TELLINA ALTERNATA. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Slicll compressed, oblong, narrowed and anfrulated 

 before; white; numerous piirallel, equal, equidistant, im- 

 pressed concentric lines, which on the anterior margin 

 are alternately obsolete; interstitial spaces flat; within 

 tinged with yellow; a callous line, which is sometimes 

 obsolete, passes from behind the hinge to the inner mar- 

 gin of the posterior cicatrix, and another from before the 

 hinge to the inner margin of the anterior cicatrix; an- 

 terior hinge tooth emarginate; posterior lamellar tooth 

 very near the cardinal teeth, so as to appear like a pri- 

 mary tooth, that of the right valve wanting; anterior 

 lamellar tooth at the extremity of the ligament; anterior 

 hinge slope declining in a somewhat concave line to an 

 obliquely truncated tip. 



SYNONYM. 



Tellina ALTERNATA, Sfiij. Joiir. AcctcL Nat. Sc, vol. ii. 

 p. 275. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Inhabits the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and 

 Florida. 



Rather a common shell, beautifully and very regularly 

 striated. When cast upon the beach, one of the valves 

 is very commonly perforated near the hinge. This ope- 

 ration, it would seem, is most frequently |)erl()rmed upon 

 the left valve, as, of ten specimens thus mutilated, two 

 only were perforated upon the right valve. It varies in 

 being destitute of the yellow colour within. It is probn- 



Pl. 05— ficr. 1. 



