28 PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW JERSEY. 



large indi^^dual figured presents a more distinctly rayed surface than the 

 most of those examined, but this is probably only an individual feature, 

 and certainly very many of those we obtain in the markets are far more 

 distinctly marked in this manner than is this one. Considering these facts 

 I see no reason for separating these Miocene shells from the living ones 

 simi)ly because they lived in a past age, as they have continued down to 

 the present time without material change. 



OSTREA YlKGINIANA Var. PEOCYON. 



PI. I, figs. 4-6. 



Ostrea Virginiana var. procyon Tuomey and Holmes: Pliocene Foss. S. Carolina, p. 

 20, PI. V, figs. 6-9. Holmes, P. P. Foss. S. Car. p. 10, PI. 2, fig. 9rt. 



Shell differing from the ordinary fonn of 0. Virginiana Gmel. in being 

 more elongate and narrower, the beak often attenuated, and the sides of the 

 valves subparallel on the anterior half of the shell's length. The upper 

 valve is usually quite flat and without any depth on the inside; in fact 

 often quite convex; while the lower one is rounded on the outside and 

 ti'ough-shaped within, the ligamental groove being naiTow and deep, and 

 often from an inch to an inch and a quarter in length. The surface of the 

 lower valve is usuall}' marked by fine, raised, rounded, and generally dis- 

 tant radiating ribs, seldom visible on the posterior half of the shell. 



Specimens are foiuid varying in form from the very narrow ones with 

 nearly parallel sides, and having a length of 4 or more inches, to those pre- 

 senting nearly the same form as the ordinary specimens of 0. Virgmiand. 

 Also of the narrow forms from those with a perfectly straight beak, to 

 forms having the beak cur\'ed almost at right angles to the general axis of 

 the shell. The same form and variety is now living commonly on the sea- 

 coast of the State, and I luiA-e gathered them in (juantities along the 

 beaches at the inlet north of Atlantic City. Tt is not distinguishable either 

 by any constant feature so far as I can observe from large numbers of 

 0. (/lahra Meek, found at many points in the Laramie group of the west, 

 and as figured by both Mr. Meek in his volume on Invertebrate Palae- 

 ontology in the (Geological Survey of the Territories, and by Dr. C. A. 



