BANDED VENUS. 97 



prominent and obvious character is that the shell- valves 

 are covered with ribs, more or less strongly marked, 

 which, instead of running fan-like from the beaks to the 

 edges, as in the cockles, are concentric, being parallel 

 with the edges. In this species these ribs are well 

 marked, about a dozen in number, broad, flat, sharply 

 defined, and nearly equally distant. They impart to the 

 shell, which is very convex, and nearly round, an aspect 

 of great strength combined with elegance. The colours, 

 too, are very ornamental : broad bands of brownish 

 lilac, varied with warmer tints, widening as they go, 

 radiate from the beaks to the margins, relieved by a 

 whitish ground. The hues vary in different individuals ; 

 the bands being sometimes rusty brown, or purple ; 

 and the ground yellow, or pale orange; and the con- 

 trasts are in some better marked than in others ; but 

 when fresh and unrubbed the shell is always a beautiful 

 one. 



The specimen before us is alive. I will drop it into 

 this shallow pool in the rock. See, the valves are 

 opening, and a large foot of a waxy whiteness, almost 

 semi-pellucid, protrudes, thicker and more ovate than 

 that of the cockle, but not capable of such elongation. 

 The siphons, however, are proportionally longer ; they 

 are separate at their extremities, and project consider- 

 ably from the shell. 



G 



