128 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



II. Concliological Notes made at Mie, Fife, during the 

 Summer of 1876. By Eobeet Etheridge, Jun., Esq., 

 F.G.S. Communicated by John Gibson, Esq. 



The notes from which the following remarks are drawn np 

 were collected during a short visit to Elie, on the coast of 

 Fife, during the past summer (1876). 



(1.) Scrohicularia j^ij^erata (Bellon.) ; Mya arenaria (Linn.); 

 and Tellina Balthica (Linn.), in the Cocklemill Burn. 



For two or three hundred yards above its mouth in 

 Largo Bay the Cocklemill Burn has formed small alluvial 

 flats, twenty to thirty feet below the general level of the 

 St Ford Links, through which it winds its course, locally 

 called "Inks." These small flats are, as a rule, dry at 

 low water; but at the rise of the tide they become pretty 

 generally flooded, or, at all events, sufficiently so to fill up 

 and replenish a number of small irregular holes or depres- 

 sions a few yards in circumference, which are scattered here 

 and there. A visit was paid to the locality in the company 

 of Dr M'Bain, E.N., and Mr Howie of L^pper Largo, to obtain 

 specimens of Scrohicularia ^ijMvatcc, which were known to 

 occur in the before-mentioned holes by both these gentle- 

 men. During the recession of the tide, we succeeded in 

 digging out a quantity of the black mud forming the bottom 

 of the holes, and from which we extracted many specimens 

 of 3fya arenaria, S. 'pvperata, Tdlina Balthica, all living, and, 

 as regards numbers, the first named in greatest abundance, 

 and the second predominating over the third. The shells 

 were all much stained in parts by the black material in 

 which they were found, although the molluscs appeared in a 

 perfectly healthy condition. When placed in clean water, 

 the long siphons of S. 2n2^erata were displayed to advantage, 

 and the tube of 3f. arenaria was extended to its full length. 



Dr Gywn Jeffreys remarks on the capabilities Mya 

 areno.ria possesses of living in brackish or fresh water, and 

 mentions a list of shells, chiefly fresh-water, which are found 

 in company with it in the Baltic. Amongst these is Tellina 

 Balthica. The individuals of M. arenaria from the Cockle- 

 mill Burn are a somewhat more transversely elongated 



