THE NAUTILUS. ' 29 



collectors do not often find more than single valves on the beach. 



In the "Catalogue of Economic Mollusks," written by Lieutenant 

 Francis Winslow, upon the exhibition of the U. S. Nat. Museum, at 

 the "International Fisheries Exhibition," at London, in 1883, he 

 says of Macoma nasuta Conr,, " It is abundant in San Francisco 

 Bay, and it was evidently eaten largely by aborigines, as the shell- 

 mounds in the vicinity of the bay are largely composed of shells of 

 this species." I have not heard of this shell-fish being eaten here, nor 

 the much larger Macoma seda Conr., but Lieutenant Winslow says the 

 former is " eaten on the Pacific coast by all classes." The same 

 writer mentions Platijodon cancellatus Conr. as existing in " great 

 abundance in Bolinas Bay and Santa Barbara. Its habits are 

 essentially those of the ' soft clam,' and it forms one of the staple 

 food shell-fish of the Pacific coast," although Mr. C. R. Orcutt, in 

 his " Notes on the Mollusks of San Diego," says this shell has 

 been collected for food at La Playa, " but the animal is bitter." I 

 fear I am digressing, as Professor Keep's article was intended by 

 him as the first of a series of articles reporting "food mollusks 

 Avhich may be bought in the markets of our country," each writer 

 "reporting for his (or her?) own locality." 



Notwithstanding the number of species we can report from Cali- 

 fornia, I am compelled to admit that, in quality and number of 

 individuals, California cannot boast of her edible mollusks. 



ON A NEW SPECIES OF YOLDIA FROM CALIFORNIA. 



BY W. H. DALL. 



Yoldia montereyensis n. s. 



Shell large, stout, inflated, with a polished, dark greenish olive 

 epidermis ; beaks eroded in all the specimens, situated in the anter- 

 ior part of the middle third of the shell, not prominent ; valves full 

 and rounded, anterior end evenly rounded into the upper and 

 basal margins; posterior end narrower, rounded, the extreme end 

 nearer the cardinal margin Avith which it almost forms an angle, 

 below sloping obliquely toward the basal margin, with a very 

 obscure broad ray impressed in a radiating manner from the 

 beaks toward the oblique slope, the profile of which it does not per- 

 ceptibly indent ; surface sculptured only by feeble incremental lines; 

 epidermis polished with one or two darker concentric color zones 

 and a microscopic, irregular, radially disposed wrinkling, most con- 



