302 TELLINID^. 



calities would be superfluous. It lives at or near low water- 

 mark, and ranges a fathom or two below it, buried in sand. 

 Specimens of remarkable size and brilliancy are found 

 both on the northernmost and southernmost of our sandy 

 bays. 



Abroad it ranges from the coasts of Finmark to the 

 Mediterranean, everywhere littoral. As a fossil it occurs 

 in beds of the glacial epoch, but does not appear to extend 

 farther back in time, 



T. FABULA, Gronovius. 



Ovate-oblong, with oblique stria3 on one of the valves. 



Plate XIX. fig. 9. 



TeUi?ia/ithiiIa,GRO^ov.Zoo-ph.y\. p. 263, no. 1111, pi. 18, f. 9. — Donov. Brit. 

 Shells, vol. iii. pi. 97. — Mont. Test. Brit. p. 61. — Linn. Trans, 

 vol. viii. pi. 52.— Dorset Catalog, p. 30, pi. 12, f. 3 and 3 A.— 

 TuRT. Conch. Diction, p. 170.— Turt. Dithyra Brit. p. 101. 

 — Flem. Brit. Anim. p. 435. — Macgil. Moll. Aberd. p. 280. 

 — Brit. Marine Conch, p. 66. — Brown, lllust. Conch. G. B. 

 p. 101, pi. 40, f. 18.— Wood, General Conch, p. 156, pi. 45, 

 f. 4. — DiLLW. Recent Shells, vol. i. p. 91. — Lam. Anim. s. 

 Vert. (ed. Desh.) vol. vi. p. 197. — Index Testaceol. pi. 3, f. 23. 

 — Rees, Cyclop. Shells, pi. 5. — Philippi, Moll. Sicil. vol. i. p. 

 26, pi. 3, f. 10, and vol. ii. p. 22.— Deless. Rec. Coriuil. pi. 6, 

 f. 5. — Hanl. Recent Shells, p. 64. — Hanl. in Thes. Conch. 

 Hist. vol. i. p. 287, pi. 57, f. 62. 

 „ discors, Pulteney, Hutchins, Dorset, p. 54. 



This Tellen, which, from its peculiar sculpture, is easily 

 distinguished from any of our British shells, is of an ovate- 

 oblong shape, compressed, thin, semi-transparent, lustrous, 

 subequilateral, occasionally somewhat iridescent, and both 

 externally and internally of a somewhat pearly white, fre- 

 quently stained on the umbones with orange or blush, but 

 never rayed nor uniformly tinted with those or any other 

 colours. The valves are rather flcxuous, their front portion 



