SOLENICURTUS. 157 



tions of the foot and shell, from which its generic appellation 

 originates. 



Some malacologists have an idea, that this creature, and 

 that of S. candidus, is too large for its habitation ; this is a 

 mistake, which has arisen from the animal when in confine- 

 ment exserting the belly of the mantle, inflated by water, 

 beyond the margin of the shell ; but the instant it is irritated, 

 it can place every organ a Pabri. S. candidus is in the same 

 category as to this point. This account is partly from the 

 recollection of twenty years ago ; there are gaps in it which 

 we hope to make good. We have, though rarely, taken this 

 animal alive at Exmouth. 



S. CANDIDUS, Renieri. 



S. candidus, Brit. Moll. i. p. 263, pi. 15. f. 1, 2. 



Solen strigillatus, Anglorum. 

 S. scapula, juv., Anglorum. 



We have been favoured by Dr. Battersby of Torquay with 

 fresh, though not live, specimens of this species. To describe 

 it would be nearly a repetition of the notes on S. coarctatus. 

 The only variation in the animal is its being of a flesh colour, 

 tinged with orange. We have rarely dredged the shells of 

 this species, but never with the animal, in the coralline district 

 at Exmouth. 



Gastrochana, Saxicava, Panopcea, and Venerirupis are the 

 genera which receive the British species ; they are allied to 

 Pholas, by being borers, except perhaps Panopcea, and having 

 their mantle closed ; they have also a similar siphonal appa- 

 ratus, which according to their minor volume is as propor- 

 tionately elongated ; but most of them differ in having the 

 siphons soldered together, showing externally a depressed line 

 of separation, and have not the appearance of being enclosed 

 in a common sheath. 



