PHOLAS. 113 



Slphonal tubes tawny ; their orifices very unequal ; the 

 margin of the branchial bordered by scalloped lobes, Avhich 

 are not prolonged into rays, except a pair contiguous to 

 each other on each side, on a line with the anal. The 

 orifice of the branchial tube and the foot distinguish it from 

 all its British congeners. 



We regard this as not only a more local species than 

 dactylus, Candida or crispata, but as specifically less abun- 

 dant. We have found it in company with the two former ; 

 but in a wide disproportion of number. The only spot 

 where Montagu met with it — and more successfully than 

 our subsequent collectors, — in considerable abundance, was 

 near the town of Salcombe in South Devon, in decayed 

 wood, a substance greatly affected by most of the species of 

 this genus. Pennant, the original discoverer and describer 

 of it, states that he found it in fossil- wood at Abergelly in 

 Denbighshire. It is not uncommon on the shores at Tor- 

 quay, embedded in red sandstone (S. H.) ; is taken also at 

 Exmouth, and other places on the Devonshire coast (Clark); 

 likewise, though rarely, at Margate (S. H.), and has been 

 dredged alive in fifteen fathoms water in hard turf, at the 

 west bay of Portland (M'Andrew) . Pridmouth, near Fowey^ 

 in Cornwall (C, W. Peach), Oxwich, in Glamorganshire 

 (Jeffreys), Belfast Bay (Thomps. in Ann. N. H., vol. 13, p. 

 434), may also be included among its habitats ; a single 

 example (perhaps from ballast) is likewise recorded by 

 Captain Brown as taken at St. Cyrus, in Kincardineshire. 

 Although scarcely mentioned in foreign works, the species 

 is not confined to the British Isles ; Mr. M'Andrew has 

 taken it also on the coast of Spain. In general appear- 

 ance it is intermediate between crispata and dactylus ; but, 

 besides differing in the dorsal plate, which, from its extreme 

 brittleness, is too frequently broken in cabinets, is devoid of 



VOL. I. Q 



