TELLINA. TELLEN. 167 



with mostly a stain of yellowish-ferruginous which is 

 deeper towards the pointed end ; sometimes it has a blueish 

 cast, and is often polished like fine enamel between the la- 

 minar ridges ; inside white, polished, with the margin very 

 thin and plain : hinge nearer one end : teeth very strong 

 and prominent, in one valve a single tooth between two hol- 

 lows ; in the other two ; lateral ones none in either valve : 

 length an inch ; breadth, nearly an inch and a half. 



The teeth differ much in different specimens : sometimes 

 the single tooth is rather triangular, and notched ; some- 

 times broad, and a little recurved, like the tooth of a Mya ; 

 often placed obliquely transverse, or with a projection on 

 one side, having the appearance of a smaller one attached 

 to it : the two teeth in the other valve are sometimes broad 

 and diverging, sometimes round and a little recurved ; but 

 all are uniformly very strong and projecting beyond the 

 edge of the shell. 



Found in great abundance imbedded in the blue clay be- 

 low the village of Clontarf, near Dublin ; in Valentia bay, 

 and Bantry bay. v. m. 



2. Tellina pus ilia. Minute Tdlen. 



Lister, pi. 159. f. 15. 



Shell somewhat oval, very convex, thin, brittle, transpa- 

 rent, whitish or yellowish-white, but generally covered with 

 a rough extraneous coat, with sometimes a red spot about 

 the hinge, probably occasioned by the dead inhabitant, re- 

 gularly and closely striate transversely ; inside white or 

 dull yellowish-white : hinge not quite central, with two 

 primary teeth in one valve, in the other a single very minute 

 one which is not always discoverable ; the lateral teeth 

 prominent, pointed, double in one valve only : length a 

 line ; breadth rather more.' 



This is most probably the minute species mentioned by 

 Montagu, p. 88. We have compared multitudes of them 

 with the young both of T. cornea, and T. amnica : from 

 the first they differ in being more oval convex and transpa- 

 rent, in being more regularly striate : from T. amnica in 

 not being so much produced nor truncate, in the much 

 greater convexity, and in the color, which in the latter is 

 1 always of u biueish cast bgth inside and out, and in the 



teeth. 



