210 NEW-YORK FAUNA — MOLLUSCA. 
TELLINA TENTA. 
Tellina tenta. Say, American Conchology, pl. 65, fig. 3. 
TZ. id. Apams, Bost Journ, Nat. Hist. Vol. 3, p. 332. 
a id. Gou tp, Invertebrata of Mass. p. 68, fig. 43. 
Description. Shell small, thin, oval, deflected by the folds to the right. Valves widely 
gaping, very convex; the left one more so: margin subtruncate behind; beaks prominent. 
Surface minutely wrinkled by the lines of growth, with a few fine radiating lines across the 
middle. Two diverging cardinal teeth in the right valve, and a single one in the left; a 
posterior lateral tooth on the right valve, and a corresponding groove in the left. 
Color, white; the epidermis soiled white: interior, white tinged with yellow, and with 
faint impressed radiating lines, producing a minutely indented margin. 
Vertical axis, 0°4; transverse ditto, 0°6. Diameter, 0°2. 
Although this shell has been found on the shores of South-Carolina and Massachusetts, 
yet I have not been able to obtain it along the seacoast of New-York, where it undoubtedly 
exists. Its distinctive character consists in its flexed valves widely gaping behind, and in its 
internal radiations. 
(EXTRA-LIMITAL,) 
T. lateralis. (Say, Ac. Sc. Vol. 5, p.218.) Shell transversely subovate; beak nearly central. Poste» 
rior margin regularly round.d; anterior margin rostrated, the beak turning to the left and slightly 
gaping; ligament-slope straight: basal margin regularly arcuated, a little contracted near the beak. 
Valves with small concentric wrinkles and slight waves; within, these are slightly impressed. 
Lateral teeth none; cardinal teeth two in one valve, and one with another scarcely elevated filiform 
tooth in the other. Color, whitish, often tinged with rusty; within white. Length, 1°5; width, 
2°1. Seacoast. 
T. polita. (Ip. Ib. Vol 2, p. 276; Ess. Jour. Vol. 1, p. 56.) Shell transversely subtriangular, with 
minute concentric wrinkles: anterior margin rather shortest; hinge-slope declining in a very 
slightly arcuated line to a subacute termination; basal margin nearly straight from behind the 
middle to the anterior end; a lateral tooth behind the primary one. Color, white, immaculate. 
Length, 0°4; breadth, 0°6. Southern Coast. 
T. iris. (Ip. Ib. Vol. 2, p. 302.) Shell very thin and fragile, pellucid, compressed, transversely 
oblong, suboval: minute concentric wrinkles, crossed by oblique striz which do not attain the 
margin: margin narrowed and subacute; basal edge straight, opposite the beaks. Color, white, 
iridescent, with a rosaccous disk and one or two anterior rays. Length, 0+3; breadth, 0°5. 
Southern Coast. 
T. flecuosa. Ip. Ib. Vol. 2, p. 303.) Shell suborbicular: anterior margin longer than the posterior, 
and less obtusely rounded; beaks behind the middle, not prominent; surface with regular parallel 
oblique impressed lines, refracted and infracted 4 — 5 times alternately on the anterior margin; no 
longitudinal striz ; transverse wrinkles very minute. Cvlor, white. Length, 0°45; breadth, 0°6, 
Southern coast. 
