101 



9. 

 Maara hians. Pult. Cat. Dorfet.^. 32. Hians. 



Lin. Trans, vi. t. 16, f. 5. 6. (Wood.) 

 Chama magna, Da Cofta. p. 230. t. 17. f. 4, 

 Mya oblonga. Gmel. Syjt. p. 322 1 . 10. — Ti/rt. Lin. i \'. p. 1 7 7 , 



C/ie??!. Conch, vi. t. 2. f. 12. — Gualt. t. 90. A. 



M. with a ftrong, oblong fhell, with rugofe, concentric 

 wrinkles, moll fo at the end remote from the hinge ; o- 

 paque, dark-brown, with frequently a rufous tinge; fome- 

 liines dark cinereous, and when recent, covered with 

 a thick, dufky epidermis : umbo fmall, placed near to one 

 end; the upper margin next to the hinge fomewhat arcu- 

 ated; hinge furniOied with one flattifh tooth, grooved on 

 the fore part, locking in between two in the oppofite 

 valve, the fmalleft of which is bifid; the cavity to which 

 the connefting cartilage is fixed, is large and triangular ; 

 no lateral teeth. Infide white, with a flrong, elevated 

 ridge along the upper fide of the cicatrix : the longer end 

 very confiderably gaping. Length two inches and a quar- 

 ter ; breadth five inches. 



It is very remarkable, fhells fo materially different as 

 the Ma6lra lutraria and this, fliould have been fo con- 

 founded. Da Costa has sriven a figrure of the M. hians 

 with moll of the fynonymsof the lutraria, and has notde- 

 fcribed that fliell at all. Gmelin expreffes a doubt, whe- 

 ther it is not a variety of the Mya arenaria. Moft afTui^ed- 

 ly that author had never examined this (hell, or he could 

 not have exprelfed fuch a doubt, as no two can be more 

 diftin6l ; and had he not quoted a tolerably good figure in 



Chemnitz, 



