ASTARTE. 463 



siderable, and in general peculiarly straight, the front in- 

 curvation being usually very trifling, but rather elongated. 

 The external surface is not plicated, but is sculptured with 

 strong impressed concentric wrinkles at the umbonal region, 

 and is elsewhere smooth, or only obsoletely substriated in a 

 concentric direction. The umbones, which are never eroded, 

 are prominent ; the beaks are acute, inflected, and lean 

 slightly forward. The lunule is remarkably profound, and 

 ranges from lanceolate to ovato-lanceolate. The ligament, 

 which is very large and broad, is seated in a lanceolate de- 

 pression of twice its length. The whitish hue of the interior 

 has a bluish cast and more shining surface below the very 

 high-seated pallial impression, above which it becomes 

 squalid, or slightly embrowned. The hinge-margin is 

 extremely broad, and is furnished, in addition to the 

 primary teeth, with an indistinct rudimentary front lateral 

 one in the right valve. The muscular impressions are 

 large. 



The example we have figured, which has evidently not 

 arrived at its full growth, measures an inch and a half in 

 length, and an inch and three-eighths in breadth. The 

 length of a more produced form (exotic) of the same 

 breadth, was an inch and two-thirds. 



This is one of the rarest of our bivalves, of which the 

 first-recorded example was that figured by Montagu in his 

 Supplement to the " Testacea Britannica " as a large 

 growth of the Astarte compressa^ and may be inferred, from 

 his language, to have been taken at Dunbar by Mr. Laskey. 

 The large dead valves, mentioned by Dr. Fleming in his 

 description of A. compressa as having been taken in St. 

 Andrew's Bay, likewise belong to this species, as one of 

 them, still preserved in our National Museum, distinctly 

 evidences. It has been captured in Aberdeenshire (Mac- 



