TELLINA. 289 



its well-rounded extremity ; its dorsal edge is moderately 

 sloping, and more or less convex. The hinder side is short, 

 its termination is bluntly subangulated below, and its dor- 

 sal edge is arcuated, and much declining. The umbones 

 are rather prominent, and incline forward ; the beaks are 

 small, and the ligament is depressed, but elongated and 

 rather large. There is a very small and narrow excavated 

 lunule ; the umbonal ridge is indistinct, the ventral flexure 

 small, but tolerably evident. The interior is usually more 

 or less richly stained with reddish-orange, but is sometimes 

 merely white. The hinge margin is not only furnished 

 with the ordinary primary teeth, but in the right valve 

 with two lateral ones, of which the posterior is distant, 

 and the anterior rather approximate. 



The measured breadth of rather a fine specimen, was an 

 inch and three quarters, and its length rather more than 

 two inches. The T. maculata of Turton's cabinet, is 

 merely a dead discoloured specimen of this shell. 



This species has a considerable range in depth, extending 

 from low water-mark to below fifty fathoms. Its favourite 

 habitat appears to be in the upper part of the coralline 

 zone, where it lives buried in gravelly sand. In the Islet of 

 Herm, near Guernsey, it is dug out of sand at low water, 

 and is plentiful (S. H.) ; in the Isle of Man it occurs, 

 though not abundantly, under similar circumstances (E. F.). 

 Though generally distributed, it is local. On the south 

 coast it occurs off Hastings, Poole, and Weymouth (S. 

 H.) ; Portland bay, west, in fifteen fathoms, gravel 

 (M'Andrew and E. F.) ; Exmouth (Clark) ; Torbay 

 (Alder and S. H.) ; Plymouth (Jeffreys) ; Salcomb, Fal- 

 mouth, and Helford (Montagu) ; Penzance, in twenty 

 fathoms (M'Andrew and E. F.). On the Welsh coast it 

 has been taken at Langharne (Jeffreys) ; Tenby (Lyons) ; 



VOL. I. p p 



