40 BIVALVES. TELLINA. 



point of beauty, variety, or number, which amounts to no 

 less than eighty-one species: and whether the attention 

 be directed to their elegance of form, brilliancy of colour, or 

 delicacy of structure, the eye is equally astonished and de- 

 lighted. 



The usual form of the Tellina resembles a long pear, 

 being broad at one end, and gradually tapering to the 

 other; in some cases so much so, that the pointed termi- 

 nation of the shell forms a perfect beak or proboscis, as 

 in the T. rostrata, T. virgata, &c. Others, on the contrary, 

 are more of an orbicular, or spherical form, as the T. sco- 

 binata, &c. and some again, as the T. radiata, &c. are 

 nearly allied to species of the Solen genus, with which 

 (from their near resemblance) they are sometimes con- 

 founded; however, from the general propensity of all Tel- 

 linae to terminate in a more or less acute beak, much in- 

 accuracy cannot well be committed. At the same time, the 

 hinge of the Tellina will remove any doubts that may have 

 originated from the simple observance of the exterior; for 

 it is usually furnished with three teeth, the middle one of- 

 ten cleft; the lateral teeth are most commonly smooth; the 

 interior margin rarely, if ever, crenulated. 



The outside of the shells is surprisingly varied, some 

 being perfectly smooth and polished, whilst others are co- 

 vered with minute striae and undulations. In some in- 

 stances the whole surface is beset with coarse imbrications 

 or scales ; but the more elegant species of the Tellina are 

 chiefly remarkable for their beautiful radiations, the colours 

 of which are rarely to be equalled in any of the other ge- 

 nera. 



As the Tellinae are most important among the Bivalves, 

 so the sources from whence they are derived usually 

 abound in the different varieties they afford. The Medi- 

 terranean, Adriatic, European and Northern Seas, and the 



