and Shells of Massachusetts Bay. 59 
similar to that of the celebrated Biche le mer, which 
constitutes so important an article of commerce in the 
Eastern Archipelago. 
Hotoruvurta, (an spec. nov. ?) 
An animal apparently of this genus was procured from 
our outer Bay, with the upper extremity much lacerated 
by the fish from which it was taken. The body was 
rigid, fusiform, transversely rugose, sub-pentagonal, 
densely covered with a fine, pulverulent coating of a 
dark, shining, bronze color. The specimen in the So- 
ciety’s collection was about two inches in length, having 
contracted about one third by dessication. 
TELLINA SORDIDA. 
Plate III. fig. 11. 
testa ovali, compressa, albidá, epidermide cornea tectà ; dentibus 
Seslinalibus valvà dextrà duobus, altero simplici, altero bifido, sinis- 
tra plerumque obsoletis; lateralibus posticis réiiotis; intüs alba. 
Long. nineteen twentieths, lat. four twentieths, alt. 
twelve twentieths, of an inch. 
Habitat Boston Bay. 
My own collection and the Society's. 
Description. Shell oval, somewhat compressed, equi- 
valve, very inequilateral, slightly gaping, bluish white 
beneath a thin, fugacious, horn-colored epidermis ; post- 
apicial ligament large and prominent; preapicial, very 
small and internal ; summits always eroded, and the adja- 
cent parts of a chalky appearance ; strie of growth very 
numerous and distinct, and from about one third of the 
distance from the back to the ventral margin, projecting 
