VENUS. 235 



finely notched : beaks prominent, central, curved to one 

 side,* with a broad heart-shaped depression under them, 

 which is often colored -, the cartilage side equally sloping in 

 both valves, and forming a deep groove, often marked with 

 colored streaks : length seven-eighths of an inch ; breadth 

 an inch. 



It much resembles the V. Paphia, but is more rounded, 

 and the ridges are more flattened and irregular, not abruptly 

 obsolete on the cartilage side, but reaching quite across the 

 surface, and mostly projecting a little beyond the margin, 

 giving the slope a tubercled or jagged appearance at the 

 edges. From this last circumstance it corresponds exactly 

 with Limit's V. succincta : " rima excisa." 



Sandy coasts of England and Ireland, v. v. 



8. Venus suicata. Grooved Venus. 



Linn. Trans, viii. pi. 2. f. 2. 



Venus Danmonia. Montagu, pi. 29. f. 4. 



Shell rather flattened, roundish, a very little angular and 

 produced at the anterior side, covered with a dark chesnut 

 or olive green tenacious skin, under which it is glossy- 

 white, with numerous regular equidistant rounded concen- 

 tric ribs, from twenty-five to thirty in number, which are 

 narrower then the spaces between them, and both them- 

 selves and the spaces quite smooth or obscurely striate 

 transversely : these ribs grow fainter towards the sides, 

 especially the cartilage side where they sink into a kind of 

 wrinkles : beaks very prominent, pointed, curving to one 

 side, with a deep elongated heart-shaped depression under 

 them, which is sometimes covered with a blackish skin j 

 inside white or cream-color, rather rough and not polished, 

 except round the margin which is finely notched : in one 

 valve a strong thick somewhat triangular and ilattish tooth, 

 with a deep cavity on each side, the others small and re- 

 mote ; in the other valve two strong remote teeth, with a 

 large and deep hollow between them for the reception of 

 the strong central tooth of the opposite valve : length 

 about an inch ; breadth rather more. 



Opportunities of comparing numerous specimens, col- 

 lected in various parts of Ireland and on the Devonshire 

 coast, have satisfied us that the Venus suicata and V. Dan- 

 monia 



V 



