82 



They were taken by the mud machine, at the end of the Long 

 Wharf, in New Bedford. Mr. G. thinks they were at a depth of 

 perhaps two feet in the mud, and, from the number obtained in 

 half an hour's search, he believes them to be abundant. 



Dr. Gould regarded this as a very interesting discovery. He 

 was not aware that P. costata had been heretofore found alive 

 this side of the Gulf of Mexico, though a bed of dead shells was 

 discovered by Prof. C. B. Adams in the vicinity of New Bedford 

 six or eight years ago, which at the time excited surprise, these 

 vestiges of an animal, supposed to belong to a warm climate, not 

 then known to live within more than a thousand miles, show- 

 ing that the animal must have flourished there at no very dis- 

 tant period. 



The animal is of a Caucasian hue, and its siphonal tubes, which 

 are united, are capable of great extension, certainly to four times 

 the length of the shell, maintaining its full size, and of being 

 moulded to every possible shape. In one animal the siphon was 

 beautifully stippled near its tip with mohagany brown. The foot 

 is about an inch long, its adhering surface not unlike the sole of 

 a sharp-pointed shoe in shape. The accessory portions of the 

 hinge are not calcareous, but pergamineous, consisting of two 

 triangular pieces united base to base, one nearly an inch long, 

 spear-pointed, filling the anterior fissure, and another small, 

 nearly equilateral, shutting down posteriorly. 



P. iruncala is described by Say as If inches in length ; whereas 

 the New Bedford specimens are 2J- inches in length, and of 

 proportional width. He gives South Carolina as its habitat, and 

 Dr. G. was not aware that it had been before found to the north- 

 ward of that locality. 



The animal is of a dark, smoky, almost inky color. The 

 siphon less extensive than that of P. costata^ and whether more 

 or less extended, always maintains a tapering form, and is every- 

 where circularly and coarsely corrugated. The respiratory ori- 

 fice is seen to be striped alternately black and white, the latter 

 stripes marking the presence of fourteen tentacular organs. The 

 foot is oval, one third longer than broad. The supplement ary valve 

 is single, calcareous, halberd-shaped, pointed anteriorly, rounded 

 posteriorly and contracted at the sides ; marked with lines of growth, 

 parallel to its margin, and channelled on the median line. 



