106 Description of Eight new Species of Shells. 
Art. X1.—Description of Eight new Species of Shells, native to 
the United States ; by Henry C. Lea, Philadelphia. 
Tue study of the marine shells native to the coast of the Uni- 
ted States, has till lately been somewhat neglected. While our 
rivers, particularly the western and southern ones, have presented 
to the conchologist a series of shells, remarkable for their size 
and beauty, the productions of our coast, more especially towards 
the north, are usually small and plain in appearance. A few of 
the larger and more showy species were described by Lamarck and 
other European writers, and in our own country, Mr. Say early 
began to investigate them with great zeal. He was followed by 
Messrs. Barnes, Conrad and others, and of late years many have 
been described by Col. Totten, Dr. Gould, Messrs. Adams, Cou- 
thouy, and others. There can be hardly any doubt however, that 
many still remain undescribed. Some of the species have a very 
wide range along the coast. In Delaware Bay I have found the 
Actaon trifidus, Totten, Cerithium terebrale, C. nigrocinctum, and 
C. Greenii, Adams. The Bucecinum ernatum, Say, is found in 
the southern states, and in New England, and I have a specimen 
from the West Indies. The Cerithium Sayiti, Menke, although 
so plentiful in New England, I have not observed here. Those 
among the following species, which are marked from Delaware 
Bay, were found in the sandy mud adhering to the Ostrea Cana- 
densis, Lam. 
Genus Cyrena.—Lamarck. 
C. purpurea. Pi. 1, fig. 1.* 
C. testa rotundato-triangulari, equilaterali, sub-inflata, sub-cras- 
sa, diaphana, et purpurea et alba, polita, striis transversis ; natibus 
prominentibus ; margine non crenulato. 
Shell rounded-triangular, equilateral, sub-inflated, somewhat 
thick, partly purple and partly white, with transverse strie ; beaks 
prominent ; margin not crenulated. 
Length 07. Breadth -07. Diam. -04 of an inch. 
Hab. Delaware Bay. Cabinet of I. Lea. 
hee beantites little apoyo of Cyrena, has much 
* The smallest figures are of the natural size ; the eat large ones, in outline, 
in figs. 5,7 and 8, are merely to show the shape of mouth. 
