310 BULLETIN OF THE 
Bushia elegans, n. s. 
Shell white, thin, inequilateral, the left valve a little the smaller, and the 
basal edge of the right valve projecting beyond the other; apices of the beaks 
touching each other; shell posteriorly sharply truncate; anterior part of the 
shell forming sixteen twenty-fifths of the whole length; the anterior margin 
rather pointedly rounded, and the extreme anterior point nearer to the level 
of the base than to that of the hinge-line; beaks not much elevated but mod- 
erately full; the surface evenly concentrically deeply grooved all over, about 
three interspaces to the millimeter, the grooves narrower than the interspaces ; 
a short external ligament behind the contiguous beaks; a keel extends from 
the beak to the upper posterior angle of the truncation of the posterior side 
(which is almost as abrupt as in Mya truncata) parallel with the descend- 
ing hinge-margin ; over this keel the raised interspaces form threadlike ribs; 
within the keel is a narrow nearly smooth lanceolate depressed area, wider in 
the left than in the right valve; the angle at the end of the keel where the 
truncation begins is abrupt ; the basal angle is very bluntly rounded; interior 
smooth, with some radiating strie; the beak, inside its tip, is filled with a 
solid transparent deposit, on which the feet of the arched ossicle are attached 
by a layer of cartilage; the hinge is toothless, thin, and weak; the imprint of 
the mantle invisible; but the pallial sinus is moderately deep and rounded; 
there is no visible epidermis; the surface is smooth, but not brilliant; the 
posterior hinge-margin, looked at from above, is seen to be somewhat flexuous 
laterally. Lon. of shell 12.5; alt. 10.0; diameter 6.0 mm. 
Habitat. Station 272, near Barbados, in 76 fms., hard sand, bottom tem- 
perature 64°.75 F. (one right valve). U.S. Fish Commission, Station 2639, 
56 fms., in the Straits of Florida, one living specimen and one valve. 
The possession of a living specimen in a good state of preservation has en- 
abled me to fix the position of this elegant little shell, which from only the 
single valve obtained by the “ Blake ” would have been a little doubtful. 
The soft parts (in alcohol) afford the following notes. Siphons not very 
long, entirely separated ; mantle closed, except in front of the foot; ends of 
both siphons papillose ; mantle simple, smooth along the edge; gills large, 
lamelle dorsally much crumpled, both sides united at the tips behind; palpi 
very small, narrow; foot small, rather hatchet-shaped, not grooved behind ; 
posterior adductor the larger; the inner gill on each side much the shorter 
and narrower of the two; the gills together envelop the whole body except 
the foot and a passage-way to the excurrent siphon. The ossicle forms a 
U-shaped arch, its feet a little enlarged and divaricating backward; the hinge 
margin is normally entire; but, with the ossicle in place, it is impossible to 
separate the valves without breaking a little notch, just below the beak where 
the ossicle crosses, in the valve which does not retain the ossicle, or in both; 
the outer surfaces of the mantle and the soft parts in general, except the liver, 
are not pigmented. : 
