380 



TELLINID.E. 



Habitat : All sandy beaches, at the low- water mark 

 of neap tides or at the depth of a few fathoms. Fossil 

 in the Belfast deposit (Grainger), Scotch glacial beds 

 (J. Smith and Crosskey), as well as (on the authority of 

 Philippi) in the Neapolitan and Sicilian newer tertiary 

 strata. Its northern range comprises Upper Norway, 

 in 10-40 fathoms, (and possibly Finland,) Sweden, and 

 Normandy; and southward it has been noted on the 

 Lusitanian shores, in the Mediterranean from Spezzia, 

 Corsica, and Mogador to Sicily, and also in the Black 

 Sea. 



Known to Lister, who figured it as English in the 

 f Historia Conchy liorum.' Being also a Swedish shell 

 it could hardly have escaped the notice of Linne, and it 

 probably was his T. incarnata. That species is described 

 in the ' Fauna Suecica/ and the size given (" extimi 

 pollicis") is the same as that of T. bimaculata. The 

 identity of our shell with the first-mentioned Linnean 

 species was suspected by Mr. W. Wood ; but as another 

 species has been called incarnata, and Da Costa's name 

 tenuis is now universally adopted for the present species, 

 it is better to retain the latter name. According to 

 Philippi, Mediterranean examples are much smaller than 

 those from the German Ocean. In a specimen from 

 Tenby the lateral tooth in the right valve is extraordi- 

 narily developed. The present species differs from T. 

 balthica in the shell being oval, flat, thin, and remark- 

 ably glossy, with a sharp angle at the posterior extre- 

 mity. Mr. Clark suggested the removal of both species 

 to another genus. Possibly the Tellinula of Chemnitz, 

 or Tellinides of Lamarck, might receive these and other 

 species comprised in the section now under consider- 

 ation. 



T. tenuis does not burrow deep in the sand ; and the 



