DONAX VARIABILIS. 



DESCRIPTION. 



1. D. varidbilis. Shell triangular; anterior manrm 

 obliquely truncated, cordate, suture a little convex; pos- 

 terior /ii/i<re margin nearly rectilinear, suture indented; 

 base ;i little prominent, beyond a regular curve, near the 

 middle; valves longitudinally striated ^vitll numerous, 

 equal, parallel, regular, impressed lines, hardly visible to 

 the unassisted eye, and obsolete on the posterior margin; 

 basal edge within crenate. 



SYNONYM. 



DoNAX VARIABILIS, Nob. Joiir. Acad. Nat. Sciences, vol. 

 ii. p. 305. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Inhabits the coasts of Georgia and East Florida. 



Cabinet of the Academy and Philadelphia Museum. 



Varies very much in colour, and is a very pretty shell. 

 Its usual varieties are red, white, yellow, or elegantly 

 radiated with dilated reddish-brown lines, upon a white 

 or yellow ground; lines arc purpuresccnt within the shell. 

 A very common shell; I found it more particularly nu- 

 merous on the beach of Cuuiberland island, where, in 

 favourable situations, at the recess of the tide, it may be 

 taken up in handfuls, without any intermixture of sand. 

 It is very distinct from D. rujrosus, but approaches much 

 nearer to D. frunc/flits, from which it is distinguished by 

 being more abruptly truncated bei'ore, smaller, and the 

 lonjritudinal lines are more indented. I have no doubt 

 but this species has been regarded, by authors, as the 

 same with tntncitlus; if so, judging by an individual of 

 that species in the collection of the Academy, at least 

 two distinct species have been confounded together under 

 that common name. 



PI. 61— Fig. 1. 

 1 



