132 



VEXKRID.E. 



Z)/oweco«irTfl, DiiSHAYES, Br. Mas. Cat. (Biv.) 71 (1853). — Reeve, Conch. Icon.pl. 10, 



fig. 40. 

 Cytfierea tiui/mia, Conrad, Silliin. Joiirn. xxiii. 345 (1833). 



Shell oval, rather thhi, valves very convex, color a dead-white or 

 with a rusty tinge, usually chalky ; inequipartite, Ijeaks elevated, 



curving forwards, in front of 

 which is a well-marked, heart- 

 shaped lunide ; anterior part 

 about half the length of the pos- 

 terior, coini)ressed and some- 

 what pointed ; regularly round- 

 ed liehind and at base ; surface 

 marked with coarse lines of 

 growth, which are most regular 

 anteriorly ; ligament long, rather 

 sunken ; within milk-white, pol- 

 ished ; impressions superficial. 

 Length, one and three fourths 

 inches; height, one and one half inches; breadth, one inch nearly. 

 The animal has very long siphons, united throughout, translucent, 

 with white blotches near the end, more opaque and brownish near 

 the shell. 



A few specimens have been found on Chelsea Beach, but it is 

 rare. It has been found about Rhode Island by Colonel Totten ; 

 and it has also been taken with the dredge by Drs. Mighels and 

 "Wood of Portland, in the harbor of that place. Nahaiit Beach, 

 alive, sometimes abundant ; Marljlehead Harbor, dredged in seven 

 fathoms (Haskell) ; Sable Island and Halifax, rare (Willis). 



Mr. Say knew it only as a fossil, in which state it occurs in the • 

 tertiary formation of Maryland. 



This is by no means an attractive shell, its dead-white surface 

 leading one to regard it as some lieach-worn specimen of Ci/prina, 

 or perha])s of Venus mercenaria. Its form, however, is proportion- 

 ally longer than the former, and somewhat longer than the latter ; 

 and it never attains to anything like the size of either of them. It 

 belono-s to the Qeiius Callista of Poll. 



Oeniis VEl^IIS, Lin. 1758. 



Shell inequilateral, sub-ovate ; hinge with three diverging car- 

 dinal teeth ill each valve ; pallial impression with a sinus. 



