QO 
set hah 
protrude their shell above the surface: from this end they 
extend a long fleshy trunk (composed of rings), which is 
easily broken,- and which they withdraw on the slightest 
appearance of danger. 2 
Many of the species are taken for the table, by means of 
a barbed spear, which is tkrust suddenly into their shells, 
and immediately farnedy but unless very great caution be 
used in removing the sand from round the shell, the animal 
quits it, and sinks into the sand. ‘This curious circumstance 
was first mentioned to me by Mr. Macleay, and Mr. Bul- 
lock assures me that he has often witnessed it. 
TAB. Vit 
SOLEN CEYLONENSIS. 
S. testa recta, una extremitate rotundata, altera ob- 
liqué truncata, cardine terminali, in utraque valva 
unidentata, dentibus inequalibus. 
Habitat in Ceylon. 
CEYLON RAZOR-SHELL. 
Shell strait, with one extremity rounded, the other ob- 
liquely truncate; the hinge terminal, with one tooth in 
each valve; the teeth unequal. 
Inhabits Ceylon, where it seems not to be an uncommon 
species. The striz at the base (as usual in all the genuine 
Solenes when decorticated), run longitudinally, and turn 
abruptly in a transverse direction, giving an appearance to 
the shell, of being obliquely divided into two equal parts, 
by a line running in a diagonal direction from cne corner to 
the other. : 
