DR. T. DAVIDSON ON EECENT BRACHIOPODA. 207 



Shell oblong, elongated, sides nearly straight and subparallel. Valves very slightly 

 convex and nearly straight in front, attenuated at the posterior extremities ; almost 

 equal, slightly gaj)iug at the beaks, most convex along the middle, somewhat flattened 

 laterally ; dorsal valve a little shorter at the beaks than tlie ventral one. Texture 

 horny and calcareous ; surface smooth. Colour various shades of green up to l)right 

 emerald- green. Length 1 inch 10 lines, breadth 10 lines. 



Hab. Indian Ocean and the Moluccas (Cuming), shore and low water; off Yeddo, 

 Japan (Adams). Dr. Willemoes-Suhm, of the ' Challenger ' Expedition, in a letter 

 published in Siebold and Kolliker's ' Zeitsclirift,' 187G, mentions finding on the beach 

 at Zamboanga, Philippines, a Lingula [L. aiiatiiia) in hundreds, and tliat he gave a 

 dollar for a hundred specimens. Three large bottles full were forwarded to me for 

 examination, collected by the ' Challenger ' Expedition in sand at low water at the same 

 place, on October 23, 1871, and February 1, 1875, These specimens, of all ages, from 

 4 lines in length up to 1 inch 7 lines, were of a most brilliant emerald-green colour. 

 Mr. L. Reeve states in his monograph on Lingula : — " Mr. Cuming happened to bo at 

 Manilla in 1836 after an unusually boisterous typhoon, when as many as twenty bushels 

 of this species were collected on the shore of the bay." It occurs no doubt in other 

 places. In the Zoological Department of the British Museum there are specimens from 

 Timor (Stokes's Coll.) and from the Eiji Islands (Hind's Coll.). 



Obs. Cuvier, who was, I believe, the first to describe the animal of Ling a la in 17U7 

 and 1802, observes : — " Comme elles n'ont point de dents a leur charuiere, on ne pouvait 

 deviner, en les voyant isolees, qu'elles ctaicnt bivalves ; et Linnajus, qui n'en avoit vu 

 qu'une, I'avoit placee parmi les patelles sous le nom d' unguis, sous lequel elle parait 

 encore, quoique avec doute, dans I'edition de Gmelin, Rumphe, et apres lui Favanne 

 avoit pense que ce pouvait ctre le bouclier testace de quelque limace. Chemnitz ayant 

 u occasion d'en voii" les deux valves, jugea, je ne sais trop pourquois, qu'elle devoit 

 passer dans le genre des jambonneaux, et la nomma Finna unguis. Bruguiere est le 

 premier auteur systematique qui ait su que ces deux valves sont naturellement attachces 

 a un pedicule membraneux, comme celles des Terebratules et des Anatifes, et qui en ait 

 fait en consequence, dans les planches de I'Encyclopedie, un genre particulier, dont il 

 ne donne point de description, parceque son voyage et sa mort rempeeherent de conduire 

 jusque la son dictionnaire d'Helminthologie. Mais le citoyen Lamarck a adopti- et 

 caracterise ce genre." 



No species of Brachiopoda has been more carefully studied by several of our besr con- 

 temporary zoologists. Owen described it in 1833, and again referred to it in his chapter 

 on the anatomy of Terebralula in the Introduction to- my work on British Fossil 

 Brachiopoda. In 1815 the same subject was well treated by Dr. C. Vogt, in his memoir 

 ' Anatomie der lAngula anatina.'' In 1856 it was studied by Dr. S. P. Woodward, and 

 alluded to in his excellent manual of the Mollusca. In 1858 the anatomy of L. anatina 

 was admirably treated by Albany Hancock, in the memorable memoir " On the Organiza- 

 tion of the Brachiopoda," published in the 'Philosophical Transactions' of the Eoyal 

 Society, vol. cxlviii. 1858. This was followed in 1860 by Dr. Gratiolet's remarkable 

 memoir " Etudes anatomiques sur la Lingula anatina " in the ' Jovu-ual de Conchyliologie.' 



SECOND SERIES. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. IV. 28 



