70 



ANATINID.E. 



epidermis is found on some portions of the sliell. There is no 

 ossiculum. Length, three inches ; height, two and one half inches ; 

 breadth, one and one half inches. 



Found perfect, and containing the living animal, on Chelsea 

 Beach, after violent easterly storms, and probably lives in the sand 

 not far from low-water mark. Single valves have l)cen foinid 

 al)undantly on Rhode Island, and also on the coast of Maine, and 

 in Buzzard's Bay, so that it probably inhabits the whole New Eng- 

 land coast. Nahant Beach {Haskell) ; mouth of Penobscot River 

 ( Walderi) ; Grand Manan ; Eastport, in six fathoms ; whole coast 

 {Stimpson) ; Fishing Banks ( Willis). 



This is a large and interesting shell, easily distinguished from 

 most of our shells by its toothless hinge ; and when the valves hap- 

 pen to be fcund united, the disparity in their size and convexity is 

 at once perceived. When the external coating is removed, we 

 come to a silvery substance like mother-of-pearl. I have a speci- 

 men, the dimensions of which are, length, four inches ; height, 

 three and four tenths inches ; breadth, two and one tenth inches. 

 Dr. Prescott of Lynn has one nearly as large. 



1 have carefully dissected the animal, and find it to correspond 

 in all essential particulars with the anatomy as laid down in Kiener. 



