316 TELLINIDiE. 



been accompanied by a distinct diagnosis, it might have 

 been as well to adopt it. As it is, the last name, that 

 given by Recluz, claims the place of honour. The species 

 are not remarkable for beauty or singularity. They are 

 small bivalves, mostly northern, living in all depths of 

 water, from the laminarian zone to the deepest explored 

 regions. They bury in sand and mud, and appear to be 

 active creatures of their kind, capable of enduring many 

 vicissitudes of conditions. 



S. ALBA, Wood. 



More or less oval, not at all elongated ; sides very unequal. 

 Plate XVII., fig. 12, 13, 14. 



Macira alba. Wood, Linn. Trans, vol. vi. pi. 18, f. 9 to 12. 

 Mactra Boysii, MoNT. Test. Brit. p. 98, pi. 3, f. 7. — Linn. Trans, vol. viii. p. 72, 

 pi. 1, f. 12.— Dorset Catalog, p. 33, pi. 12, f. 7.— Turt. Conch. 

 Diction, p. 84. — Dillw. Recent Shells, p. 143. — Index Testa- 

 ceol. pi. 6, Mactra, f. 27. 

 Ampliidesma Boysii, Lamarck, Anim. s. Vert. (ed. Desh.) vol. vi. p. 128. — Turt. 

 Dithyra Brit. p. 53, pi. 5, f. 4, 5. — Brit. Marine Conch, 

 p. 55.— Brown, 111. Conch. G. B. p. 105, pi. 42, f. 3.— 

 Hanl. Recent Shells, p. 42, pi, 6, Mactra, f. 27. 

 Ampliidesma album, Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 432. — Macgiluv. Moll. Aberd. p. 293. 

 Syndosmya alba, Recluz, Revue Cuv. Zool. 1843, p. 362. — Recluz, in Chenu's 

 Illustrat. Conch. Syndosmya, p. 3. — Loven, Index Moll. 

 Scandinav. p. 44. 



Notwithstanding that the epithet alha is peculiarly de- 

 void of significance in the genus Syndosmya^ we are not 

 at liberty to reject it for the subsequent one of Boysii, 

 although the latter commemorates in some measure the 

 services rendered to Conchology by one of the authors 

 of the " Testacea Minuta Rariora," a work too frequently 

 attributed solely to Walker, who was merely the engraver 

 of the plates. 



This well-known bivalve is of an oval shape, very thin 

 and fragile, but not pellucid, of an uniform white under 



