TELLINA. 295 



It inhabited the British seas as early as the epoch of the 

 Coralh'ne crag. 



T. PYGM^A, Phihppi. 



Like Donaciiia, but very small ; the hinder end blunter, the 

 sides still more unequal, and the lateral teeth equally approx- 

 imate. 



Plate XIX. figs. 6,7. 



Tellina jvjgmcea, Philippi, in Loven, Index Moll, Sueciae, p. 42. — Alder, Cat. 

 Northumb. and Durham Moll, p. 88. 



This pretty little shell, which for its size is by no means 

 thin or fragile, being tolerable solid in the adult, but al- 

 ways a little transparent, has a narrow, oblong contour ; 

 its external surface is more or less glossy, its internal area 

 is shining ; the colouring is infinitely diversified, specimens 

 from the same locality being rose, orange, sulphur tinted, 

 or white, and at times of almost an uniform colour, but 

 more usually variegated by greatly interrupted more or 

 less narrow rays of a darker hue, which are most dis- 

 tinctly apparent at the concentric zones of growth. The 

 most common variety is pale yellow with crimson rays, but 

 examples with rosaceous orange rays on an orange yellow 

 ground seem nearly equally abundant. There is often, 

 but not invariably, a short, broad, perpendicular ray of 

 orange or crimson, extending scarcely half way from the 

 beaks to the lower margin, and sometimes a similar oblique 

 and rather longer one running anteriorward, and dilating 

 as it becomes fainter. The line of the interior is either as 

 that of the exterior, or yellow with the abbreviated ray or 

 rays more visible than externally ; the valves are convex 

 or even subventricose, and are regularly though delicately 



