266 DENTALID^. 



Dentalium dentale. 



Fig. 5. 



Shell polished, slightly curved, with eighteen or twenty faint, unequal ribs. 



Dentalium dentaUs, Lin. Syst. Nat. 1263. — Born, Mus. t. 18, fig. 13. — Maton and Rack- 

 ETT, Liu. Trans, viii. 237. — Deshayks, Mem. de la Soc. d'Hist. Nat. ii. 3.53, pi. 16, 

 figs. 9, 10. — Lam. An. sans Vert. v. .595. — De Kay, N. Y. Moll. 160, pi. 10, fig. 197. 

 — Gould, Inv. 1st ed. 155, fig. 5. 



Dentalium striatum, Montagu, Test. Brit. 495. 



Dentalium attemiatum, Say, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. iv. 154, pi. 8, fig. 3. 



Dentalium occidmtule, Sti.-vipson, Shells of New England, 28 (1851). 



Shell slender and tapering, curved like an elephant's tusk, the tip 

 cut off, leaving a very small opening. Surface rather glossy, yel- 

 lowish white, marked with about twenty closely arranged, unequal, 

 rib-like striae, running the whole length of tlie shell. Length, about 

 an inch ; diameter at the larger end, about one eighth of an inch. 



I am enal)lcd to add this shell to our list through the khidness of 

 my friend W. W. Wheildon, of Charlestown, who sent me the speci- 

 mens, accompanied by the following memoranda : — 



Two specimens of Dentalium were taken from the stomachs of 

 codfish, in the spring of 1839. They were both found to have pen- 

 etrated the entrail of the fish, and were firmly fixed there. They 

 had probably been in the fish for some length of time. Both sj)eci- 

 mens were unfortunately eroded, one of them so much so that it is 

 quite impossible to determine any of its characters, except its size, its 

 markings being entirely obliterated. In the other specimen the striae 

 are distinct, and seem to conform to the D. dentaUs of the coast of 

 England. Twenty to twenty-two strio3 may be counted on its surface." 



Eastport, ten to twenty fathoms ( Cooper) ; deep water, on the 

 coast of Maine and Massachusetts Bay (^Stimpson). 



Oemis ENTALBS, Sowerby. 1842. 



Differs from Dentalium by having the perforation at the apex 

 with a notch-like fissure on the dorsal or posterior margin. 



Entalis striolata. 



Entalis striolata, Stimpson, Proc. Best. Soc. iv. 114 (1851) ; Check Lists, 4. 

 Dentalium entalis, Mighels not Lin. 



This species I obtained in great numbers by dredging in from ten 

 to sixty fathoms on muddy bottoms at the mouth of the Bay of 



