338 VENERID^E. 



crossed by similar but stronger longitudinal strise, giving a 

 partially cancellated appearance to young shells, especially 

 on the posterior side : colour yellowish-white, occasionally 

 adorned by three or more rays of reddish-brown, which are 

 frequently broken or form irregular lines of spots or zigzag 

 markings : epidermis fibrous, brown, thick at the edges but 

 elsewhere rubbed off or not present : margins rounded on 

 the anterior side, with a slight shoulder or sharp angular 

 turn behind, and sloping obliquely to the front, which is 

 curved but does not represent so great an arc as in V.fasciata, 

 decidedly truncate on the posterior side, and obtusely rounded 

 on the dorsal slope, with a slight indentation below the beaks 

 for the lunule ; the posterior margin is indistinctly biangu- 

 lated : beaks recurved, but not so separate, nor the umbones 

 so prominent as in the last species : lunule the same, as well as 

 the corselet, but the latter is wide and generally not so deep : 

 ligament of a similar colour, but more exposed: hinge-line and 

 hinge-plate also presenting approximative characters: teeth 

 undistinguishable, except in the greater size, from those of V. 

 fasciata : inside chalky- white within the line of the pallial scar, 

 and porcellanous near the margin, which is finely notched in 

 front and on the anterior side (in young specimens also up to 

 the beaks on that side) but smooth on the posterior side : 

 pallial scar broad, with a narrow and not deep sinus : muscular 

 scars large and distinct. L. 1'6. B. 1-75. 



HABITAT : Local, but widely distributed north, east, 

 south, and west, from 5 to 90 fathoms, on a sandy 

 bottom. Capt. Beechey dredged it in 145 fathoms off 

 the Mull of Galloway. It occurs in all our upper ter- 

 tiaries from the Clyde beds to the Coralline Crag, and 

 Philippi has included it among the fossils of the Sicilian 

 strata. North of Great Britain it has been found on 

 many parts of the Norwegian coast in 15-40 fathoms, 

 and southwards on the coasts of France, Spain, Portu- 

 gal, Italy, and Algeria, as well as of Madeira and the 

 Canary Isles. 



Scarcely anything is known of the animal. The shell 

 is remarkably pretty, but usually almost devoid of colour : 

 specimens from Bantry Bay have the most vivid tints. 



