SOLEN. 11 



Habitat : Large sandy bays at low-water mark of 

 spring tides in the under-mentioned localities : Christ- 

 church, Hants (Da Costa) ; Exmouth j Bideford ; North 

 and South Wales; south, east, and west of Ireland. It 

 is thrown up in the greatest profusion on the sands at 

 Pendine in Carmarthenshire. Mr. Grainger found a 

 single valve in the Belfast deposit ; and Mr. James Smith 

 has included it in the list of Argyleshire fossils. North 

 of Great Britain it has only been recorded by Miiller as 

 Scandinavian ; but its southern range extends from 

 Brittany to Sicily and Algeria. Mr. M f Andrew dredged 

 it on the coast of Portugal in 15 to 20 f., and off 

 Malaga in 4 f. ; and he obtained it on the shore at 

 Mogador. According to Weinkauff it is common at 

 Bona in brackish w r ater, 



This elegant shell was first recognized as English by 

 Lister. I must venture to dissent from Linne and sub- 

 sequent writers, who referred it to e Le Molan' of Adan- 

 son. It is the Hypogcea hirudo of Poli. 



Genus III. SOLEN * Linne\ PL I. f. 3. 



Body narrow: mantle thickened in front: tubes for the 

 most part united, nearly sessile, or extensile in a limited de- 

 gree : foot flexible, when in action conical and pointed, but 

 when at rest disk-like. 



Shell cylindrical, very inequilateral, divided into diagonal 

 compartments, sculptured only by the lines of growth : teeth, 

 one cardinal in the right valve, and mostly two in the left ; 

 laterals partly erect, sometimes wanting : pallial scar having 

 a narrow sinus at the posterior extremity. 



This kind of shell- fish was well known to the an- 

 cients ; and the estimation in which they held it as an 



article of food induced them to observe its habits with 



* 



* Razorfish ; supposed to be the Sw\?)v of Aristotle. 



