32 

 NUCULA ACUTA. 



Tab. VI, /^. 3. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Shell ovate elongated, convex, with numerous re- 

 g'llar concentric striiB; anterior side slightly recurved 

 and very acute at the extremity, and with the dorsal 

 margin sunk so as to form a lanceolate depression ; 

 beaks behind the centre ; fosset very small and hardly 

 oblique. 



Cabinet of the Acad. Nat. Sciences, No. 1738. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



I first obtained this shell in a fossil deposit of so 

 recent a character, that the species, with one or two 

 exceptions, are such as occur very commonly upon 

 the coast of the middle and southern States ; and al- 

 though I have never seen a recent specimen of the 

 shell in question, I believe it still exists upon our 

 coast, and that it has been overlooked on account of 

 its small size. I have since found great numbers, 

 associated with the two preceding species, in the 

 tertiary beds of Vii'ginia. 



It very closely resembles JV. mimita, but is more 

 acute at the anterior extremitv. 



