FAMILY TELLINID^ SANGUINOLARIA. 213 



This is a very common shell along our shores, and appears to exist from Maine to Florida. 

 It affords a plentiful supply of food to the numerous wild fowl which visit the shores of Long 

 island. There appears to be several varieties in the colors and marking. The young are 

 very small and thin ; the teeth not developed, polished white ; others are larger, roundish, 

 and of a delicate pink within and without : there are still others larger and proportionally 

 wider, tinged with red or brown when decorticated. 



Sanguinolaria sordida. 



PLATE XXXn. FIG. 305. 



(STATE COLLECTION.) 



Tellina sordida. Couthouy, Bost. Jour. Nat. Hist. Vol. 2, p. 59, pi. 3, fig. 11. 

 S. sordida. Gould, Invertebrata of Mass. p. G7. 



Description. Shell thin and fragile, inequilateral, obscurely triangular, slightly gaping. 

 Epidermis thin and brittle ; beneath which the surface is marked with numerous incremental 

 lines. Beaks very small, and behind them the margin slopes away in nearly a straight line. 

 Teeth two in each valve ; the largest bitid. 



Color. Epidermis dusky brown ; surface iridescent : within polished white, with faint ra- 

 diating striae. 



Vertical axis, 0'2 ; transverse ditto, 0.3. 



They are said to occur nearly an inch in their greatest length ; the largest I have seen did 

 not exceed 0"5. These latter were procured by Mr. Charles Wheatley, in dredging in the 

 mud in five fathom water off the Quarantine ground. Those described by Messrs. Couthouy 

 and Gould, were exclusively from the stomachs of fishes. 



(EXTRALIMITAL.) 



S. lusoria. (Psammobia? Say, Ac. Sc. Vol. 2, p. 304. Conrad, Mar. Conch, pi. 7, fig.) Shell 

 oblong', suboval, with minute wrinkles ; posterior side narrowed, and inclining to the right at the 

 end ; an obtuse convex line on the left valve. Color : epidermis pale ; beneath, bluish white. 

 Vertical axis, 0*6; transverse ditto, 1 -0. New-Jersey to Florida. 



S. rugosa. (Lam. Vol. 2, p. 558, Ed. Brux.) Ovate, ventricose, longitudinally rugose. Color, vio- 

 laceous behind ; nymphte blackish, violaceous : posterior area none. Florida. 



