444 CYPRINIDiE. 



three inches and a half long, and about two and a half 

 broad. 



The animal, which was long ago figured and described 

 by O. F. Mullet, is orbicular and thick ; its mantle freely 

 open and finely serrated at the edges. The siphons project 

 a little, their orifices are sessile and quite united, fringed at 

 the margins, and partially so at the sides. They are red, 

 with brownish markings near the openings. The foot is 

 large, thick, and linguiform ; both it and the mantle are of 

 a yellowish-white hue. " The branchioe,^"* according to Mr. 

 Clark, "are pale brown, unequal, coarsely pectinated, the 

 outer leaflets more triangular, and much less than the inner, 

 extending posteriorly to the siphons, and anteriorly to the 

 mouth and labia, of which there are a pair on each side, 

 pectinated, not very long, and of a triangular form, and 

 rather pointed."" 



The Cyprina Islandica is essentially a northern species, 

 although it ranges all round the British shores, and is sufli- 

 ciently frequent as not to be considered rare in any dis- 

 trict. Most commonly it is brought in by the trawlers, 

 but inhabits all depths of water over a sea-bed of sandy 

 mud. It is equally common in the Irish Sea and German 

 Ocean, living in from five to twenty-five fathoms water. 

 On the south it is very frequent off Weymouth (S. H.) ; 

 and Poole (E. F.) ; but becomes rare about Devon and 

 Cornwall, though frequent again on the Welsh coast and in 

 the British Channel (Jeffreys). It occurs throughout the 

 Hebrides and off the Zetland Isles, where Mr. M 'Andrew 

 has taken it alive in water as deep as seventy and eighty 

 fathoms, forty miles from land, and has procured dead 

 valves in one hundred fathoms water ; whilst at Balla 

 Sound in Unst, among the same islands, he found it living 

 in from five to ten fathoms. Lieutenant Thomas states 



