368 TELLINIM. 



pale yellowish -white : epidermis fibrous, usually worn off and 

 only visible near the beaks and at the edges of newly-formed 

 layers : margins curved, but not deeply, in front, nearly semi- 

 circular on the anterior side, acutely angular but bluntly 

 pointed at the posterior end, whence there is a long and nearly 

 straight slope backwards : beetles small, incurved, and con- 

 tiguous (frequently becoming worn by attrition) : ligament 

 strong and prominent, horn colour, annulated at irregular in- 

 tervals : hinge-line obtusely angular : hinge-plate thick, re- 

 flected outwards on the dorsal side, where it terminates ab- 

 ruptly near the extremity of the ligament : teeth, in the right 

 valve two cardinals of unequal size representing the letter V 

 reversed, and receiving between them the larger tooth of the 

 opposite valve ; in the left valve two cardinals, that on the 

 posterior side being very large, recurved, irregularly divided by 

 a groove, or double, and the other on the anterior side very 

 much smaller, triangular, and parallel with the hinge-plate : 

 inside partially nacreous, stained with yellow near the beaks 

 and on the posterior side : pallial scar exhibiting a wide but 

 not deep sinus : muscular scars of irregular shape, equal-sized. 

 L. 1-05. B. 1-5. 



Habitat: Not uncommon, although very local, in sand, 

 from low- water mark to 12 fathoms. \Vey mouth (Thomp- 

 son) ; Guernsey (J. G. J.) ; near Tenby (Lyons) ; coast 

 of Pembrokeshire (M 'Andrew) ; south and west of Ire- 

 land (Turton, Humphreys, Battersby, King, and others) ; 

 Shetland Isles (Forbes, in Brit. Assoc. Hep. 1850). Dr. 

 Turton found it in a semifossil state at Clontarf in 

 Dublin Bay, imbedded in blue clay with Tapes aureus. 

 The only northern locality that has been noticed for 

 G. fragilis is Drontheim, where Mr. M 'Andrew dredged 

 a single valve. The southern localities are very nume- 

 rous, and comprise all the coasts of the Atlantic from 

 Brittany to Gibraltar, the Mediterranean on both sides, 

 Adriatic, and iEgean. The greatest depth that I can 

 find recorded is 30 fathoms ; and it is littoral at Vigo 

 and in the iEgean. Searles Wood has noticed its 

 occurrence in the " faluns " of Touraine, and Philippi 



