46 CONTRIBUTION TO THE PALEONTOLOGY OF TRINIDAD. 



of the Gulf of Paria south of Brighton, almost within a stone's throw of the black, 

 asphaltic outcrop in which the fossil Argina was found by Mr. Veatch. This is 

 a closely related form and doubtless the descendant of the fossil species. As the 

 recent form has apparently never been described, it seems well to differentiate it 

 and it is now described and figured as Area (Argina) schultzana. 



Locality. — Area billingsiana was found along the shore, 700 feet east of the 

 Brighton pier, Trinidad Island, in a black asphaltic marl. 



Geological horizon. — Approximately equivalent to the Chipola (Upper Oligo- 



cene) epoch of Florida. 



The shell is named in honor of Dr. John S. Billings, Director of the Libraries 



of New York City. 



Area (Argina) schultzana new species. Plate VII, Figures 10, 11, 12. 



Description. — This recent species has much the aspect of the Oligocene Area 

 (Argina) billingsiana of which it is undoubtedly the descendant. As with the 

 fossil shell, the outline resembles that of the larger members of the group of 

 Area (Scapharca) transversa Say, but the species is at once differentiated from 

 those shells by the characters of the hinge teeth . The latter are those of typical 

 Argina; a short, broken anterior set and a long, normal posterior row. The ribs 

 number about thirty, cardinal area very narrow, beaks approximate, depressed, 

 placed within the anterior fifth of the greatest length of the shell. 



Length 35, height 25, diameter 22 mm. 



The shell is named in honor of Dr. Alfred Schultz, of Washington, D. C, 

 by whom it was found. 



Locality. — In a sandy cove of the Gulf of Paria, a short distance south of 

 the pier at Brighton, Trinidad. 



General horizon. — Recent. 



Area (Argina) bright 



Figures 



Description. — Shell rather small for the genus, oval-elongate, cardinal area 

 very narrow; hinge teeth in the two unequal series characteristic of the section 

 Argina, the anterior set being very short; ribs on the left valve about thirty, 

 lightly grooved over the central portion of the valve. 



Length 24, height 17, diameter 16 mm. 



Remarks.— At first sight this species was taken for a mutation of Area cam- 

 pechensis Dillwyn 25 of the Pleistocene of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and now 

 living on the shores from Cape Cod to the Antilles. But on comparing the 

 Trinidad sheU with several hundred specimens of all sizes of Area campechensis 

 from the Gulf of Mexico, I find that the shells of this species of the same size 

 as the Trinidad Area are invariably rounder and flatter. As Dr. Dall 26 has shown, 

 A. campechensis is a very protean species, but the typical form is rounder, and 



M Descr. Cat. Rec. Shells, I, p. 238, 1817. 

 » Trans. Wagner Inst. Sci., Ill, pp. 650-652. 





