portugal, Madeira and the Canaries, at 

depths varying from 12 to 30 fathoms (M f 

Andrew) ; 

St. Michael, Azores (H.Drouet); Red Sea (Forbes and 

Hanley) . 

The animal is unknown. M fAndrew seems to be the 

only one who has taken this curious species in a living 

state, and he probably had no opportunity of examin- 

ing it. 

The A. nitens of Montagu is West Indian and not 

British. 

A. corneum (Mactra cornea, Poli, but not A. cornea 

of Lamarck), being the Donaoc plebeia of Pulteney, A. 

donacilla of Lamarck, and Donacilla Lamarckii of Phi- 

lippi, is a common Mediterranean shell, but has never 

been dredged or taken on our coasts under circumstances 

that would preclude its being considered exotic. 

A. deauratum (Turton), or Mesodesma Jauresii of De 

Joannis, which according to Turton was dredged off 

Exmouth, is a Newfoundland species. I was informed 

that the original specimen came from Lieutenant Grif- 

fiths, who had made more than one voyage to North 

America, and whose mother's collection of shells was 

much enriched by his endeavours to please her. Mrs. 

Griffiths was an old correspondent of Dr. Turton, as is 

evident from the frequent mention of her name in his 

1 

Dithyra.'

MACTRA. 415 

Genus II. MACTRA*, Linne. PL VIII. f. 2. 

Body oval, tumid : mantle thick, open in front : tubes united, 

enclosed in a sheath, of equal length, and extensile ; orifices 

ciliated. 

Shell triangularly oval, ventricose, nearly equilateral, 

slightly gaping at the posterior end, concentrically striated, 

and occasionally (but slightly) marked -with longitudinal lines : 

beaks turned towards the anterior side, separate : teeth, two 

thin, erect, and diverging cardinals in each valve ; 

those in the 

right valve are of unequal size ; and those in the left valve 

equal-sized, united at their bases, and apparently forming a 

single forked or chevron-shaped tooth ; laterals large and 

laminar, two on each side in the right valve, and one on each 

side in the left valve : 

pallia! scar having a short sinus. 

The shells comprised in this ancient genus are always 

recognizable by their triangular shape and strong hinge- 

process. Searles Wood says that, in a fossil state, they 

have been obtained in the Lias and Greensand formations. 

The genus is largely represented in the newer Tertiaries, 

and continues in a nourishing condition at the present 

day. They seem to prefer sand to mud as a dwelling- 

place. 

A. Shell of a plain or uniform hue ; lateral teeth and sockets 

perpendicularly striated.— Spisida, Gray. 

1. Mactra so'LiDA-fv, Linne'. 

M. solida, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1126 ; F. & H. i. p. 351, pi. xxii. f. 1, 5, and 

(siphons) pi. 

L. f. 2. 

Body more compressed than in most of its congeners, milk- 

white, yellow, or light orange, occasionally tinted with brown : 

mantle less fringed on the posterior side than in other parts ; 

edges thickened : tubes short, but often extended three quarters 

of an inch in specimens considerably under the average 

size ; the orifice of each is furnished with 12-20 short pale- 

yellow, brown, or reddish cirri, which spring from bulbs ; 

* A kneading-trough. 

t Solid.

416 MACTRIDJS. 

below them a bright orange line often encircles the siphonal 

sheath; a conical valve is now and then seen to protrude 

from the opening of the excretal tube : 

gills varying in colour 

from light orange to reddish-brown ; upper pair larger than 

the other, obliquely and very finely pectinated: palps long, 

narrow, pointed, brown of different shades, more distinctly 

striated than the gills, particularly on the inner surfaces : 

large, fleshy, and white. 

foot 

Shell representing in form an isosceles triangle, convex, 

usually solid and thick, opaque, somewhat but not very glossy, 

owing to the continual abrasion of the surface by the sand in 

which it is buried : 

sculpture, numerous slight and irregular concentric 

striae, which often become laminar and almost rib-like 

in front and at the sides, and always at the dorsal margin ; 

lines of growth strongly marked ; 

on the anterior and ventral 

sides in some specimens may also be observed a few slight 

raised lines which radiate from the beak : colour 

longitudinal 

pale yellowish-white, sometimes stained with ochre from a 

sediment deposited in shallow or tidal waters: epidermis 

yellowish-brown, silky in the young and coarse in the adult, 

being in the latter state more persistent at the sides and 

towards the edges : margins curved in front, obtusely angular 

at each end, but more pointed at the posterior side, with a 

rounded slope from the beak to either extremity ; the sides 

(especially the posterior) are more or less angulated 

very small and rather blunt, incurved, turning a little towards 

the anterior side ; 

: beaks 

umbones more or less tumid and projecting : 

ligament short and slight, yellowish-brown: cartilage trian- 

gular, compact and strong, golden-yellow, placed obliquely in 

a direction opposite to that of the beaks and immediately 

under the ligament : 

hinge-line obtusely angular : hinge-plate 

extremely broad, thick, and flexuous, the cartilage-pit projecting 

in the middle : teeth, in the right valve a short laminar 

and erect cardinal on the anterior side, nearly parallel with the 

hinge-line, and a much slighter and scarcely raised cardinal 

forming one of the sides of the cartilage-pit ; laterals in this 

valve two on each side, the inner surfaces of which are strongly 

pectinated or grooved in a perpendicular direction ; the left 

valve has two short cardinals, also on the anterior side of the 

cartilage-pit, united at the base or point of the fork, and of 

equal height and length laterals in that valve one on each 

; 

side, deeply grooved like the laterals in the right valve, but on 

both sides and not merely on their inner surfaces : inside more

MACTRA. 41 7 

or less glossy, microscopically freckled, often iridescent, and 

slightly streaked lengthwise towards the front margin : pdllial 

scar distinct, with a short and tongne-shaped sinns : muscular 

scars irregularly triangular, deep, and of equal size. L. 1*4. 

B. 1-6. 

Var. 1. truncata. Shell longer in proportion to its breadth, 

sides more compressed or 

gibbous, and of a thicker texture ; 

truncate ; umbones prominent; hinge and teeth stronger. M. 

truncata, Montagu, Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 34 ; F. & H. i. p. 354. 

pi. 

xxiii. f. 1. 

Var. 2. conjunctiva. Shell much smaller, having 

the same 

proportions as the variety truncata, and also rather ventricose, 

but thin ; umbones not more prominent than usual. L. 0*6. 

B. 0-85. 

Var. 3. elliptica. Shell invariably smaller than the typical 

form, broader in proportion to its length in consequence of the 

sides being more produced, and of a thinner texture umbones 

; 

not prominent. L. 0*75. B. 1-25. M. elliptica, Brown, 111. 

Conch. G. B. & I. p. 108, pi. 

xli. f. 6 ; F. & H. i. p. 356, pi. xxii. 

f. 3, and (animal) pi. L. f. 1. 

Habitat : In gravelly sand, at low tides and at the 

depth usually of only a few fathoms, on every coast. 

Var. 1. South of Devon and Cornwall, Tenby, Irish 

coasts, Firth of Forth, Clyde district, Orkneys, and 

Lerwick. Var. 2. Shetland (J. G-. J.). Var. 3. Sandy 

of from 10 to 100 fathoms : the dorsal 

bays, at depths 

area is sometimes ribbed in the variety elliptica, as well 

as in the typical form. This exceedingly variable spe- 

cies occurs in all our newer tertiaries, from the last 

raised beach to the Coralline Crag. The ordinary kind 

and the variety truncata have been chiefly noticed as 

littoral and in southern latitudes, their furthest limit 

being Sicily, where the former is also fossil ; the only 

northern locality that appears to be recorded is the 

Scandinavian coast, on the authoritv of O. F. Mul- 

ler. The variety elliptica has essentially a northern 

range, from Iceland (Steenstrup) 

to Kullen in the 

t 5

418 mactrid^:. 

south of Sweden (Loven), at depths of from 7 to 150 

fathoms. 

M. solida was formerly, and perhaps is still, eaten in 

Devon and Cornwall. In Leigh's ( 

cashire ' 

History 

of Lan- 

it bears the singular and certainly not plebeian 

name of " a pectnncnlus with azurine circular lines in- 

terpolated." The animal is not in the least timid ; and 

soon after being caught and put into a vessel of sea- 

water, it displays its agility by leaping 

about with its 

tubes extended. In some specimens of the variety 

elliptica the lateral teeth in the left valve are only 

striated on the outside. The authors of the ' British 

Mollusca ' 

owned, in the Supplement to that excellent 

work, their suspicions that the M. truncata of Montagu 

ought to be united with the present species. I must 

take another step in the same direction, and reduce 

the M. elliptica of Brown to the rank of a variety. I 

may be wrong, and am open to conviction ; 

but I con- 

fess that I cannot draw a line which will separate one 

more than the other of these so-called species from the 

typical form. I expect that some of my scientific 

readers will lay down the book and say to themselves, 

" Well ! I wonder where all this radical innovation will 

end ! Who 

can possibly doubt M. elliptica being a good 

species ? Why, it is much smaller, of an oblong shape, 

thin, and glossy ; while M. solida is triangular, thick, 

and dull. Even the young of each species exhibits 

its peculiar characteristics." In reply I would ask the 

annotators to recollect the much greater difference that 

exists between shells of Buccinum undatum taken at 

low water and at a depth of from 70 to 80 fathoms, as 

well as with respect to Venus gallina and other bivalves 

subject to similar bathymetrical and climatal changes. 

I regard M. truncata as the littoral or shallow-water

MACTRA. 419 

and southern variety, and M. elliptica as the deep-water 

and northern variety of one and the same species. Clark 

says that M, elliptica appears distinct, because of its 

delicacy and elegance ; but he adds that M. solida is at 

Exmouth strictly a littoral species, and that the other is 

never taken except by the dredge in the coralline zone, 

six miles from the shore. Every conceivable gradation 

of shape and solidity may be seen in a recent state ; 

and the union of M. solida and M. elliptica is cemented 

by palseontological researches— showing the advantage 

(if not the necessity) of such investigations in the study 

of the Mollusca. As Searles Wood has remarked, spe- 

cimens of M. ovalis from the Red Crag may belong to 

I may 

either species. 

also observe that when M. solida 

gradually finds its way into deeper water than it had 

been accustomed to— for instance, in descending from 

the Dogger bank down its slopes to the Silver-pits on 

the Yorkshire coast— the shell becomes more slender 

and glossy, although of nearly the usual size. It has 

then all the appearance of a large M. ellij)tica. 

The typical form is the Tingonella gallina of Da Costa, 

M. vulgaris of Chemnitz, and probably M. castanea of 

Lamarck ; and the variety truncata is the Trigonella 

zonaria of Da Costa, M. subtrwicata of Donovan (but 

not of Da Costa), M. crassatella of Lamarck, and M. 

crassa of Turton. The latter variety was figured by 

Lister as " Concha crassa." 

2. M. subtrunca'ta *, Da Costa. 

Trigonella subtj-uncata, Da Costa, Brit. Conch, p. 198. M. mbtnmcato, 

F. & H. i. p. 358, pi. xxi. f. 8, xxii. f. 2, and (siphons) pi. L. f. 3. 

Body convex, milk-white with sometimes a faint tinge of 

crenated or serrated rather 

yellow : mantle having its edges 

* Somewhat truncated or lopped.

420 mactrim. 

than fringed: tubes clothed with an evanescent epidermis, 

varying in colour from white to yellowish or reddish ; their 

sides are scabrous at intervals, and the excretal tube is rough, 

with a serrated keel, as well as furnished with the usual re- 

tractile valve ; orifices fringed with a double row of white, 

yellow, or pale-red cirri : 

gills and palps light brown : 

narrow and tapering, yellowish-white. 

foot 

Shell so closely allied to M. solidd, and particularly to its 

variety elliptica, that I will content myself with pointing out 

the leading characteristics in which it differs from that species. 

This is much smaller than the typical form of M. solida, more 

convex, distinctly and strongly angulated on both sides, in 

consequence of which a large lunule- shaped depression is 

formed in front of the beaks, and another at their back ; 

deeply and regularly striated or grooved in those parts, 

it is 

as well 

as frequently on other portions of the surface ; the umbones 

also project considerably more than in either the above form or 

variety, owing to the contraction and angularity of the sides. 

L. 0-8. B. 1-1. 

Yar. 1. striata. Shell larger and thicker, its margins re- 

presenting almost an equilateral triangle, extremely gibbous, 

more deeply and thoroughlv striated. M. striata, Brown, 111. 

Conch. G. B. & I. p. 108, pi. xli. f. 10. 

Var. 2. incequalis. Shell resembling the last in every re- 

spect but the proportional length of the sides, the posterior 

being obliquely produced to a wedge-like point. 

Var. 3. tenuis. Shell more ventricose, but expanded, of a 

much thinner texture, longer in proportion to its breadth, 

smooth or but very slightly and irregularly striated in front, 

although having the usual grooves or ridges on the dorsal part 

of each side. 

Habitat : 

With 

the last species and equally diffused, 

from low- water mark to 27 fathoms. Var. 1. Exmouth, 

Irish coasts, west of Scotland, and Lerwick. Var. 2. 

Lough Strangford (Adair). Var. 3. A single valve only, 

dredged in 78 fathoms, 40-50 miles south-east of the 

Whalsey Skerries in Shetland. This remarkable variety 

is not unlike M. stultorum in shape and consistency; 

but it has the peculiar dorsal grooves and striated late-

MACTRA. 421 

ral teeth of the present species ; it is analogous 

to the 

variety elliptica of M. solida. Mr. Alder also mentions, 

in his ( 

Catalogue of the Mollusca of Northumberland 

and Durham/ " a thinner variety from deep water." M. 

subtruncata is not uncommon in our newer tertiaries as 

far back as the Red Crag. It ranges from East Finmark 

(Danielssen), throughout the North Atlantic, to 

Gibraltar (M { 

Andrew), 

both sides of the Mediterranean 

to Sicily (Scacchi and others), and to the Black Sea (Middendorff), 

at depths varying in each of these tracts from 

the shore-line to 40 fathoms. Brocchi has recorded it 

among his Subapennine fossils, and Philippi from the 

Sicilian tertiaries j and I found it in the Uddevalla beds, 

and at Biot near Antibes in upper miocene strata. 

A small is 

variety gathered alive at low water in 

Lamlash Bay to feed pigs. (Alder.) According to Mr. 

Hyndman this species is called the " Lady-cockle " at 

Belfast. Mr. Norman says that it goes by the name of 

" Aikens " in the Clyde district, where it is frequently 

used as bait, and for that purpose either raked up from 

the sands at low tides or gathered by the hand when 

thrown up on the beach by storms. In Dr. Lands- 

borougrVs agreeablv written ' 

Excursions to Arran ' 

is stated that the last-mentioned name is " confined to 

the Lowlands ; in the Highlands it is called ' Mureck- 

baan/—baan signifying the colour, which is white, and 

Mureck (it is probable) being the Celtic origin of the 

Latin Murex, the shell-fish which yielded the Tyrian 

dye or imperial purple." Mr. Norman confesses that 

his powers of imagination are at fault, and that he fails 

to see any connexion between Murex trunculus and " Mu- 

reck-baan." The variety striata attains a much larger 

size than the typical form ; I have a specimen nearly 

an inch and a quarter long, an inch and a half broad, 

it

422 MACTRID^. 

and more than three quarters of an inch thick. The 

young and fry of this species 

characters as the adult. 

have the same constant 

It is the M. stultorum of Pennant and M. lactea of 

Poli (hut neither of them Linnets species of those names), 

M. triangula of Renier, M. cuneata of Sowerby's ' Mi- 

neral Conchology/ M, deltoides of Lamarck, M. Euxi- 

nica of Krynicki (according to MiddendorfF), and the 

M. obtruncata and M. triangulata of Searles Wood. 

M. lateralis, Say (a common North-American shell), is 

probably a variety or offset of the same species. 

B. Shell longitudinally rayed ; lateral teeth and sockets 

smooth. 

3. M. stulto'rum *, Linne. 

M. stultortm, Linn. Syst. Nat. p. 1126 ; F. & H. i. p. 362, pi. xxii. f. 4, 6, 

and xxvi. f. 2. 

Body white faintly tinted with blue : mantle open through- 

out the ventral range, thickened at its edges, which are clothed 

with a delicate fringe of short intensely white filaments : tubes 

never exserted more than half an inch, covered with a slight 

and pale-brown wrinkled epidermis, which appears to be in- 

dependent of that on the shell ; orifices encircled by dingy palered 

unequal cirri, the alimentary tube having 12-16 (which 

are somewhat longer than the other set), and the excretal tube 

16-20 of these appendages; the retractile valve of the last- 

narrow and attached for 

mentioned tube is conspicuous : 

gills 

two-thirds of their length, of the same proportionate size as 

in other species, and (as well as the palps) similarly striated : 

foot white, thick, and plastic. 

Shell of the same shape as M. solida, but more evenly 

convex and always ventricose, thin, although nearly opaque, 

and glossy : sculpture, numerous delicate and minute irregular 

concentric strice, which are apparently formed by laminar folds 

of the epidermis and become somewhat coarser at the sides ; 

occasional lines of growth are also observable : colour yellowish- 

* Fools'.

MACTRA. 423 

white variegated by longitudinal rays of light reddish-brown, 

which are often confluent, or arranged in sets ; purplish at the 

beaks ; lines of growth represented by white bands or zones : 

epidermis yellowish-brown, laminar, and glistening, at the posterior 

end fibrous and frequently ramified or interlacing, so 

as to resemble some of the sessile kinds of Tubulariidce : 

margins regularly curved in front, and obtusely angular at 

both ends, with a slightly rounded slope or deflexion on each 

of the dorsal sides from the beak to the terminal angles ; the 

anterior and posterior sides are somewhat angulated, the latter 

more distinctly : beetles sharp, triangular, and incurved, turned 

a little towards the anterior side ; 

umbones swollen and pro- 

minent, but not much projecting : ligament short and slight, 

yellowish-brown: cartilage triangular, compact, reddish-brown 

or chestnut, placed obliquely as in the other species : hinge- 

line curved : lunge-plate very broad, strong, 

and flexuous in 

consequence of the projection of the cartilage-pit and adjacent 

part : teeth, in the right valve a short, laminar, and erect car- 

dinal, nearly parallel with the hinge-line, and another of the 

same description and height, placed at a right angle to the 

first, and forming one of the side-walls of the cartilage-pit ; 

both these lie directlv under the beak and on the anterior side : 

laterals two on each side, thin, erect, laminar, elongated, quite 

smooth and polished ; the outer are shorter and smaller than 

the inner pair; in the left valve are two erect and laminar 

cardinals of equal size and height, united throughout at the 

back and diverging at a right angle, like the flaps of a single 

this valve has also a thin, erect, laminar and 

folding screen ; 

elongated lateral on each side, which are higher in the middle 

and curve gradually to their bases : inside white, marked with 

clear specks, and minutely freckled, .slightly 

striated in a lon- 

gitudinal direction: pallial scar distinct, with a very short 

sinus representing an arc of three-fourths of a circle : muscular 

scars also distinct, irregularly oval and nearly equal-sized. 

L. 1-5. B. 2. 

Var. cinerea. Shell rather more solid, ashy-grey or creamcolour, 

without rays. M. cinerea, Montagu, Test. Brit. Suppl. 

p. 35. 

Habitat : 

From 

the verge of low-water mark at 

spring- tides to 18 fathoms (Goodwick Bay, Pembroke- 

shire), in sandy tracts; and the variety also is widely 

distributed. This species occurs, but not commonly,


in all our upper tertiary strata from the Scotch glacial 

beds (Smith) to the Coralline Crag (S. Wood). Its 

extra-British habitat seems to be southern rather than 

northern. I observed specimens in the Royal Museum 

at Copenhagen from the Danish shores of the Baltic ; 

has been enumerated in every list of French, Lusita- 

nian, Italian, and Algerian shells ; Ehrenberg obtained 

it in the Red Sea, and Forbes in the iEgean ; and 

M'Andrew dredged a single valve off the Canaries in 

35 fathoms. The range of depth ascertained by the 

last-named observer on the coast of Portugal was from 

15 to 30 fathoms. Brocchi and Philippi have recorded 

it as fossil in the newer tertiaries of Italv,— the one from 

the north, and the other from the south. 

Lister discovered and figured this shell. According 

to Bouchard- Chantereaux its inhabitant serves for bait 

to catch whiting in the bays of Normandy. English 

fishes are not less fond of such savoury morsels, as may 

be inferred from the following note of Mr. Dennis :— 

"When the steam dredging-machines were at work at 

the mouth of Newhaven harbour last year [1861], they 

turned up so many of the Mactra stultorum that the 

beach at high-water mark (where a shell rarely occurs) 

was covered with them ; and the trawl-fish, such as soles, 

&c, found their way to the spot where the barges were 

emptied, in such numbers that the Brighton trawlers or 

c 

were most successful in capturing them 

Hogboats ' 

within one hundred yards of the shore." He adds that 

" some of the people eat this Mactra." Shells of a 

smaller size, but thinner and more beautifully rayed than 

usual, were procured by Mr. Rich from the Silver-pit 

in about 30 fathoms. This is similar to 

fishing- grounds, 

the case of M. solida, var. elliptica, mentioned at p. 418. 

The largest specimens are found in Burra fiord in Unst. 

it

MACTRA. 425 

The fry are oval and very tumid. M. solida resembles in 

form and size the variety cinerea of the present species ; 

but, besides being natter and thicker, it invariably has 

strong transverse grooves on each side of the beak. 

I cannot think why Linne gave such an unpolite name 

to this species — unless it originated in a philosopher's 

joke, 

like that attributed to the derivation of Assiminia. 

It is the Trigonella radiata of Da Costa ; and the variety 

is probably the M. coralUna of Buonanni and Linne, 

and the M. siraminea of Lamarck. 

4. M. glau'ca*, Born. 

M. qlauca, Born, Test. Mus. C;es. Vind. p. 51, t.3. f. 11, 12. M. helvacea, 

F. & H. i. 

p. 366, pi. 

xxiii. f. 2. 

Body white, the posterior side and tubes being tinged with 

with short flake- 

golden yellow : mantle delicately fringed 

white filaments ; edges projecting beyond 

the valves : tabes 

conical and rather short, extending about an inch, of equal 

length and diameter, streaked lengthwise with rufous-brown ; 

orifices encircled with short and unequal cirri of the same 

colour. 

Shell triangularly oval, convex but not ventricose, expanded 

and gradually sloping from the umbones to the mar- 

gins, thin for its size, and glossy under the : epidermis sculpture, 

numerous delicate and minute concentric striae, as in 

M. stultorum, and occasional lines of : growth colour yellowish- 

white, variegated by longitudinal rays of yellowish-brown or 

fawncolour, arranged as in the last species, and of a brighter 

hue at the beaks, besides a large stain of chestnut on the dorsal 

margins : epidermis light brown, fibrous, glistening 

like fine 

satin in front and on the anterior side, coarser on the posterior 

side : margins scarcely (if at all) curved on the ventral side, 

and obliquely sloping backwards to the anterior end, which 

is rounded with a tendency to angularity, bluntly angular 

and much broader on the posterior side, where there is a 

considerable gape and an obscure ridge from the beak to 

the angular point in each valve ; dorsal margins very gently 

* Bluish-grey.

426 MACTRIDÊ. 

curved on the anterior side and nearly straight on the other 

side : beaks sharp, triangular, and incurred, turned towards 

the anterior side umbones ; swollen, prominent and projecting 

: ligament short and comparatively slight, reddish -brown : 

cartilage large, but not otherwise different from that of its 

congeners : hinge-line curved : hinge-plate extremely broad, 

reflected over the dorsal margins, strong, not flexuous because 

the cartilage-pit is scarcely advanced beyond the inner edge of 

the plate : teeth, in the right valve two short erect cardinals, 

united behind and diverging from each other at a right angle ; 

laterals two on each side, and of the same description as in 

M. stultorum ; in the left valve two united cardinals, and a 

single lateral on each side— similar to those in the last species, 

except as to size and in the laterals rising from the beak to a 

rounded point at each end and then abruptly falling and continued 

towards the front in a ridge-like form : inside coloured 

like the outside and showing the rays, slightly and irregularly 

scar as in the last 

striated in a longitudinal direction : pallia! 

species : muscular scars B. 4. 

triangularly oval, well marked. L. 3. 

Var. luteola. Shell creamcolour, without rays but stained 

with reddish-brown or chestnut on the dorsal margins. 

Habitat : 

Confined 

to a very few parts of our south- 

ern shores, viz. Hayle, Cornwall, where single valves 

were first found by Miss Pocock, subsequently by 

Lieut. -General Bingham, and since by Mr. Templer, 

Herni and Guernsey, at 

Mr. Jordan, and Mr. Hockin ; 

unusually low tides (Lukis) . The 

variety is from Hayle. 

Fossil in the Red Crag (S.Wood); Tarenti (Philippi). 

The foreign localities are the north of France; Spain 

and Portugal (Chemnitz) ; Gulf of Lyons (Martin) ; and 

the Mediterranean, including Algiers (Poupillet). 

A series of this handsome shell was presented to me 

by the late Dr. Lukis, who afterwards sent me an ex- 

quisite drawing of the animal, which has enabled me to 

give a description of that part. He observed that " when 

the tide recedes it buries itself two or three inches in 

the sand ; and when the tide rises it bestirs itself like

LUTRARIA. 427 

other mollusks, and reveals its hiding-place." Mr. G. H. 

King, of No. 190 Portland Road, lately kept a living 

specimen in one of his tanks, among other interesting 

things which this experienced naturalist dealer has exhibited 

to the public. Polios description of the animal 

is very short:— margin of the mantle flattened and 

tubes rather long, united throughout, 

and cir- 

fringed \ 

rous foot lanceolate. It ; goes by the name of " Schias" 

at Granville, and is sold in the fish-market at Brest. 

Born described this species from a single valve, but 

accurately and unmistakeably. It was named by Chem- 

nitz " Mactrahelva seuhelvacea"— 

scarcely a binominal 

appellation. He seems to have occasionally exercised a 

good deal of useless ingenuity in inventing new names, 

even when he was aware of those given by the disco- 

verers. Thus we have seen that the M. solida of Linne 

became his M. vulgaris. The present species is the 

M. Neapolitana of Poli. 

The M. fragilis of Chemnitz (M. dealbata, Pulteney, 

and M. Braziliana, Lamarck) is South American, and 

not British. Turton's specimen (a single valve) is so 

battered and antiquated that its exotic source may be 

safely taken for granted, with a mental reservation or 

doubt as to the correctness of his statement that it was 

" 

dredged in the Channel, near Guernsea." 

Genus III. LUTRA'RIA % Lamarck. PL VIII. f.3. 

Body elongated and somewhat cylindrical, compressed : 

mantle thick : tubes very long, united almost to their extre- 

mities and enclosed in one sheath ; 

orifices fimbriated. 

Shell oblong, very inequilateral, widely gaping at both 

ends, especially on the posterior side, slightly and concentrically 

striated: heals turned towards the anterior side and 

* Associated with the otter.

428 mactridjE. 

that the laterals in the 

separated : teeth as in Mactra, except 

present genus are very small or rudimentary : pallial scar 

having a deep sinus. 

In comparing this genus with the last, we find that 

the siphonal tubes in Lutraria are extremely long ; 

that 

the shell is large, oblong, very inequilateral, and gapes 

and that the lateral teeth are much 

widely at each end ; 

less developed than in Mactra, and in one species altogether 

wanting. The Lutraria burrow deeply in mud 

near the shore. 

Clark proposed to merge the present genus in My a ; 

and there has been much controversy as to its systematic 

position. It has certainly strong affinities both 

with Mactra and My a. The last, however, has its man- 

tle more closed, the tubes completely united, and a dif- 

ferent kind of hinge-process. 

1. Lutraria ellip'tica *, Lamarck. 

L. elliptica, Lara. An. sans Vert. v. p. 468 ; F. &H. i. p. 370, pi. xii., and 

(animal) pi. 

H. f. 2. 

Body white : mantle open only for one-third of its extent, 

margined by rather distant fine white filaments : tubes tapering 

; sheath between two and three times as long as the shell 

is broad, white towards its base, variegated 

in the middle with 

zigzag purplish-brown blotches, which at the top become distinct 

dots of a deeper hue the surface of the sheath is also 

; 

marked with two or three circular brown lines, an inch apart, 

and it is covered with a transparent corrugated skin, wT kich 

appears to be an extension of the epidermis 

that clothes the 

shell ; orifices of the tubes encircled by numerous white cirri 

minutely spotted with dark purplish -brown or red ; 

the cirri of 

the alimentary tube are longer than the other set, and minutely 

ciliated at their sides : 

gills pale brown, not deep, the upper 

pair rather smaller than the lower ; they are hung transversely, 

and finely pectinated : palps of a paler colour, long, triangular, 

pointed, of fine texture, and delicately striated: foot large, 

thick, and extensile. 

* Elliptical.

LTJTRARIA. 429 

Shell elliptical, compressed, moderately solid, and glossy : 

sculpture, irregular and slight concentric striae alternating with 

stronger lines of growth : colour yellowish-white under the 

ejptdermis, which is olivaceous, glossy and like oilskin, wrinkled 

or puckered, delicately fibrous at the sides and in front, and 

minutely striated on the umbonal part in a longitudinally 

radiating direction : margins nearly straight or slightly indented 

and flexuous in front, and sloping obliquely to each 

side, the anterior being rounded or semioval and the posterior 

bluntly angulated ; dorsal margins scarcely (if at all) curved, 

inclining forwards, and diverging from an obtuse angle : beaks 

small and sharp, incurved; umbones not much projecting: 

ligament small and short, greenish-brown : cartilage triangular 

and thick, narrower in the middle and spreading out at each 

end in the hinge-cavity, : yellowish-horncolour hinge-line 

nearly straight : 

middle to form a support for the : cartilage teeth, in the right 

valve two diverging cardinals on the anterior side, and a short 

hinge-plate long and strong, projecting 

in the 

slight and laminar lateral on the posterior side of the cartilage; 

in the left valve an erect and large double cardinal immediately 

below the beak, flanked by a smaller but pointed one 

(like a leaf) on the posterior side, and by a sharp triangular 

lateral on the anterior side, besides a slight laminar lateral on 

the posterior side, corresponding with that of the opposite 

valve : inside porcelain-white, polished and iridescent in the 

scar-marks, and microscopically wrinkled or frost-like in every 

other : part pallial scar double, with an oblong sinus extend- 

about two-thirds of the distance across : muscular sears 

ing 

deep, placed high up near the dorsal margins, anterior pearshaped, 

posterior triangularly oval. L. 3. B. 5*5. 

Var. alterutra. Shell smaller, thicker, and proportionally 

front and back margins nearly parallel, anterior side 

broader ; 

obliquely truncate. 

Habitat : Every part of our seas, from the lowest 

verge of spring-tides to 15 fathoms, in soft or slushy 

sand. The reason of this species being chiefly found in 

estuaries and at the mouths of rivers appears to be 

washed down 

owing to an accumulation of mud being 

from the land and deposited outside the line of mean 

tide-marks, which suits the Lutraria as a burrowing-bed. 

The variety has been found by Professor King on the

430 MACTRIDiE. 

coasts of Northumberland and Galway. L. elliptica is 

fossil in all our upper tertiaries from the Scotch glacial 

beds to the Coralline Crag ; Subapennine strata (Broc- 

chi); neighbourhood of Bordeaux (Lamarck); Sicily 

(Philippi). It is also recent in Finmark (Lilljeborg); 

Bergen (Sars); north of France (De 

Gerville and Bou- 

chard-Chantereaux) ; shores of Spain and Portugal 

(M f 

Andrew); 

and Philippi). 

Algeria (Weinkauff); Sicily (Maravigna 

Our earliest conchologist, Lister, discovered this spe- 

cies. It is edible in spite of its muddy habitation ; for 

we are told by Mr. M fAndrew that it is sold in Vigo 

market; and Mr. Dennis says, "the Herm people eat 

every kind of shell-fish which is big enough ; even Lutraria 

elliptica and L. oblong a— c 

Clumps'' as they call 

them." The following observations by Montagu may be 

useful to those who are so devoted to conchology as not 

to object to turning mudlarks :—" 

It is rarely obtained 

when the tide is 

alive, except by digging, and that only 

unusually low : 

their place of concealment is generally 

known by a dimple on the surface, through which they 

eject water to a considerable height, though the shell is 

frequently buried two feet beneath." The shell is occa- 

sionally distorted, and varies in the proportion of length 

to breadth. 

It is the Mactra lutraria of Linne, Chama magna of 

Da Costa, and L. vulgaris of Fleming. 

2. L. oblon'ga*, Chemnitz. 

Mya oblonga. Chernn. Conch.-Cab. vi. p. 27, t. 2. f. 12. L. oblonga, 

i. 

p. 374. xiii. 

pi. 

f. 1. 

F. &H. 

Body pale yellow : mantle closed to the same extent as in 

the last species : tubes of unequal size ; the alimentary (or 

* Oblong.

LUTRARIA. 431 

" branchial") one is much larger than the other, and its orifice 

is fringed with 30-40 fine cirri, one half of which are stronger 

and longer than the intermediate cirri and fimbriated on each 

side ; the terminal cirri of the excretal tube are shorter and 

equal ; tubular sheath covered with a brown : epidermis gills 

narrow, pale drab : palps very large, triangular, pointed, of a 

thin membranous texture, pale brown elegantly speckled with 

minute red-brown : points foot large, fleshy, and white with a 

tinge of pale brown. 

Shell scimitar- shaped, smaller than that of L. elliptic^, 

much broader with respect to its length, more convex, cylin- 

drical, and solid, upturned at the posterior end, which is 

rounded ; the anterior side is considerably shorter in propor- 

tion ; 

the cardinal tooth on the anterior side in the right valve 

is double, and there is no posterior lateral in either Talve. 

L. 2. B. 4. 

Habitat : In similar situations, but not so generally 

It is rather common in the 

diffused as the last species. 

Channel Isles, and has been taken on the coasts of 

Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, and Ireland. It is said that 

the late Mr. Lyons found it in Pembrokeshire ; and Mr. 

Maclaurin included it in his list of shells from Cold- 

ingham Bay, Berwickshire. Belfast " alluvial" deposit 

(Hyndman and Grainger); Sussex tertiaries (Godwin- 

Austen); Coralline Crag (coll. S. Wood in Brit. Mus.); 

Subapennine strata (Brocchi) ; Monte Mario near Rome 

(Lamarck) ; Sicily (Philippi). It has not been noticed 

anywhere north of Great Britain ; but its distribution 

southwards extends from Normandy to Lisbon, Nice, 

and Algeria, its depth ranging from low-water mark to 

12 fathoms. 

Although this species comes very near the last, my 

iconoclastic propensities are not strong enough to unite 

them at present. If their form is variable, and not to 

be relied upon as a mark of distinction, the dentition of 

each is somewhat different. I am not aware whether

432 MACTMD.E. 

they live together and under such circumstances retain 

their respective peculiarities. M'Andrew obtained both 

at Malaga — L. elliptica on the shore, and L. oblonga by 

the dredge, from 4 fathoms. In my cabinet is a curious 

malformation, the specimen having 

an inner case or 

double shell on the posterior side. 

The present species is the Mactra Mans of Pulteney, 

L. solenoides of Lamarck (but not of Capt. King), M, 

of Turton's l 

L. Sole- 

hyans Conchological Dictionary/ 

noidea of Brown, and probably L. solida of Philippi. 

Leach separated it from L. elliptica under the generic 

title of Psammophila. 

Genus IV. SCROBICULA'RIA *, Schumacher. 

PL VIII. f. 4. 

Body oval, compressed : mantle open throughout 

the ventral 

range, somewhat thickened at its edges : tubes very long, sepa- 

rate, each covered with a membranous sheath or outer case ; 

orifices : 

usually plain gills of equal size : foot long and flexible. 

Shell triangidarly oval or oblong, nearly equilateral, thin, 

of a uniform white colour, gaping at the posterior end, slightly 

and concentrically striated : epidermis slight and iridescent : 

beetles turned towards the posterior side, almost contiguous : 

cartilage placed obliquely: teeth, two small cardinals in the 

right valve, and one in the left valve, which is clasped by the 

laterals laminar, not always developed in both 

opposite pair ; 

valves, and sometimes altogether wanting. 

It is much more difficult to define this genus by a 

correct name than by comprehensive characters. Natu- 

ralists are perhaps over-fastidious in the former respect. 

I should have been glad to recognize the claim of prior- 

ity put forward by Mr. Searles Wood for Trigonella 

(1778) if Da Costa's description would have justified my 

doing so; but it evidently applied to Mactra rather 

* Having a little trench ; so called from the shape of the cartilage-pit.

SCROBICULARIA. 433 

than to the group in question. Out of five species 

which Da Costa assigned to Trigonella, the first four 

are the only kinds of Mactra that appear to have been 

known to him ; and as to the last (our S. piperata), he 

observes that " the hinge of this kind is of a different 

structure from the Trigonellce" Montagu's genus Ligula 

(1808) is the next in order of date; but his diagnosis 

was principally intended for Thracia ; 

and the present 

genus was indicated only in the alternative, and insuffi- 

ciently, viz. " in some species a minute erect tooth." 

He enumerated six species, arranged in two equal divi- 

sions : the first comprised all those of Cochlodesma and 

Thracia which he had discovered; and the second S. 

piperata, S. tenuis, and S. alba, to which he subsequently 

added S. prismatica and Montacuta substriata, although 

with some doubt as to the generic position of the lastnamed 

species. But at all events it would be inconvenient 

to have Ligula in the Mollusca, because the name 

was preoccupied by Bloch in 1782 for a genus of Entozoa, 

and (having been adopted by Rudolphi and others) is now 

constantly used in that department of zoology. Arenaria 

(1811) of Megerle von Miihlfeldt succeeds ; and although 

it has been lately revived by Gray and Morch, it is a 

Linnean and familiar botanical genus ; 

and the current 

of scientific opinion seems to be against the double em- 

ployment of any such name in natural history, 

avoided. I do not myself see any objection to the same 

if it can be 

generic name being used in marine zoology as well as in 

land botany, considering how wide apart are these great 

hemispheres of Nature, and the remoteness of the pos- 

sibility that any practical inconvenience would ensue. 

However, Schumacher gives this as the sole reason for 

changing Arenaria into Scrobicidaria (1817); and as 

the alteration has been sanctioned by Philippi, Forbes

434 mactrid^. 

and Hanley, and (with a single exception) all the Con- 

tinental zoologists, I will not prolong the discussion, 

beyond remarking that Lavignonus of Ferussac (1821), 

Listera of Turton (1822), Abra of Risso from Leach's 

MS. (1826), and Syndosmya of Re'cluz (1846) either 

have never been clearly or adequately defined, or else 

are superfluous. The last-named genus has indeed been 

selected by Forbes and Hanley, and separated from 

Scrobicularia, without stating any particular character 

by which one can be distinguished 

from the other. 

Clark at first considered them different, on the ground 

that S. piper at a has but one gill or branchial plate on 

each side, and that the palps are of a larger size in this 

than in some other species. 

He subsequently modified 

his opinion by suggesting that the single plate might 

be double : the relative magnitude of the labial palps 

can only be regarded by the mere malacologist as a 

matter of anv importance. The sole diversitv between 

the shells called Scrobicularia and Syndosmya consists 

in the former having no lateral teeth, while the latter 

possesses them in one or each valve. This character 

notoriously varies in species of other genera, for instance 

Tellina and T)onax. 

The circumstance of the tubes being separate in the 

present genus, and united in Mactra and Lidraria, 

might induce some conchologists to replace it among 

the Tellinidcs : but the hinge is essentially Mactridan ; 

and in Amphidesma, which has the same internal struc- 

ture, the tubes are also disunited. I should distrust 

any classification of families founded exclusively upon 

the contiguity or remoteness from each other of these 

outer folds or processes of the mantle called 

" siphons." 

' ' 

tubes " or


A. Lateral teeth more or less developed. 

1. Scrobicularia prisma'tica *, Montagu. 

Ligv.la prismatica, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 23, t. 26. f. 3. Syndosmyu 

prismatica, F. & H. i. p. 321, pi. 

xvii. f. 15. 

Body pearl-white : mantle fringed with short and numerous 

cilia : tubes cylindrical and slender, indistinctly annular or 

corrugated by the investing sheaths ; they are nearly of the 

same length, the incurrent being the larger or wider but 

excurrent or upper tube stran- 

usually the shorter of the two ; 

gulated or constricted at irregular intervals ; both tubes are 

clothed with a few scattered papillae, and the orifice of each 

has from 5 to 7 short cirral points, which are sometimes obso- 

lete or imperceptible: gills two on each side, suboval, of equal 

tinted with brown 

: size, distinctly pectinated, faintly 

the same in number, thin, short, broad, and angular, smooth 

without and striated within : 

foot large and pointed. 

Shell oblong and wedge-shaped, scarcely convex, but not 

palps 

flattened except towards the posterior end, very thin and fra- 

gile, semitransparent, highly polished and glossy: sculpture, 

numerous slight, irregular, and minute concentric striae, which 

occasionally are laminar or scratch-like, and towards the mar- 

gins become partially oblique, as in Tellina fabula ; the lines 

of growth are also more or less conspicuous : colour pearlwhite 

: epidermis a mere film, reflecting in certain lights a prismatic 

lustre : margins curved in front, semioval or rounded on 

the anterior side, and bluntly pointed on the posterior side, 

which is flexuous and obtusely angulated; dorsal margin nearly 

straight on the anterior side, incurved below the beak, sloping 

outwards from the posterior angle, and obliquely truncate on 

that side, the point or terminal angle lying in the transverse 

axis of the shell : beaks very small ; umbones somewhat pro- 

jecting: ligament short, prominent, yellowish-brown: cartilage 

curved, horncolour, proceeding from a narrow chink under 

the beak, and expanding in a shelving and oblique direction 

below the hinge-plate on the posterior side : hinge-line obtusely 

angular and flexuous: hinge-plate rather thick, much 

broader and reflected behind the cartilage : teeth, in the right 

valve two minute, erect, equal- sized, parallel, and obliquely 

set cardinals, besides a long but slight lateral on each side, 

* Having a prismatic lustre.

436 mactridjE. 

which are bluntly crested or pointed in the middle, the an- 

terior lateral being longer than the other ; in the left valve a 

minute erect cardinal which fits into those of the right valve ; 

lateral teeth in this valve ridge -like and obscure : inside 

nacreous, minutely and irregularly striated towards the margin : 

pallial scar distinct ; sinus rather long and tongue-shaped : 

muscular scars slight, of an irregular shape. L. 0*4. B. 0*8. 

Habitat : Sparingly distributed on all our sandy 

coasts, from the Shetland to the Channel Isles, in 3-87 

fathoms. Fossil in the Clyde beds and Coralline Crag 

(Smith and Wood) ; 

Sicilian and Calabrian tertiaries 

(Philippi). It is extensively diffused both north and 

south, from Iceland (Steenstrup) to the iEgean (Forbes), 

at depths varying from 8 to 150 fathoms. 

The animal is lively, and active by fits and starts— 

now and then darting out and twisting about on all 

sides its long and slender foot, as if for the purpose of 

burrowing. The shell, which is of an elegant shape, is 

frequently found in the stomachs of haddocks, 

of the common plaice and other flat fish. 

as well as 

The Erycina angulosa of Bronn is probably identical 

with this species. 

2. S. ni'tida* Miiller. 

My a nitida, Mull. Prodr. Zool. Dan. p. 245. Syndosmya intermedia. 

F. &H. i. p. 319, pl.xvii. f. 9, 10, and (animal) pi. K. f. 5. 

Body clear white : mantle fringed with numerous short 

cilia : 

tubes very long, closely annulated or marked across with 

slight rings of a dusky hue, resembling those in certain species 

of Tubularia ; incurrent tube cylindrical ; excurrent somewhat 

longer and tapering to a fine point ; both are covered with a 

few scattered papillae ; foot large and extensile. 

Shell similar in many respects to that of S. prismaiica, 

so as to be rather 

but longer in proportion to its breadth, 

oval than oblong : the surface has in front and at the sides 

* Glossy.


very short delicate and scattered minute flocculent marks, ap- 

parently caused by an exfoliation of the epidermis 

margin is more evenly curved and the ; 

upper or dorsal margin 

on the posterior side has the same curve and angle of incidence 

as the lower posterior margin, both meeting halfway in 

: the ventral 

a rounded and upturned point ; the angle on this side is very 

indistinct ; there is scarcely any depression below the beak on 

the posterior side, the dorsal margin being more expanded : 

the cartilage is golden-yellow and longer than in the other 

species, and the pit is larger 

and more twisted : the inside is 

lineated lengthwise, but is also microscopically fretted like 

shagreen : muscular scars conspicuous, the anterior being ob- 

liquely elliptical and the posterior triangularly eval. L. 0*45. 

B. 0-8. 

Yar. ovata. Shell more oval, often eroded near the beaks. 

Habitat : More local than S. prismatica, in muddy 

100 fathoms : south coast of 

sand, at from 3 to nearly 

Cornwall (M 'Andrew); Dogger bank (Howse andMen- 

nell) ; all the coasts of Ireland; west of Scotland; and 

north and east of Shetland. The variety was taken by 

Barlee and myself while dredging together in Birterbuy 

writer on the Scandinavian 

Bay, co. Galway. Every 

mollusca has noticed its occurrence in those seas, at 

depths varying from 6 to 110 fathoms. The only southern 

locality recorded is Algeria, on the authority of 

M. Weinkauff. 

The animal is quite as lively as its congener ; but the 

shell gapes (or, for the sake of the antithesis, I may say, 

yawns) 

much more. 

It is the Amphidesma intermedia of Thompson. If 

the recognition of the Mya nitida of Muller depended 

on the very obscure diagnosis in his ' 

Prodromus/ I 

should have felt the same disinclination as the authors 

of the ' British Mollusca ' 

to accept the last-mentioned 

specific name ; but an article by Fabricius, 

volume of the l 

in the fourth 

Skrivter af Naturhistorie-Selskabet/


published at Copenhagen in 1798, has removed all doubt 

from my mind. It contains a full description of the 

species in question, which was communicated by M tiller 

to his friend Fabricius and I now ; give it with all faults. 

" 

Mya nitida. Long. 6. Lat. 3 lin. Testa extus in- 

tusque glaberrima, pellucida, lsevis, nitida, absque striis 

Candida, unicolor, subelliptica. Dens depressus obscu- 

rior, quasi antrorsum nexus in quovis cardine. Tellinam 

prima facie revocat, at testa hiat, nee dentes tres, 

nee alterum latus flexa est. In sinubus inter Christian- 

sand et Arendal raro." The true teeth appear to have 

escaped Miiller's observation ; and no wonder, for they 

are exceedingly minute : what he called 

' ' 

the 

must be the cartilage-pit. 

The Mya 

dens " 

nitida of Fabricius 

is Lyonsia Norvegica • and it was in order to show the 

difference between his and Miiller's shells of the same 

name that he introduced the description quoted above. 

I examined authentic specimens of Muller's Mya nitida 

in the collection of Fabricius at Copenhagen, and they 

are decidedly the present species. Loven described it 

as Syndosmya nitida. It appears to be the Scrobicu- 

laria tenuis of Philippi, a Panormitan fossil. 

3. S. al'ba*, Wood. 

Macura alba, Wood, in Linn. Trans, vi. p. 165, t. xvi. f. 9-12. Syndosmya 

alba, F. & H. i. p. 316, pi. 

xvii. f. 12-14. 

Body whitish, with a pale tint of sky-blue interspersed with 

flake-white spots : mantle thickened at its edges and fringed 

with very small whitish papillae (according to Bouchard- 

Chantereaux these papillae are arranged in three rows) : tubes 

cylindrical, elastic in respect of both length and width ; 

when 

fully extended they are as long as the shell is broad, and 

sometimes distended to three times their usual diameter ; each 

is covered with a light-brown epidermis, and when half cx- 

* White.

serted they are strongly wrinkled ; 


orifices plain : 

triangular, symmetrical, hanging obliquely : palps 

gills small, 

of the same 

size and shape as the gills, smooth outside and pectinated 

within : 

foot proportionally large, muscular, slightly angulated 

at the heel and granular at the point. 

Shell oval, rather convex, somewhat inequilateral, thin, 

opaque, polished : 

nute concentric striae, crossed in some specimens (particularly 

towards the beaks) by fine longitudinal lines, which apparently 

pervade the whole fabric, as they are equally visible 

on the inside surface ; the concentric striae occasionally di- 

sculpture, numerous slight, irregular, and mi- 

lines of 

verge obliquely near the margin, as in S. prismatica ; 

growth distinctly marked : colour snow-white, with an opaline 

hue : epidermis fibrous, pale yellowish-white : margins more 

or less curved in front, rounded on the anterior side, bluntly 

pointed on the posterior side, which is sometimes flexuous 

and slightly angulated anterior ; dorsal margin gently sloping ; 

from the beak at the same 

posterior dorsal margin inclining 

angle, and expanding outwards where it meets the posterior 

margin, so as to form a wedge-like edge ; the terminal angle 

on that side is in a line with the transverse axis of the 

shell: beaks blunt and incurved; umbones projecting: ligament 

short, prominent, reddish-brown or horncolour : 

cartilage 

curved, dark reddish-brown, constructed and placed like that 

of S. prismatica : hinge-line obtusely angular : hinge-plate 

thick and strong, occupying about one-fourth of the circumfer- 

ence : teeth, in the right valve two minute erect cardinals on the 

anterior side of the beak, besides a triangular lateral on each 

side, the anterior one being double ; the left valve has only a 

single small erect cardinal and a slight posterior 

lateral : in- 

side nacreous and iridescent, finely and closely striated lengthwise 

and microscopically fretted ; margin indistinctly crenu- 

lated : pallial scar having a short sinus of the same shape as 

the shell, occasionally double in consequence of a shifting of 

the base of the tubular fold : muscular scars usually shallow, 

anterior triangular and elongated, posterior nearly circular. 

L. 0-5. B. 0-8. 

Var. 1. radiata. Shell of a thinner texture ; posterior side 

marked with one or two clear rays. Syndosmya radiata, 

Love'n, Ind. Moll. Scand. p. 44. 

Var. 2. curta. Shell contracted at each end and conse- 

quently more convex, rather solid; posterior side obliquely 

truncate and distinctly angulated.

440 MACTRTD^. 

Habitat : 

Estuaries, creeks, and bays, gregarious in 

mud, from the low-water mark of spring tides to 40 

fathoms. An odd valve was dredged by Capt. Beechey 

off the Mull of Galloway in 110-140 fathoms. Var. 1. 

Deal Voe, East Shetland, in 3 fathoms (J. G. J.). 

co. Antrim 

Var. 2. Lough Strangford (Waller) ; Larne, 

(J. G. J.). This species occurs in all our upper ter- 

tiaries, from the Clyde basin to the Coralline Crag ; 

glacial beds at Udde valla, and upper miocene strata at 

Biot in the south of France (J. G. J.) ; 

Panormi in Sicily 

(Philippi). 

It is common on all the Scandinavian coasts 

in 4-40 fathoms, and in other parts of the North-Euro- 

pean seas from Boulogne to Lisbon in 7-30 fathoms, as 

well as throughout the Mediterranean and iEgean in 

3-50 fathoms. The variety rachata was found by Loven 

in the Bohuslan district, by Malm at a depth of from 

3 to 6 fathoms in the estuary of the river Gotha (where 

the water is brackish), and by Meyer and Mobius in 

Kiel Bay. A third and nearly transparent variety was 

taken alive by Forbes at the great depth of 80-185 

fathoms in the Gulf of Macri, and described by him in 

the Reports of the British Association for 1843, under 

the name of Ligula profundissima ; his typical specimens 

are preserved in the British Museum. 

This little mollusk, although living in mud, takes care 

not to be smothered in it, but keeps up its commu- 

nication with the sea. If, in dredging it, 

the contents 

of the net, mud and shells, are put into a tub and left 

for some hours to settle, the S. alba will be seen on the 

surface, having worked its way upwards by means of its 

muscular and flexible foot. It reminds me of an anec- 

dote connected with the British Association. During 

the Southampton Meeting in 1847, Mr. M cAndrew 

treated some of the members to a dredging-cruise in


his yacht. One haul yielded some of the present species, 

which is more frequently met with on the shore, thrown 

up by the waves, 

than fresh from its native haunts. 

When the dredge came up, the whole party rushed forward 

to see the result ; 

and Baron Middendorff (the great 

Russian conchologist) in his eagerness nearly knocked 

down one of them. Stopping suddenly short, he took 

off his hat and made this apology for his unintentional 

rudeness—" Mille pardons, Monsieur ! 

enivre des coquilles." 

mais 

je suis 

S. alba can not only burrow, but 

walk; and Bouchard-Chantereaux mentions his having 

watched them crawling up the sides of a phial filled 

with sea-water, in which he kept some specimens. 

Dr. 

Leach savs that it is a favourite food of the cod. This 

shell attains a large size in the Shetland seas, being 

about an inch in breadth and of proportionate length. 

Its colour is always pure white, and uncontaminated by 

the mud with which it is in contact— the lustre being 

perhaps preserved by constant activity, as is the case 

with our own moral virtues : 

" 

Perseverance, dear my lord, 

Keeps honour bright : to have done, is to hang 

Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail 

In monumental mockery." 

Its nearest ally is S. nitida ; but that species is flatter 

and of a more delicate and fragile texture, the posterior 

side is elongated and produced to a more acute point, 

and the gape at that end is considerably wider. 

It is the Mactra Boysii of Montagu, Tellina pellucida 

of Brocchi, T. opalina of Benier, Amphidesma semi- 

dentata of Scacchi (according to Philippi), Erycina 

Renieri of Bronn, Abra fabalis of S. Wood, and Am- 

phidesma Boysiana 

of Leach. 

u o

442 MACTRlDiE. 

4. S. te'nuis*, Montagu. 

Mactra tenuis, Mont. Test. Brit. Suppl. p. 572, t. 17. f. 7. Syndosmya 

tenuis, F. & H. i. p. 323, pi. xvii. f. 11. 

Bodi white : mantle having its edges delicately fringed : 

tubes cylindrical and narrow ; the alimentary one capable of 

being extended twice the transverse admeasurement of the 

shell, the other usually recurved and shorter by one-third ; 

orifices apparently plain: foot sernitransparent, extremely 

flexible. 

Shell rather triangular than oval, moderately convex, 

nearly equilateral, thin, opaque, generally not glossy although 

iridescent : 

sculpture, fine and close-set concentric strias, the 

interstices of which are traversed by twice as many microsco- 

lines of growth irregular but conspi- 

pical longitudinal strise ; 

cuous : colour : ashy-white epidermis laminar, light yellowishbrown 

: margins gently curved in front, rounded on the anterior 

side, truncate and nearly straight on the posterior side, which 

dorsal margins straight, 

is bluntly angulated and gapes a little ; 

and forming an angle of about 60 degrees with the beak as 

an apex, slightly excavated or depressed on both sides : beaks 

small and calyciform, inclining a little to the posterior side ; 

umbones projecting: ligament minute and narrow, dark horncolour: 

cartilage curved, yellowish-brown: hinge-line more rect- 

angular than obtuse- angled : hinge-plate of moderate strength 

and thickness, occupying in the right valve about one-fourth, 

but in the left not one-tenth of the circumference : teeth, in 

the right valve two small erect and parallel cardinals, set (as 

usual) transversely to the hinge, besides one short double 

laminar lateral on the anterior side and a similar but single 

these laterals are triangular and 

lateral on the posterior side ; 

rather abruptly truncate at their further extremities ; the 

left valve has only one cardinal, similar to those in the right 

valve, and no lateral tooth (unless an obscure sunken fold or 

socket on each side of the hinge can be so called) : inside 

somewhat nacreous, but not polished, indistinctly striated 

lengthwise, microscopically and closely freckled ; margin bevelled 

and sharp : pallial scar well defined ; sinus large and 

triangular, with its blunt apex below the beak, and its base 

parallel with the front margin : muscular scars rather deep, 

anterior oval, posterior trapezoidal. L. 0*3. B. 0-4. 

* Thin.

Habitat : 

SCROBICULARJA. 443 

Tidal estuaries and brackish water on the 

coasts of Devon, Dorset, Hants, Sussex, Kent, Guernsey, 

and Jersey, in mud at low tides; Scarborough (Bean) ; 

from the stomach of a wild- duck shot on Holy Island 

(Adamson) ; Seaton (Backhouse); Isle of Man, "in 

cavities of dead shells from deep water on the north 

coast " (Forbes); Lough Lame, co. Antrim (Thompson) ; 

Portmarnock, Dublin Bay (Rev. B.W. Adams). Per- 

haps some of the above localities may be questionable. 

Cherbourg (DeGerville) ; Portbail in that vicinity (Mace) ; 

shore of the lake, and living in 35 fathoms off the Gulf 

of Tunis (WAndrew). 

According to the late Dr. Lukis, who favoured me 

with a description and sketch in October 1859, the ani- 

mal is active, and not very timid. I give his own ac- 

count of it : 

mens of S. tenuis ; 

" Arnold's pond contains the largest speci- 

expected manner, while sifting 

and I discovered it in rather an un- 

under the water of the 

pond the ulva and weeds in searching for a stock of 

Rissoa labiosa. The R. [Hydrobia] ulva also occurs 

there. I sifted the weeds at the time of nearly high 

tide, while the sea-water was rushing into the pond ; 

and 

I imagine that the active Syndosmya was rising to the 

surface of the mud to imbibe the fresh stream from the 

sea, and thus became entangled in the weeds to be trans- 

ferred to my sieve, an easy prey. I am not sure that 

they do not become the food of the grey mullet, considerable 

numbers of which live in the pond for while I 

; 

waded almost knee-deep, the fish played actively about 

me." In the last communication that I received from 

him (March 1863) he says, as to this species, " abun- 

dant in streams supplying the salt-works in Guernsey ; 

also in the mud on the shore, in company with Cylichna 

obtusa, where there is an occasional afflux of brackish


water. The former occur with Rissoa [Hydrobici] ven- 

trosa, &c. In one large pond eels and minnows are 

associated with S. tenuis. The shell is apt to be stained 

in ferruginous clays." 

It is probably the Dorvillea Anglica of Leach. The 

Erycina ovata of Philippic 

from Lake Fusaro near Na- 

ples, is closely related to the present species : Deshayes 

named specimens of the former in the British Museum 

' ' 

Scrobicuiaria piperita jun." 

B. Lateral teeth wanting. 

5. S. pipera'ta*, Bellonius. 

Mactra piperata, Linn. Syst. Nat. (ed. Grnelin) p. 3261. Scrobicuiaria 

piperata, F. & H. i. p. 32G, pi. xv. f. 5, and (animal) pi. K. f. 6. 

Body pale yellowish-white : mantle bordered by a dark line, 

and having its edges irregularly scolloped and minutely fringed : 

tubes cylindrical, of nearly equal length, covered with a pale 

dirty-brown skin, tapering to their extremities, which are 

truncate and plain (but, according to Deshayes, the orifice of 

the excretal tube is finely ciliated, and that of the alimentary 

tube is : plain) gills, one on each side, which is divided diago- 

nally by a nearly central narrow groove into two subtriangular 

portions, so as to constitute a double plate ; they are very 

thick, pale-yellow, placed obliquely, delicately pectinated out- 

side but more strongly within : palps large, thin, fiat, very 

these 

long, triangular, broad above and pointed at their ends ; 

are coloured and striated like the : gills foot slightly bent, and 

white : liver dark-green, as in the other species. 

Shell triangularly oval, flattened, usually nearly equilateral, 

but sometimes more or less produced or elongated towards the 

posterior end, thin, opaque, lustreless except in young and 

fresh specimens : sculpture, numerous irregular concentric striae 

and occasional marks of growth: colour greyish-white, often 

stained with yellow or black from the claj'ey or muddy habitat : 

epidermis slight, laminar or fibrous at the edges, glistening 

and partially iridescent : margins gently curved in front, 

* Peppery


rounded on the anterior side, truncate or bluntly angular on 

the posterior side, which is obscurely angulated and has a decided 

gape, nearly straight on each of the dorsal sides, which 

form by their junction with the beaks an angle of from 60 to 

70 degrees : beaks very small and calyciform, inclining a very 

little, if at all, towards the posterior side umbones ; projecting 

: ligament rather long and continued between the beaks 

to the anterior side, dark horncolour : cartilage large, bent 

like one of the knee- timbers of a ship, yellowish -brown : hingeline 

: obtuse-angled hinge-plate thick, short, broad in the mid- 

dle and tapering gradually to each side : teeth, in the right 

valve two thin, laminar, nearly parallel cardinals, the anterior 

in the left 

being mostly higher but shorter than the other ; 

valve a straight laminar cardinal which is often double the 

; 

sides of the hinge-plate are callous or ridge-like, and serve the 

purpose of lateral teeth in keeping the hinge more securely 

closed : inside polished and somewhat nacreous, minutely and 

indistinctly striated lengthwise, and microscopically fretted like 

seal-skin ; margin bevelled and : sharp-edged pallial scar distinct, 

with a large triangularly oval sinus, as in S. tenuis, but 

more rounded : 

having the upper angle m 

uscular scars rather 

deep, of an irregular shape, anterior oblong, posterior trapezoidal. 

L. 1*5. 3. 2. 

Habitat : 

Beds of mud and clay, at low-water mark, 

and as deep as 4 fathoms seawards, on all our shores 

from Exmouth (Clark) to Aberdeen (Macgillivray), as 

well as in Ireland and the west of Scotland : 

it is gre- 

garious. Fossil in a raised sea-bed at Swansea discovered 

in the course of excavating the South Docks (Moggridge) 

; similar deposit at Belfast (Hyndman and Grain- 

ger) ; York and Forth beds (Smith) ; Sussex tertiaries 

( Godwin- Ansten). Scandinavian coasts from Bergen to 

Kiel Bay, France from Boulogne to Nice, Vigo and 

Malaga, Algeria, Spezzia, Naples, and Sicily. 

The name of this species may have been derived from 

the peculiar flavour of the animal. Montagu says that 

it has an extremely bitter taste— although the old pro- 

verb occurs to one's mind when we learn from Capel-

446 mactrid^:. 

lini that at Spezzia it is sought for as an article of food 

and sold with other shell-fish. According to Clark this 

kind is called a u nmd-hen " by the fishermen at Ex- 

month. They burrow in stiff clay, six inches or more, 

each individual making and occupying its own hole, and 

forming together a honeycombing commonwealth. The 

breadth of the shell being two inches, the length of the 

siphons must be at least twice as great, in order to keep 

the hole clear and have access to the water. Bouchard- 

Chantereaux has remarked that S. piperata also requires 

for during the recess of 

or prefers to breathe pure air ; 

the tide the orifice of the lower tube is considerably di- 

lated, and when it is placed in a vessel of water, this tube 

is gradually stretched out so as to reach the surface, and 

remains for some hours in that position. Pholas has the 

same habit. The earliest account we have of the animal 

of the present species is that by Reaumur, published in 

the ' Memoires de PAcademie' for 1710; and it has 

lately been described by Bouchard- Chantereaux, Quoy, 

Philippi, Deshayes, Forbes and Hanley, and Clark. I 

have had the benefit of collating these descriptions wiih 

my own notes made in 1836. Its anatomy has been 

elaborated by Deshayes, and illustrated by twenty-two 

finely-coloured plates, in one of the Appendices to the 

' 

Exploration scientifique d'Algerie/ The remarkable 

structure of the hinge, typical of this genus, did not 

escape the observant eye of Lister. The young of S. pi- 

per ata has probably been mistaken for S. tenuis ; 

but it 

is much flatter and broader, and wants laminar teeth. 

Some distorted specimens, which I found in peat, are 

contracted, and consequently more convex than usual. 

It is " La Calcinelle " of Adanson, Trigonella plana 

of Da Costa, Venus borealis of Pennant (but not of Linne) , 

Mya hispanica of Chemnitz, Mactra Listeri and My a


gadttana (as well as Mactra piperata) of Gnielin, Mactra 

compressa of Pulteney, Mya orbiculata of Spengler, 

Solen callosus of Olivi (according to Philippi), Scrobi- 

cularia arenaria of Schumacher, Lavigno 

calcinella of 

Recluz, and Trigonella Listeriana of Leach. The young 

is the Amphidesma tenue of Macgillivray. 

Candid Header, contrast the superficial aphorism of 

Pope, 

" The proper study of mankind is man," 

with the following lines by Wordsworth, which embody 

a far greater depth of thought and acquaintance with 

Nature, and are strictly in unison with those feelings 

which arise from the prosecution of such studies as the 

present :— 

~* 

"Happy is he who lives to understand, 

Not human nature only, but explores 

All natures,— to the end that he may find 

The law that governs each; and where begins 

The union, the partition where, that makes 

Kind and degree, among all visible beings ; 

The constitutions, powers, and faculties 

Which they inherit—cannot step beyond— 

And cannot fall beneath ; 

that do assign 

To every class its station and its office, 

Through all the mighty commonwealth of tilings ; 

Up from the creeping plant to sovereign Man. 

Such converse, if directed by a meek, 

Sincere, and liumble spirit, teaches love : 

For knowledge is delight ; 

and such delight 

Breeds love : yet, 

suited as it rather is 

To thought and to the climbing intellect, 

It teaches less to love, than to adore ; 

If that be not indeed the highest love ! 

"

448 TABLE OF DISTRIBUTION. 

Table of geographical and geological distribution, 

framed on the principles set forth in the preceding 

volume, with respect to the Land and Freshwater 

Mollusca of Great Britain. 

Species. 

Brachiopoda. 

Terebratula cranium . . . 

eaput-serpentis 

Argiope decollata 

cistellula 

capsula 

Crania anomala 

Conchifera. 

Anomia ephippium 

patelliformis 

Ostrea edulis 

Pecten jmsio 

varius 

opercularis 

septemradiatus 

tigrinus 

Testa? 

striatus 

similis 

maximus 

Lima Sarsii 

eliiptica 

subauriculata 

Loscombii 

hians 

Avicula hirundo 

Pinna rudis 

Mytilus edulis 

modiolus 

barbatus 

6 

u 

— 

o 

O 

C 

t-i 

Species. 

TABLE OF DISTRIBUTION. 449 

i

450 TABLE OF DISTRIBUTION. 

Species. 

Conchifera {continued). 

Cardium exiguum 

fasciatuin 

nodosum 

edule . . . 

minimum . 

. . 

Norvegicum . 

Isocardia cor 

Cyprina Islandica. 

Astarte sulcata . . . 

compressa . 

triangularis 

Circe minima . 

Venus exoleta . 

lincta 

Chione . . . 

fasciata . . . 

Casina . . . 

verrucosa . . . 

ovata 

G-allina 

Tapes aureus 

virgineus . . . 

pullastra . . . 

decussatus . . . 

Lucinopsis undata 

Gastrana fragilis . 

Tellina balaustina 

crassa 

. . 

balthica 

tenuis 

fabula 

squalida 

donacina 

pusilla 

Psammobia tellinella 

costulata 

Ferroensis 

vespertina 

Donax vittatus 

trunculus 

politus 

. . 

s - 

O 

c 

u 

1 

Species. 

TABLE OF DISTRIBUTION. 451

ERRATA. 

Page 133, line 12 from top, for " C. decussafus" read " C. decussafa." 

2'j4, line 13 from top, for " trunculus" read " vittatus." 

280, line 6 from bottom, for " variatal" read '-varietal." 

349, line 11 from top, for " sfriatula" read " gallina." 

357, line 13 from top, for " elliptica, var. oblonga " read " ohhnga" 

390, line 2 from top, for " Hi/pathi/ris" read " BhyncJionellaP 

402, line 17 from top, the word '* 

types " should not be in italic?.

INDEX to VOL. II. 

The synonyms, as well as the names of spurious species, and of species, 

genera, and other groups which are not described in this volume, are in 

italics.—The figures in smaller type refer to the page in which the description 

of species, genera, and higher groups will be found. 

Abra, Leach, 434. 

fabalis, S. Wood, 441. 

Acephala, 8. 

Amphidesma, Lam., 235, 412, 434. 

Boysiana, Leach, 441. 

castaneum, Mont., 413. 

eornea, Lam., 414. 

corneum, Poli, 414. 

deauratum, Turt., 414. 

donacilla, Lam., 414. 

fiexuosa, Lam., 249. 

Goodalliana, Leach, 215. 

intermedia, Thomps., 437. 

lucinalis, Lam., 235. 

nitens, Mont., 414. 

nucleoid, Lam., 222. 

purpurascens, Lam., 212, 215. 

semidentata, Scacchi, 441. 

tenue, Macg., 447. 

Amphidesmata, 412. 

Anatina, Lam., 210. 

Ancylus, 92. 

Anomia, Linn., 5, 10, 24, 29, 30, 32, 

33, 37. 

acuUata, 32. 

aurita, Gualt., 16. 

caput-serpentis, Linn., 14. 

decollata, Chemn., 18. 

detruncata, GJ-niel., 19. 

ephippium, Linn., 26, 30, 34, 35. 

pateliiformis, Linn., 34, 35, 36. 

pectiniformis, Phil., 35. 

retusa, Linn., 16. 

squamula, 32. 

striata, Lov., 35, 36. 

tubularis, Turt., 34. 

Anomiadce, Grav, 29. 

Anomle, 30. 

AnomiidjE, Gray, 27, 29. 

Arca, Linn., 80, 136, 138, 139, 141. 

160, 165, 169, 170, 171, 173, 184. 

187, 265. 

aspera, Phil., 180. 

aurita, Brocchi, 160, 161. 

barbata, Linn., 97, 183. 

barbata, Mull., 179. 

bimaculata, Poli, 169. 

Britannica, Reeve, 182. 

cardissa, Lam., 182. 

caudata, Don., 158. 

crinita, Pult., 180. 

decussata, Linn., 169. 

fusca, Brug., 182. 

fusca, Solander, 182. 

Gaimardii, Payr., 180. 

glacialis, G-ray, 172, 173, 174, 175.. 

glycymeris, Linn., 166, 169. 

imbricata, Poli, 179, 180, 184. 

Korenii, Dan., 177. 

lactea, Linn., 139, 172, 176, 177, 

178, 179, 180. 

margaritacea, Brug., 148. 

minima, Turt., 169. 

minuta, Brocchi, 158. 

minuta, Fabr., 157, 158. 

minuta, Mont., 157. 

minuta, Mull., 155, 158. 

modiolus, Linn., 179. 

naviarfaris, Brug., 182. 

nitida, Brocchi, 150. 

Nocb, Linn., 169, 182. 

nodulosa. Mull., 179, 180. 

nucleus, Linn., 143. 

nummaria, Linn., 169. 

obliqua, Phil., 175. 

obliqua, Reeve, 177. 

pectunculoides, Scacchi, 170, 171," 

174, 175, 176, 178.

454 INDEX. 

Arca {continued). 

Pennantiana, Leach, 180. 

perforans, Turt., 179. 

pilosa, Linn., 169. 

pusilla, Nyst, 175. 

Quoyii, Payr., 180. 

raridentata, S. Wood, 171, 174. 

175. 

reticulata, Gmel., 183. 

reticulata, Turt., 183. 

rostrata, Mont., 158, 184. 

striata, Reeve, 180. 

tenuis, Mont., 151. 

tetragona, Poli, 139, 180. 

tortuosa, Linn., 182. 

undata, Linn., 169. 

Arcadm, Leach, 141. 

Arcid.e, Lowe, 137, 138, 139, 141. 

Arcopagia, Leach, 375. 

ovata, Brown, 375. 

Arctica, Schum., 304. 

Arctoe nitidissima, Eisso, 332. 

Arenaria, v. Miihlf., 433. 

Argiope, Deslongch., 11, 17, 30. 

capsula, Jeffr., 21, 22. 

cisteilula, S. Wood, 2, 14. 19, 21. 

22. 

decollata, Chenm., 18, 20, 21, 22. 

Neapolitana, Scacchi, 21, 22. 

Argus, Poli, 50. 

Artemis, Lov., 325, 327. 

convpta, Lov., 331. 

exoleta, Linn., 327. 

lincta, F. & H., 330. 

Artkemis, Poli, 327. 

Asmidia, 304. 

Assiminia, 425. 

Astarte, J. Sowerby, 6, 25, 32, 164, 

239, 308, 309, 310, 322. 

arctica, 320. 

borealis, Chemn., 320, 390. 

castanea, Say, 308, 320. 

compressa, Macg., 320. 

conipressa, Mont., 310, 315, 316, 

317, 319. 

corrugata, 320. 

crebricostata, Forb., 319, 320, 390. 

crebrilirata, S. Wood, 320. 

cyprinoides, 320. 

Banmoniensis, F. & H., 311. 

elliptica, Brown, 312, 314. 

Gairensis, Smith, 315. 

globosa, Moll., 316. 

inerassata, Brocchi, 313, 314. 

Astarte {continued'), 

islandica, 320. 

lactea, 320. 

laevigata, v. Miinst., 319. 

latisulca, Hani., 315. 

minutissima, Mont., 309. 

multicostata, Smith, 317. 

propinqua, Landsb., 317. 

pulchella, Jonas, 317. 

pusilla, Forb., 319. 

Scotica, Mat. & Rack.. 309. 

semisulcata, Jeffr., 315. 

semisulcata, Leach, 315, 320. 

striata, Moll., 316. 

sulcata, Da Costa, 164. 308, 3l0. 

311, 312, 314, 317, 319. 

triangularis, Mont., 146, 164, 309. 

310, 318. 

Uddevallensis, Smith, 317. 

undata, Grould, 315. 

veneriformis, 320. 

Autono'e, Leach, 218. 

Avicula, Klein, 76, 94. 95, 96, 97, 

98, 141. 

Atlantica. Lam., 97. 

Britannica, Leach, 98. 

hirundo, Linn., 95, 96, 97. 

morio, Leach, 97. 

Tarentina, Lam., 95, 97. 

Aviculid.e, Swainson, 93. 

Axincea, Poli, 165. 

Axinus, J. Sowerby, 28, 229, 231, 

245, 246, 247. 

angulatus, Sow., 246. 

Croulinensis, Jeffr., 250, 251. 

ferruginosus, Forbes, 251. 

flexuosus, Mont., 148, 229, 247. 

249, 250, 251, 252. 

obscurus, Sow., 246. 

Sarsii, Phil, 247, 249, 251. 

sinuatus, Phil., 249. 

Balanus Bellonii, List., 182. 

Bequania, Leach, 247. 

Bomia, Phil., 224. 

inflata, Phil., 227. 

seminulum, Phil., 222. 

BRACHIOPODA, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 

7, 8, 9, 10, 24, 326. 

Brachiopod, 7. 

Brachiopods, 6, 8, 9. 

Buccinum undatum, 44, 418. 

Bulla, 138. 

Bullidce, 230.

Byssomya Guerinii, Payr., 263. 

Callista, Poli, 327. 

coccinea, Poli, 334. 

Capsa, Lam.. 308, 402. 

deflorata, Leach, 352. 

Cardia, 304. 

Cardiacea, 301. 

Cardiacees, Lam., 298. 

Cardiid.e, Brod., 264, 297. 

Cardissa, 285, 289. 

Cardita, Brug., 298, 308. 

UthophageUa, Lam., 263, 264. 

CARMTiDiE, Gray. 256. 

Cardium, Linn., 256, 265. 266. 268, 

277, 281, 286, 296, 298, 344. 

aculeatum, Linn., 268, 270. 

amnicum, Mont., 266. 

aquilinum, Mittre, 280. 

arcuatum, Mont., 238, 266. 

arcuatum, Reeve, 283. 

carneosum, Da Costa, 238. 

ciliare, Don., 275. 

ciliare, Linn.. 270. 

ciliare, Mont., 270. 

ciliare, Penn., 271. 

citrinum, W. Wood, 296. 

corneum, Mont., 266. 

crassum, Gmel., 296. 

crenulatum, Lam., 287. 

discors, Mont., 236, 237, 238, 266. 

echinatum, Linn., 268, 270, 272, 

273, 274, 277. 

cdentidum, Mont., 297. 

edule, Linn., 106, 268, 275, 285, 

286, 289, 292, 293. 

elegantulum, Moll., 272. 

elongatimi, Brug., 283. 

elongation, Mont., 282. 

exiguum, Gmel., 268, 278, 280. 

281, 282, 288. 

exiguum, Macg., 283. 

fasciatum, Gmel., 283. 

fasciatum, Mont., 268, 281, 285, 

289. 

Grcenlandicum, Chemn., 297. 

humanum, Linn., 302. 

lacitstre, Mont., 266. 

Icevigatum, Linn., 296. 

Loveni, Thoinps., 294. 

medium, Linn., 296. 

medium, Turt., 296. 

minimum, Phil., 268, 292. 

muricatulum, Mont., 280. 

INDEX. 455 

Cardium (continued). 

muricatum, Linn., 296, 297. 

nodosum, Mont., 275. 

nodosum, Turt.. 268, 283. 285, 

297. 

IS'orvegicum, Spengl., 294, 296. 

oblongum, Brown, 296. 

oblongum, Chemn., 296. 

ovale. Sow., 283. 

papillosum, Poli, 263, 268, 27;. 

277. 

parasitum, Costa, 280. 

parvum, Da Costa, 272. 

parvum, Phil., 280. 

Pennantii, Eeeve, 296. 

planatum, Ren., 277. 

Polii, Payr.. 277. 

punctatum, Brocchi, 277. 

punctatum, Phil., 277, 285. 

pygmcBum, Don., 278, 280. 

roseum, Chemn., 285. 

roseum, Lam., 284, 285. 

rubrum, Mont., 217, 219, 266. 

rubrum, Reeve, 283. 

rusticum, Chemn., 287. 

rusticum, Linn. ?, 273, 274, 275. 

scabrum, Phil., 283. 

scobinatum, Lam., 277. 

serratum, Linn., 296. 

serratum, Turt., 297. 

Siculum, Sow., 280. 

spatula, Sol., 272. 

spinosum, J. Sowerby, 270. 

stellatum, Reeve, 280. 

striatum, Walker, 344. 

strigilliferum, S. Wood, 272. 

subangulatum, Scacchi, 280. 

Suecicum, Lov., 292. 

Suediense, Reeve, 294. 

tuberculatum, Linn., 267, 268, 273, 

274, 275, 278, 285. 

vitellinum, Reeve, 296. 

zonatum, Leach, 283. 

Cephalopoda, 326. 

Cerastes. Poli, 268. 

Chama, Linn., 218, 298. 

cor, Linn., 298. 

Lazarus, 317. 

magna, Da Costa, 430. 

Chimcera, Poli, 99. 

Chione, v. Muhlf., 263. 

coccinea, Leach, 334. 

Circe, Schum., 321, 324, 327, 331. 

minima, Mont., 322.

456 INDEX. 

Clausina, Jeffr., 247. 

Croulinensis, Jeffr., 250. 

Cochlodesma, 433. 

CONCHIFERA, 1, 4, 8, 27, 326. 

Corbicula fluniinalis, 316. 

Crania, Ketz, 9, 20, 24, 26. 

anomala, Mull., 2, 24. 

Norvegica, 24. 

ringens, Honingh., 25. 

Craniadcs, King, 24. 

Craniid.e, King, 24. 

Crassina, Lam., 308. 

Britannica, Leach, 315. 

convexiuscula, Brown, 317. 

depressa, Brown, 315, 320. 

elliptica, Brown. 312, 313. 

obliqua, Brown, 317. 

ovata, Brown, 315. 

sulcata, Miss., 315. 

Crenatula Travisii, Turk, 98. 

Crenella, Brown, 121, 1 30, 132, 134, 

136, 161. 

costulata, F. & H., 125. 

decussata, Mont., 133. 

faba, Mull., 135. 

glandula, Totten, 135. 

marmorata, F. & H., 122. 

nigra, F. & H., 128. 

rhombea, Berk., 131, 134. 

Criopus Orcadensis, Leach, 26. 

Cryptodon, Turk, 247. 

bisinuatum, S. Wood, 249. 

rolundatum, S. Wood, 253. 

Cfenoides, Klein, 80. 

Cucullcea, Lam., 173. 

Cuneus reticulatus, Da Costa, 362. 

truncatus, Da Costa, 411. 

vittatus, Da Costa, 402. 

Cyamia, 263. 

Cyamium, Phil., 256, 257, 260. 

antarcticum, Phil., 257. 

? eximium, S. Wood, 260. 

minutum, Fabr., 260, 264. 

Cycladina Adansonii, Cantr., 222. 

Cyclas, 128. 

Cyclina, Desh., 365. 

Cydippe, Leach, 375. 

Listeriana, Leach, 375. 

Cylichna obtusa, 443. 

Cyprcea Europaa, 147. 

Cypricardia, Lam., 256, 263. 

coralliophuga, Lam., 264. 

Cyprina, Lam., 303, 307, 308, 321, 

324. 

Cyprina (continued). 

csqualis, Sow., 305. 

Islandica, Linn., 98, 167, 302, 

303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 333. 

islandicoides, Lam., 305. 

Montagui, Bisso, 316. 

vulgaris, Brown, 308. 

Cyprinid.e, Geinitz, 297. 

Cyrachcea, Leach, 242. 

Cyrena, 303. 

jluminalisy 316. 

Cytherea, Lam., 321, 325, 327. 

albida, Bolt., 330. 

apicalis, Phil., 324. 

Chione, F. & H., 332. 

Icevis, Ag., 334. 

lunar is, Lam., 331. 

minuta, Brown, 324. 

nitidula, Lam., 334. 

occitanica, Reel., 324. 

Daphne, Poli, 171. 

Bavidsonia, 9. 

DIMYARIA, Lam., 27, 43. 

Biodonta, Desh., 367. 

Barleei, Jeffr., 255. 

fragilis, F. & H., 367. 

Diplodonta, Brown, 229, 253, 255. 

dilatata, Phil., 255. 

rotundata, Monk, 254. 

Diplodontê, 253. 

Biscinidce, 24. 

Donaces, 402. 

Donacidce, 402. 

Bonacilla LamarcJcii, Phil., 414. 

Donax, Linn., 386, 401, 402, 412, 434.' 

anatina, 406. 

anatinum, Lam., 406, 408. 

anatinus, F. & H., 402. 

castanea, Mont., 412. 

complanata, Monk, 410. 

crenulata, Don., 411. 

denticulatus, Linn., 411. 

fabagella, Lam., 406. 

glabra, S. Wood, 410. 

IcBvigata, Chemn., 408. 

LasJceyi, 410. 

longa, Bronn, 410. 

plebeia, Pulk, 414. 

politus, Poli, 402, 408. 

punctata, Chemn., 411. 

rubra, Mont., 264. 

rubra, Turk, 264, 405. 

semistriata, Poli, 406.

Donax {continued). 

trunculus, Linn., 264, 405, 406, 

407, 408. 

trunculus, Mull., 406. 

vittata, Lam., 406. 

vittatus, Da Costa, 395, 402, 407, 

409. 

Dorvilka Ariglica, Leach, 444. 

Dosinia, Scop., 327. 

Echion, Poli, 30. 

Ervilia, Turt., 412. 

castanea, F. & H., 413. 

Erycina, Lam., 205. 

angulosa, Bronn, 436. 

faba, Nyst, 210. 

Fontenayi, Mittre, 222. 

Franciscana, Reel., 216. 

nucleoid, Reel., 210. 

ovata, Phil., 444. 

pisum, Scacchi, 227. 

Renieri, Bronn, 441. 

seminulum, Reel., 207. 

violaeea, Scacchi, 222. 

Eupoleme cancellata, Leach, 198. 

G-aleomma, Turton, 184, 185, 187, 

190, 192, 193. 

Turtoni,Ed.Zool.Journ.,173,178, 

187, 188, 192, 393. 

Galeommice, Gray, 184. 

Gari, Chemn., 391. 

Gostcropod, 138, 171, 194. 

Gasteropoda, 8, 326. 

Gasteropodous Moltusca, 50. 

Gasteropoda, 196. 

Gastrana, Schum., 366, 367. 

fragilis, Linn., 367, 368, 369. 

Glaucus, Poli, 78. 

Glocomene Montaguana, Leach, 

255. 

Glossus, Poli, 298. 

Glycymeris argentea, Da Costa, 148. 

Gobrceus, Leach, 401. 

Goodallia, Turt.. 319. 

Gouldia, C. B. Adams, 321. 

Gryphcea, 39. 

Gwynia, King, 22. 

Hiatella Poliana, Costa, 192. 

striata, Delle Chiaje, 192. 

Hinnites, Defrance, 52. 

Hydrobia ulvce, 443. 

ventrosa, 444. 

INDEX. 45; 

Isocardia, Lam., 265. 297, 298, 300, 

301, 303. 

cor, Linn., 298, 302. 

Hibemica, Reeve, 303. 

Kellia, Turton, 205, 217, 218. 222, 

223, 224, 230. 

abyssicola, Forbes, 253. 

Cailliaudi, Reel., 226. 

cycladia, S. Wood, 228. 

ferruginosa, Forbes, 251. 

nitida, F. & H., 198. 

planulata, Stimps., 222. 

rubra, F. & H., 219. 

rubra, Gould, 222. 

suborbicularis, Mont., 121, 163, 

193, 221, 225, 227. 

Xelliioe, F. & H., 28, 184, 192, 193. 

Lcevicardium, Swainson, 296. 

LAMELLIBRANCHIATA, 27, 28, 

43. 

Lanistes, Huinphr., 121. 

Lanistina, Gray, 121. 

Las.ea, Leach, 2 17, 218,219,223, 229. 

rubra, Mont., 193, 214, 219, 221. 

263, 283. 

LAS.E.E, 218. 

Lasea rubra. Leach, 218. 

Lavigno calcinella, Reel., 447. 

Lavignonus, Fer., 434. 

Leda, Schum., 136, 139, 140, 141, 

150, 153, 154, 159. 

caudata, 155. 

complanata, Moll., 158. 

intermedia, Orst., 158. 

minuta, Mull., 153, 155, 157, 158. 

pernula, Mull., 154, 157, 158. 

pygmsea, Miinst., 153, 154. 

Lembulus, Leach, 153. 

Lepton, Turton, 94, 184, 188, 193. 

194, 196, 202. 

Clarkia3, Clark, 202. 

convexum, Aid., 199. 

loripes, Stimps., 194. 

nitidum, Turt., 198, 200. 

squamosum, Mont., 194, 200. 

sulcatulum, Jeffr., 201, 203. 

Ligula, Mont,, 433. 

prismatica, Mont., 435. 

profundissima, Forbes, 440. 

substriata, Mont., 205. 

Lima, Brug., 77, 78, 79, 86, 89, 90. 

91, 92, 93, 159, 192.

458 INDEX. 

Lima {continued). 

aperta, Sow., 93. 

. reticulata. 

buttate, Turt., 86, 87. 

elliptica. Jeffr., 8i, 82, 83, 84. 

elongate, Forbes, 84. 

fragilis, Flem., 93. 

hians, Gmel., 82, 86, 87, 89, 90, 

92, 93. 

in flata, Forbes, 93. 

in flata, Lam., 93. 

inflate, Phil., 93. 

Loscombea, Leach, 87. 

Loscornbii, G. B. Sowerbj, 80, 84, 

85. 86, 87, 93. 

Leach, 87. 

Sarsii, Lot., 78, 80, 84. 

strigilata, Scacchi, 87. 

subauricula, Phil., 84. 

subauriculata, Mont., 80, 81, 82, 

84, 85. 

sulcata, Moll., 84. 

sulculus, Lov., 84. 

tenera, Turt., 87, 88. 

tenuis, Leach, 93. 

unicostata, Leach, 84. 

vitrina, Brown, 93. 

Limatula, S. Wood, 80. 

Limea, Bronn, 78, 79, 80, 87. 

Sarsii, Lov., 78. 

Limnopsis, Gray, 161. 

Limoarca, Munst., 79. 

Limopsis, Sassi, 80, 139, 141, 159, 

160, 163, 164, 165. 

aurita, Brocchi. 79, 161. 164. 

borcalis. Woodw., 164. 

pellucida, Jeffr., 132. 

pygmaa, S. Wood, 164. 

Lingula, 2, 6, 9, 22. 

Listera, Turt., 434. 

Lithodomus aristatus, 120. 

Littorina litorea, 106, 135. 

Loripes, Poli, 229, 230, 231, 232, 

237, 259. 

divaricatus, Linn., 235, 238, 239, 

283. 

lacteus, Linn., 233, 243, 244. 

piriformis, Linn., 239. 

Loripoderma, Poli, 232. 

Lucina, Brug., 27, 230, 231, 239, 

240, 246, 253, 259, 362, 363. 

alba, Turt., 245. 

borealis, Linn., 242, 243, 245, 372, 

391. 

caduca, Scacchi, 365. 

Lucina (continued). 

Childreni, 317. 

commutata, Phil., 236. 

Dtsmarestii, Payr., 233. 

digitalis, Lain., 238. 

digitaria, Poli, 236. 

divaricate, F. & H., 235. 

divaricate, Lam., 236. 

ferruginosa, F. & H., 251. 

Jilosa, Stimps., 244. 

flexuosa, F. & H., 247. 

fragilis, Phil., 234. 

Gouldii, Phil., 249. 

lactea, Lam., 233. 

lactea, Macg., 245. 

leucoma, Macg., 245. 

leucoma, Turt., 233, 234. 

quadripartite, D'Orb., 236. 

sinuata, Lam., 249. 

spinifera, Mont.. 240, 241. 

squamosa, Lam., 237. 

strigilla, Stimps., 236. 

undularia, S. Wood, 236. 

Lucinidj2, D'Orb., 229, 230, 231. 

Lucixopsis, Forbes and Hanley, 325, 

327, 362, 363. 

undata, Penn., 255, 363. 

Lutraria, Lam., 412, 427, 428, 429, 

434. 

elliptica, Lam., 428, 430, 431, 432. 

oblonga, Chemn., 357, 430, 432. 

solenoiclea. Brown, 432. 

solenoides, King, 432. 

solenoides, Lam., 432. 

solida, Phil., 432. 

vulgaris, Fiem., 430. 

LUTRARLE, 428. 

Lux, Chemn., 391. 

vespertina, Chemn.. 398. 

Lyonsia Norvegica, 438. 

Macandrevia, King, 11. 

Macroma tenera, Leach, 390. 

Mactra, Linn., 141, 227, 412, 415, 

424, 428, 433, 434. 

alba, Wood, 438. 

Boysii, Mont., 441. 

Braziliana, Lam.. 427. 

castanea, Lam., 419. 

cinerea, Mont., 423. 

compressa, Pult., 446. 

corallina, Buon., 425. 

cornea, Poli, 414. 

crassa, Turt., 419.

Mactra {continued). 

crassatella, Lam., 419. 

cuneata, Sow., 422. 

dealhata, Pult., 427. 

deltoides, Lam., 422. 

elliptica, Brown, 417, 418, 419. 

Euxinica, Kryn., 422. 

fragilis, Chemn., 427. 

glauca, Born, 425. 

helvacea, Chemn., 425. 

hians, Pult., 432. 

hyans, Turt., 432, 

lactea, Linn., 422. 

lactea, Poli, 422. 

lateralis, Say, 422. 

Lister 7, G-mel., 446. 

lutraria, Linn., 430. 

minutissima, Mont., 319. 

Neapolitana, Poli, 427. 

obtruncata, S. Wood, 422. 

ovalis, S. Wood, 419. 

piper at a, Gmel., 444, 446. 

radiata, Don., 297. 

solida, Linn., 415, 418. 419, 420. 

421, 422, 424, 425, 427. 

sbraminea, Lam., 425. 

striata, Brown, 420. 

stultorum, Linn., 420, 422. 424, 

426. 

sbultorum, Penn., 422. 

subtruncata, Da Costa, 419, 421. 

subtruncata, Don., 419. 

tenuis, Mont., 442. 

triangula, Ben., 422. 

triangularis, Mont., 318. 

triangidata, S. Wood, 422. 

truncata, Mont., 417, 418. 

vulgaris, Chemn., 419, 427. 

Mactradce, Flem., 411. 

Mactridê, Flem., 411. 

Megathyris, D'Orb., 17. 

cistellula, F. & H., 19. 

Megerlea truncata, 22. 

Meleagrina, 96. 

Mesodesma, Desh., 412. 

exiguum, Lov., 210. 

Jauresii, De Joannis, 414. 

Mitidus, 104. 

Modiola, Lam., 90, 103, 104, 120. 

adriatica, Lam., 116. 

agglutinans, Cantr., 120. 

asperula, S. Wood, 133. 

Ballii, Brown, 120. 

barbata, F. & H., 114. 

INDEX. 459 

Modiola (continued). 

barbata, Macg., 114. 

cicercula, Moll., 135. 

cuprea, Jeffr., 136. 

discors, Leach, 124. 

discrepans, Lam., 124. 

Europcea. D'Orb., 124. 

Gibbsii, Leach, 116. 

glandvki, Totten, 135. 

grandis, Phil., 112. 

lavigata, Gray, 127. 

modiolus, 111. 

nigra, Gray, 128. 

ovalis, Sow., 117. 

papuana, Lam., 113. 

phaseolina, Phil., 118. 

picta, Lam., 118. 

Poliana, Phil., 124. 

Prideaux, Leach, 132. 

Prideauxiana, Brown, 132. 

radiata, Brown, 118. 

rhombea, Berk., 131. 

tulipa, F. & H., 116. 

tulipa, Lam., 113, 114, 118. 

tumida, Hanley, 124. 

vestita, Phil., 120. 

vulgaris, Flem., 114. 

Modiola, 104. 

Modiolaria, Beck, 28, 120, 121, 130, 

214. 

costulata, Risso, 125. 

discors, Linn., 86, 126, 129, 130. 

impacta, 128. 

marmorata, Forbes, 121, 122, 123, 

124, 125, 128, 214. 

nigra, Gray, 128. 

Modiolarle, 130. 

Modiolus costulatus, Bisso, 125. 

MONOMYABIA, Lam., 27, 43. 

Montacuta. Turt., 193, 204, 205, 

208, 217, 223. 

bidentata, 

222. 

Mont., 208, 210, 216. 

Dawsoni, Jeffr., 216. 

donacina, S. Wood, 216. 

elevata, Stamps., 210. 

ferruginea, F. & H., 210. 

ferruginosa, Mont., 210, 214, 215. 

225. 

oblonga, Turt,, 212. 

substriata, 

208, 433. 

Mont., 168, 193, 205. 

tenella, Lot., 216. 

Murex, 310. 

x2

460 INDEX. 

Murex (continued). 

trunculus, 421. 

Muricida, 230, 319. 

Mutulus, 104. 

Mya, 141,210,228,428. 

arenaria, 106. 

bidentata, Mont., 208. 

decussata, Mont., 348. 

ferruginosa, Mont., 210. 

nitida, Fabr., 438. 

nitida, Mull., 436, 437, 438. 

oblonga, Chemn., 430. 

orbiculata, Spengl., 446. 

purpurea, Mont., 263. 

suborbicularis, Mont., 225. 

Myrtea, Turt., 242. 

Mysia, Leach, 253. 

Mytilid.e, Fleming, 102. 

Mytilus, Linn., 90, 98, 103, 104, 

121. 

Adriaticus, Lam., 116, 236. 

Africanus, Chemn., 120. 

aristatus, Dillw., 120. 

barbatus, Linn., 114, 115, 118. 

barbatus, Miill., 116. 

bidens, Linn., 120. 

crenatus, Lam., 120. 

curtus, Penn., 114. 

decussatus, Lam., 135. 

decussatus, Mont., 133. 

discors, Linn., 123, 124. 

discrepans, Mont., 123, 128, 130. 

edulis, Linn., 104, 106, 107, 114, 

126, 135. 

faba, Mull., 135. 

Galloprovincialis, Lam., 105. 

Garnseice, Petiver, 180. 

Gibbsiamis, Leach, 116. 

hesperianus, Lam., 106. 

Mr undo, Linn., 95, 97. 

incurvatus, Penn., 105. 

marmoratus, Forbes, 122. 

modiolus, Linn., 23, 86, 98, 104, 

106, 107, in, 113, 114, 115, 

116, 117. 118, 119, 120, 179. 

papuanus, D'Arg., 113. 

pellucidus, Penn., 105. 

phaseolinus, Phil., 104, 118, 120, 

121. 

pictus, Gmel., 118. 

trosstdus, Gould, 106. 

umbilicatus, Penn., 112. 

ungulatus, Linn., 105. 

Mytulus, 104. 

Nassa incrassata, 08. 

neritea, 405. 

Naticida, 230. 

Nicania Banksii, Leach, 317. 

striata, Leach, 316. 

Nucula, Lam., 130, 132, 136, 139, 

140, 141, 143, 146, 153, 196. 

arctic a, Gray, 158. 

argentea, Brown, 148. 

commutata, Phil., 158. 

cuspidata, Phil., 157. 

decipiens, Phil., 152. 

decussata, F. & H., 141. 

decussata, Sow., 143. 

expansa, Reeve, 152. 

gibbosa, Smith, 155. 

inflata, Hanc, 151. 

in flata, Morch, 152. 

lenticula, Moll., 155. 

nitida, Sow., 143, 146, 148, 149, 

150, 152. 

nucleus, Linn.. 143, 145, 146, 147- 

148, 149, 150, 210. 

oblonga, Brown, 157. 

Polii, Phil., 143. 

Tortlandica, Hitchc, 158. 

proxima, Say, 150. 

pygmcea, Miinst., 154. 

radiata, F. & H., 144, 145, 146, 

147. 

rostrata, Macg., 158. 

rugulosa, Sow., 143, 

striata, Lam., 158. 

sulcata, Ad., 143. 

sulcata, Bronn, 141, 144, 148, 150. 

tenuis, Mont., 151, 152. 

tenuis, Phil., 155. 

truncata, Brown, 158. 

tumidula, Malm, 144. 

Nuculadce, Leach, 141. 

Nuculjs, 140, 146. 

Nuculana, Link, 153. 

Nuculana, S. Wood, 140. 

Nuculida, D'Orb., 141. 

Nuculocardia, D'Orb., 136. 

Nudibranchs, 85, 355. 

Nympha, 304. 

Oronthea Montaguana, Leach, 227. 

Ostrea, Linn., 37,49. 

btillata, Horn, 86. 

deformis, Lam., 39. 

depressa, Phil., 39. 

edulis, Linn., 38.

Ostrea (continued). 

Mans, G-mel., 87. 

hippopus, Lam., 39. 

hybrida, G-mel., 64. 

lima, Linn., 160. 

maxima, Linn., 73. 

nivea, Renier, 84. 

opercularis, Linn., 59. 

parasitica, Turt., 39. 

pusio, Linn., 51. 

sinuosa, G-mel., 53. 

strigilata, Broechi, 80, 87. 

subauriculata, Turt., 84. 

tenera, Chemn., 93. 

tuberculata, Olivi, 80. 

tumida, Turt., 72. 

varia, Linn., 53. 

Ostreid.e, Brod., 27, 29, 37, 49. 

Ostreum striatum, Da Costa, 36. 

Palliobranchiata, 5. 

Parthenope formosa, Scacchi, 192. 

Pasiphae Pennantia, Leach, 344. 

Patella, 25. 

anomala, Mull., 24. 

distorta, Mont., 26. 

Pecten, Pliny, 25, 32, 43, 49, 50, 52, 

75, 77, 8*0, 93. 

Actoni, v. Martens, 72. 

aculeatus, Jeffr., 71. 

aratus, Gmel., 65. 

Audouinii, Payr., 62. 

concentricus, 60. 

Danicus, Chemn., 62. 

distortus, Da Costa, 53. 

domesticus, Chemn., 67. 

Dumasii, Payr., 63. 

Foresti, Martin, 72. 

fragilis, Chemn., 86. 

fragilis, Mont., 86. 

furtivus, Lov., 67. 

Gerardii, Nyst, 68. 

glaber, Penn., 64. 

Gromlandicus, Sow., 72. 

incomparabilis, Eisso, 69. 

Isabella, Lam., 58. 

Isabella, Macg., 58. 

Islandicus, Mull., 57, 58, 320, 390. 

Jacobaus, 74, 77. 

la vis, Penn., 76. 

Landsburgi, Forbes, 71. 

lineatus, Da Costa, 60, 62. 

maximus, Linn., 50, 73, 75, 76, 361. 

minimus, Sars, 72. 

INDEX. 461 

Pecten (continued). 

multistriatus, Poli, 53. 

niveus, Macg., 54, 56, 57. 

obsoletus, Penn., 67. 

opercularis, Linn., 33, 59,61,62. 74. 

parvus, Da Costa, 67. 

polymorphus, 64. 

pusio, Linn., 49, 51, 52, 56. 

pygmaus, v. Miinst., 72. 

reticulatus, Chemn., 71. 

rimulosus, Phil., 70. 

septemradiatus, Mull., 50, 62, 63, 

64. 

smiilis, Laskey, 49, 71, 73, 76. 

striatus, Mull., 68, 69, 70. 

subauriculata, Mont., 82. 

subrufus, Turt., 62. 

sulcatus, Born, 65. 

sulcatus, Lam., 65. 

sulcatus, Mull., 64. 

Testae, Bivona, 67, 68, 69, 70. 

tigerinus, Mull., 65. 

tigrinus, Mull., 65, 67, 68, 69. 

varius, Linn., 53, 56, 57, 58. 

20-sulcatzcs, Mull., 65. 

vitreus, Chemn., 69. 

vitreus, Gray, 72. 

vitreus, Risso, 69. 

PECTiNiDiE, Lam., 27, 48, 49, 76. 

Pectunculidts, Leach, 141. 

Pectunculina, D'Orb., 169. 

Pectunculus, Lam., 139, 140, 141 , 

159,160, 164, 165, 170, 171. 

capillaceus, Da Costa, 329. 

costatus, Da Costa, 311. 

crassus, Da Costa, 307. 

decussatus, Turt., 169. 

depressior, Da Costa, 375. 

fasciatus, Da Costa, 334. 

fasciatus. Dale, 355. 

glaber, Da Costa, 334. 

glycimeris, F. & H., 166. 

glycymeris, Linn.,21, i66,167,169. 

lineatus, Phil., 169. 

maximus 8fc, Lister, 296. 

membranaceus, Da Costa, 339. 

minutus, Phil., 164. 

nummarius, Turt., 169. 

pygmmis, Phil., 164. 

stellatus, Lam., 169. 

striatulus, Da Costa, 347. 

strigatus, Da Costa, 341. 

undatus, Turt., 169. 

violascescens, Lam.. 169. 

x3

462 INDEX. 

Peloris, Poli, 38. 

Perna alata, 98. 

Ptronaa, Poli, 366, 402. 

Petricola, 210. 

lamellosa, Lam., 369. 

lithophaga, Ketz, 348. 

ochrohuca, Lam., 369. 

Ruperella, Lam., 348. 

Pholades. 325, 357. 

Pholas, 13, 27, 446. 

dactylus, 359. 

Piliscus commodus, 30. 

Pinna, Lister, 26, 76, 94, 95, 96, 98, 

99, 141. 

borealis, 102. 

elegans, 102. 

His. 102. 

frag 

ingens, 102. 

lavis, 102. 

muricata, Lirm., 102. 

papyracea, 102. 

pectinata, Linn., 99. 

rotundata, 102. 

rudis. Linn., 99. 

Pisidium, 215, 292. 

fontin ale, 192. 

219, 319. 

pusillum, 

(var. obtuscdis), 199. 

Placenta, 37. 

Placuna, 37. 

Placunanomia, Brod., 36. 

Plagiostoma, Sow., 78. 

Plagiostomus, Lhwyd, 78. 

Pododesmus, Phil., 29. 

Polyleptoginglymi, Lister, 165. 

Polyodontes, Lam., 139. 

Poromya, 229. 

mbtrigona, Jeffr., 228, 

Poronia, Reel., 217. 

rwira, F. & H., 219. 

Psammobia, Lam., 185, 388, 391, 401. 

costulata, Turt., 394. 

discors, Phil., 395. 

Ferroensis, Chemn., 385, 396, 399. 

florida, Lam., 394, 401. 

florida, Turt., 394. 

fragilis, Payr., 394. 

fusca, Say, 378. 

tellinella, Lam , 392, 393, 395, 

396, 398. 

vespertina, Chemn., 394, 398. 

vitrea, Quoy, 187. 

Psammophila, Leach, 432. 

Psammotcea iarentina, Lam., 369. 

Pteropoda, 

Ptychina, Phil., 247. 

biplicata, Phil., 249. 

Pullastra, Sow., 349. 

Pulmonobranchous Mollusca, 378. 

8. 326. 

TZhynchonella psittacea, 4, 22, 390. 

Rissoa labiosa, 443. 

parva, 56. 

ulvce, 443. 

ventrosa, 444. 

Sanguinolaria deflorata, 401. 

Saxicava, 263. 

arctica, 357. 

Saxicava, 325. 

Scacchia ovata, Phil., 229. 

Schizodus, King, 246. 

Scintilla, Desh., 194. 

Scrobicularia. Schum., 432. 433. 

434. 

alba, Wood, 433, 438, 440, 441. 

arenaria, Schum., 446. 

nitida, Mull., 436, 441. 

piperata, Bellon., 433, 444, 445. 

446. 

piperita. Desh., 444. 

prismatica, Mont.. 433, 435, 437. 

438. 

tenuis, Mont., 433, 442, 444, 446, 

tenuis, Phil., 438. 

Serrula, Chemn., 402. 

IcBvigata, Chemn., 408. 

Sole?i, 141. 

callosus, Olivi, 447. 

pieties, Spengl., 401. 

squamosus, Mont., 194. 

SpJwrella, Conrad, 253. 

Spkariida, 193, 224. 

Sphcerium, 134, 223. 

lacustre, 163. 

Spisula, Gray, 415. 

Spondyhts, 78. 

Syndosmya, Reel, 433, 434, 443. 

alba, F. & H., 438. 

intermedia, F. & H., 436. 

nitida, Lov., 438. 

prismatica, F. & H., 435. 

radiata, Lov., 439. 

tenuis, F. & H., 442, 443, 444. 

Tapes, Muhlf., 290, 325, 327, 349. 

367. 

aurea, F. & H., 349.

Tapes (continued). 

aureus, Gmel., 349, 351, 353, 354, 

368. 

decussata, F. & H., 359. 

decussatus, Linn., 327, 359, 361. 

Indica, Sow., 362. 

pullastra, Mont., 325, 327, 355, 

357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 362, 

391. 

mrginea, F. & H., 352 . 

virgineus, Linn., 349, 351, 352, 

354, 358. 

Tellimya elliptica, Brown, 215. 

glabra, Brown. 215. 

lactea, Brown, 226. 

avata, S. Wood, 215. 

tenuis, Brown, 228. 

Tellina, Linn., 27, 362, 366. 367, 

37o,378,391,402,406,434. 

albida, Dillw., 401. 

albida, Linn., 401. 

angulata, Born, 398. 

angulata, Linn., 398. 

balaustina, Linn., 75, 236, 367, 371, 

374. 

balthica, Linn., 238, 367, 375, 378, 

380. 

bimaculata, Linn., 375, 380, 390. 

Bornii, Gmel., 398. 

Braziliana, Lam., 390. 

calcarea, Chenm., 389, 390. 

camaria, Linn., 237, 238, 378. 

camaria, Penn., 378. 

crassa, G-mel., 370, 373, 374. 

depressa, G-mel., 385. 

depressa, Penn., 401. 

digitaria, Gmel., 238. 

discors, Pult., 383. 

distorta, Poli, 387. 

divaricata, Linn., 235. 

donacina, Linn., 386, 388. 389, 

392, 402, 406. 

elliptica, Brown, 391. 

exigua, Poli, 381. 

fabula, Gron., 382, 384, 435. 

fausta, Pult., 390. 

Ferroensis, Chemn., 396. 

fervensis, Gmel., 398. 

jlexuosa, Mont., 247. 

fragilissima, Landt, 383. 

fusca, Poli. 314. 

gari, Linn., 401. 

gari, Poli, 401. 

incequistriata, Don., 391. 

INDEX. 463 

Tellina (continued), 

incarnata, Chemn., 381. 

incarnata> Linn., 380, 385, 398. 

incarnata, Penn., 398. 

incarnata, Poli, 384. 

inconspicua, Brod. & Sow., 389. 

jngosa, Brown, 369. 

lactea, Linn., 233, 234. 

lest a, Pult., 391. 

Lantivyi, Payr., 387. 

Laskeyi. Mont., 410. 

lata, Gmel., 389. 

lineata, Turt., 390. 

maculata, Turt., 375. 

muricata, Ken., 398. 

opalina, Ren., 441. 

orbiculata, Ren., 373. 

pellucida, Brocchi, 441. 

pellucida, Brown, 391. 

pisiforr/iis, Linn., 238. 

planata, Linn., 381, 385. 

planata, Penn., 381. 

polita, Linn., 381. 

polita, Poli, 408. 

polita, Pult., 381. 

proficua, Pult., 390. 

proxima, Brown, 390. 

punicea, Gmel., 391. 

pusilla, Phil., 388, 389. 

pygrrma, Lov., 388, 389. 

radiata, Da Costa, 398. 

radiata, Linn., 398, 400. 

radula, Mont., 245. 

remies, Linn., 390. 

reticulata, Linn., 390. 

rigida, Pult., 375. 

rotundata, Mont., 254. 

rubra, Da Costa, 378. 

sabulosa, Spengl., 389. 

semistriata, Sol.. 383. 

8erratula, Chier., 373. 

s-imilis, J. Sow., 390. 

solidula, Pult., 238, 375, 377, 

378. 

sordida, Couth., 390. 

squalida, Pult., 367, 370, 384. 

striatula, Olivi, 369. 

subcarinata, Brocchi, 388. 

subrotunda, Desh., 375. 

tenuis, Chemn., 381. 

tenuis, Da Costa, 379, 380. 383, 

385. 

trifasciata, Linn., 388, 398. 

trifasciata, Penn.. 388.

464 INDEX. 

Tellina {continued). 

truncata, Linn., 398. 

truncata, Spengl., 398. 

variabilis, Pult., 401. 

variegata (3, Gmel., 410. 

variegata, Poli, 388. 

vinacea, Gmel., 410. 

vitrea, Gmel., 383. 

Telling, 378. 

Tellinidjj, Latr., 362, 365, 401, 402, 

412, 434. 

Tellinides, Lam., 380. 

Tellinula, Chemn., 380. 

fragilissima, Chemn., 383. 

Terebratella Spitzbergensis, 2, 30. 

truncata, 22. 

Terebratula, Lhwyd, 4, 5, 8, 10, n, 

17, 29. 

aperta, Blainv., 19. 

australis, 13. 

capsula, Jeffr., 21. 

caput-serpentis, Linn., 2, 4, 5, 9, 

13, 14, 22. 

cardita, Eisso, 19. 

chrysalis, Schloth., 17. 

cistellula, S. Wood, 19. 

cordata. Eisso, 22. 

costata, Lowe, 17. 

cranium, Mull., 2, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 

15, 22. 

emarginata, Eisso, 17. 

euthyra, Phil., 12. 

glabra, Leach, 13. 

Japonica, 16. 

nucleus, Mull., 16. 

pubescens, Mull., 16. 

septata, Phil., 3, 14. 

septentrionalis, Couth., 15, 17. 

septigera, Lov., 3, 14. 

Soldaniana, Eisso, 19. 

striata, Leach, 17. 

urna antiqua, Eisso, 19. 

vitrea, Linn., 13. 

Terebratul.e, 6, 8, 9. 

Terebratulid.e, Gray, 9, 10. 

Terebratulina, 14. 

Teredo, 13, 27. 

Thecidia, 6, 7. 

Thecidium, 7. 

Mediterraneum, 7- 

Thiatira, Leach, 247. 

Thiatisa, Leach, 247. 

Thracia, 27, 205, 433. 

distorta, 249. 

Thyasira, Leach, 247. 

Timocka, Leach, 327, 344. 

Tridonta, Schum., 308. 

Trigonella, Da Costa, 432, 433. 

gallina, Da Costa, 419. 

Listeriana, Leach, 446. 

plana, Da Costa, 446. 

radiata, Da Costa, 425. 

subtruncata, Da Costa, 419. 

zonaria, Da Costa, 419. 

Trigonellce, Da Costa, 433. 

Trigonia pectinata, 190. 

Trigonoccelia, Nyst, 160. 

Trigonoccelius, BTyst & Gal., 160. 

Trimya, Leach, 29. 

Turtonia, F. & H., 257, 258. 

minuta, Fabr., 258, 260. 

Tyatira hyalina, Beck, -249. 

TJngulina, Daudin, 132, 205, 232. 

Unio, 146. 

Valvata, 92. 

Veneris, Leach, 218, 224, 297, 

303, 324, 362, 363, 366, 387. 

Venerirupis, 263. 

Venerupis, Lam., 349. 

nucleus, Lam., 359. 

Venus, Linn., 141, 256, 308, 310, 

322, 324, 325, 326, 327, 350, 

362, 367. 

cenea, Turt., 351. 

aurea, Linn., 349. 

Beudantii, Payr., 355. 

bicolor, Lam., 359. 

biradiata, Eisso. 337. 

borealis, Linn., 242, 245. 

borealis, Penn.. 446. 

Brongniarti, Payr., 337. 

Busschaerdi, Eeq., 337. 

cancellata, Don., 339. 

cancellata, Turt., 341. 

Casina, Linn., 337, 339, 341, 347. 

casinula, Desh., 339. 

catenifera, Lam., 359. 

Chione, Linn., 327, 332, 334. 

cingenda, Dillw., 348. 

circinata, Born, 348. 

circinnata, Brocchi, 245. 

compressa, Linn., 315, 317. 

compressa, Mont., 315. 

crassa, Linn., 373. 

crenulata, Sol., 344. 

Cyrilli, Scacchi, 324.

Venus (continued). 

Banmonia, Mont., 315. 

decussata, Linn., 354, 359, 362. 

Dione, Linn., 242. 

discina, Lam., 339. 

Duminyi, Req., 337. 

dysera, Born, 348. 

dysera, Brocchi, 337. 

dysera, Linn., 337. 

edulis, Chemn., 355. 

eremita, Brocchi, 359. 

erycina, Linn., 339. 

erycina, Penn., 339. 

exoleta, Linn., 327, 331, 332, 335. 

fasciata, Da Costa, 308, 310, 327, 

334, 338, 339. 

gallina, Linn., 325, 327, 336, 344, 

346, 347, 418. 

geographica, Chemn., 357, 359. 

granulata, Grmel., 348. 

Guineensis, Mont., 348. 

hiatelloides, Delle Chiaje, 242. 

incompta, Phil., 365. 

incrassata, Brocchi, 312. 

inqicinata, Lam., 365. 

Islandica, Linn., 304. 

lactea, Don., 339. 

lata, Linn., 355. 

laminosa, Mont., 346. 

Lemanii, Pavr., 341. 

lentiformis, J. Sowerby, 330. 

lincta, Pult, 330, 331,335. 

literata, Linn., 352, 359. 

lupinus, Brocchi, 332. 

lupinus, Linn., 331. 

lusitanica, Grmel., 344. 

mercenaria, Linn., 307. 

minima, Mont., 321, 322. 

minuta, Fabr., 260. 

Montacuti, Turt., 317. 

nebulosa, Sol., 352. 

nitens, Turt., 351. 

nitens, Scaechi, 355. 

occitanica, Reel., 324. 

orbiculata, Mont., 237. 

ovata, Penn., 342, 343, 344. 

pallida, Turt., 348. 

INDEX. 465 

Venus (continued). 

Paphia, Linn., 308, 337, 341, 348. 

pectinula, Lam., 344. 

perforans, Mont., 357, 358. 

perovalis, S. Wood, 357. 

Petagncs, Costa, 315. 

Philippic, Req., 337. 

plagia, Jeffr., 357. 

pidlastra, Mont., 355. 

pumila, Lam., 324. 

radiata, Brocchi, 344. 

radiata, Chemn., 344. 

radiata, Sow., 344. 

reflexa, Mont., 339. 

retifera, Lam., 359. 

rhomboides, Penn., 355. 

Rustericii, Payr., 339. 

Samiensis, Turt., 353. 

Scotica, Mat. & Rack., 312. 

scripta, Linn., 322. 

sinuata, Grmel., 332. 

sinuata, Turt., 331, 332. 

sinuosa, Penn., 249. 

spadicca, Ren., 344. 

spinifera, Mont., 240. 

spuria, G-mel., 245. 

striatida, R & H., 344, 346, 349. 

subcordata, Mont., 308, 341. 

subrkoinboidea, Mont., 348. 

sulcata, Mont., 320. 

Tenorii, Costa, 359. 

tigerina, Linn., 237. 

triangularis, Mont., 321, 323. 

undata, Penn., 363. 

verrucosa, Linn., 339, 341, 400. 

virago, Lov., 355. 

virginea, Linn., 352, 354. 

Vola, Klein, 76. 

Waldheimia, King. 11. 

Woodia, Desh., 239. 

Yoldia, Moll., 153, 154. 

abyssicola, Tor., 155. 

lucida, Lov., 155. 

Zenatia, Gfray, 216.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

Ti -rel'/'o /~/

1. fecten 2. Lund 3. AvLcula,. 

- 

- 

' 

, 

. 

'

1. Pi 7/ 7/iJ . 

2. 

Plate III. 

Mytii 

7. Cr&nella 

PuL. boTst 

;i Modiolaria. 

.

a. Nucula,. 

i \ ctunciohos. 

Plate IV 

1 

/ 

2. Leda . 

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Pu3 

3. 

Vol.2 

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3. A'r.Vn/ 

". . I.I ,'// // &. 

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Plate VI. 

' y C'vprinct 

5. Venus 

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3. dstarte 

6. Tapes

Plate YII Vn! .2. 

1. 1,7/ ci nopsis '/. £a,stra.na 3. '/'&•/ 7/ ?/ (/ 

4 Psa 77/ mobia 5. Donaac 

|-'ul..l.v V.ui Vuorst.1864.

1. AjrvphiaZesma 

3. L ///"/'///-/// 

Plate VIII. 

Pub. l.v Vaj3 L86 ±. 

2.1£act?*a 

~i. Sera bz eulavid 

Vol.2.

Pvn H,i I'UitlS

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