SOLEN. 155 



cylindrical than in S. siliqua, thus affording a sufficient pedal 

 entry for the water, and is without the central fringed fissure 

 of S. siliqua and S. ensis ; it is attached to the body about 

 the middle of the shell, being obliquely truncate, and can, 

 like its congeners, assume the pointed, lanceolate, or club- 

 shaped terminus ; the colour is that of a pale morello cherry, 

 of paler and intenser hues. 



The animal is capable of the most rapid locomotion ; I have 

 seen it dart in a large dish with the velocity of the Pectines. 

 It lives, as the S. siliqua, in a perpendicular hole, and, like it, 

 uses its powers of locomotion to change its habitat. 



There are, on each side, a pair of pale drab, long, linear 

 branchiae, the upper not half the depth of the lower one, and 

 after leaving the body, they run, fixed on the long dorsal 

 range of the mantle, and then unite and enter the short 

 branchial siphon. There are also, on each side, a pair of 

 small darkish- drab triangular palpi, smooth on the outer 

 surface, and pectinated within. The liver is quite on the 

 dorsal line, green ; and below it, in close connection, is the 

 ovary, filled at this season (22nd July) with round, flake- 

 white ova. The stylet and tricuspid membrane or stomachal 

 attritor are present. The connecting strap-shaped labia of 

 the palpi around the mouth are as in S. siliqua. 



S. ENSIS, Linnaeus et Auct. 

 S. ensis, Brit. Moll. i. p. 250, pi. 14. f. 2. 



Animal elongated, subcompressed, that is, less cylindrical 

 than in S . siliqua, but more so than in S. pellucidus ; the 

 mantle is open at both ends, and has the fringed central 

 fissure, with the same character of the tubes, cirrhi, and 

 colours, as in S. siliqua. The branchiae, labia, and palpi are 

 proportionately the same ; the foot, though less cylindrical, 

 is capable of the same changes of form, but instead of being 

 at the .termination truncate and rectangular, it forms an 

 oblique sweep ; and the colour at its extremity, in lieu of being 

 pale cloudy-white, is studded with very minute papillae, and 

 meandering red-brown lines in the interstices, only to be seen 



