123 



fathoms. On the east coast of North America the species is known to 

 range from Cape Cod and the ^Maritime Provinces to the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence and Arctic Ocean, and th*; typical form occurs also in the waters 

 of British Columbia. The var. inffata, with its subtrapeziform contour, 

 that is " angular in all its outlines " and well represented by " Fig. 4G0 " on 

 page 153 of the second edition of Gould's Tnvertebrata of Massachusetts, is 

 common in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the Labrador coast. It is this 

 variety, and not the iV^. expansa of Reeve, as since figured in the second 

 edition o? Gould, that was referred to, under the latter name, by the writer, 

 in a paper " on the Marine Mollusca of Eastern Canada " pu))lished in the 

 "Canadian Naturalist" for 1869, 



iV". tenuis is recorded by Sir J. W. Daw.son as having been found fossil in 

 the Pleistocene deposits of Saco, Maine ; of the Baie des Chaleurs, Riviere du 

 Loup, Montreal, and Greens Creek, near Ottawa. 



NucuLA EXPANSA, Reeve. 



NucuUx, expansa, Reeve (1855). 

 Nucula Bellotii, Adams (1856). 



North shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence between the Mecattina Islands 

 and Bradore Bay, on a muddy bottom, with N. tenuis, 1860; and Chateau 

 Bay, Labrador, of large size, 1864 (Packard), who says that Dr. Stimpson 

 " has identified our specimens as being this before doubtful species." Little 

 Metis and Murray Bay (Sir J. W. Dawson). Ashe Inlet and Port Burwell, 

 Cape Chudleigh, Hudson Strait (Bell, 1884); off Churchill, Keewatin, in 30 

 fathoms (Commander Wakeham, Diana Exploring expedition, 1897). 



As a fossil N. expansa is recorded as having been collected in the Leda 

 clay at Westbrooke, Duck Cove, St. John, N.B.; and at Riviere du Loup, 

 P.Q. 



G. O. Sars, however, thinks that N. expansa is identical with N. tenuis 

 var. inflata, and Sir J. W. Dawson that the former is probably a " large 

 and well developed northern form of N. tenuis^ 



Nucula proxima. Say, var trunculus, Dall. 



1898. Trans. Wagner Fr. Inst. Sc. Phikd., vol. in., p. 574. 



Grand Manan, " in 4 fathoms sand off Duck Island Weir " (Stimpson) ; 

 Bay of Fundy, 4 to 80 fathoms, common (Verrill) ; Annapolis Basin, 

 abundant (Verkruzen) ; fishing banks off Halifax, rare (Willis). 



" If a geographical series of this species be examined, it will be noticed 

 that the northern specimens are almost smoothly truncate behind, the 

 escutcheon is not impressed to any marked degree, and there is no angle at 

 the margin below the escutcheon. On the other hand, the specimens from 



