362 Mr. Gray on the Genus Uinnites, [Nov. 



since, on looking over the beautiful and extensive collection of 

 recent and fossil shells belonging to my friend Dr. Deshayes, 

 who is at present engaged in describing and publishing the 

 fossil shells found in the environs of Paris, I observed that he 

 had placed the Pecten sinuosus oi Lamar ck^ the Ostrea sinuosa 

 of Gmelin, which is not uncommon on the British coast, as a 

 recent species of the above-named genus, which he has called 

 Hinniles sinuosus, and on examining the shell, I am convinced 

 of the propriety of the situation assigned to it by Dr. Deshayes. 



On account of the worn and shattered state of the other 

 recent species in the Museum not showing very distinctly the 

 mark of attachment, one or two of my friends have been induced 

 to doubt of its being attached ; and, therefore, I am the more 

 glad to add this species to the genus, as it is well known to 

 most British conchologists, that the Pecten sinuosus is always 

 attached to rocks, and is generally found in their holes and 

 crevices ; but the fact does not appear to have been known to 

 Lamarck, who observes, that this species is " very singular 

 from its deformities," which are evidently produced by the irre- 

 gular surface of the rock to which they are attached; and two of 

 the specimens in my possession have the upper valve very simi- 

 larly marked to the specimen described in the former paper, and 

 the marks are doubtless occasioned by the same causes. Some- 

 times the shells are scarcely distorted, and they are usually 

 furnished with elongated or long lamellar spines, by which they 

 are attached. 



The fact of the Enghsh species having been so long kept in the 

 genus Pecten, shows the great affinity which the genus Ilinnites* 

 must have to them ; it appears indeed to be an osculant or interme- 

 diate genus between the Pectines and the Spondyli, it being 

 provided with the groove for the passage of the Byssus, like the 

 true Pectines, and with the attached shell of the true Spondyli ; 

 and at the same time it is separated from the former by the 

 shell being attached by the lamellar processes, and from the 

 latter by the hinge being destitute of any appearance of teeth, 

 although this character loses much of its importance when the 

 hinges of the Pectines are carefully examined ; for many of them 

 are provided with distinct teeth on the hinge-margin, as well as 

 with the curiously-shaped tubercular lateral teeth placed below 

 the ears. 



♦ The name of this genus must be changed to Hinnus ; for whilst this paper was 

 going through the press, a classical friend has pointed out to me, that the above word is 

 the proper derivitive of Hinnites, and not Hinnita, as I had before inadvertently called 

 it, in my former paper. 



