376 CRETACEOUS PALEONTOLOGY. 



1864. Uitculana protexta Meek, Check List Inv. Foss. N. A., 



Cret. and Jur., p. 8 (in part). 

 1868. Nuculana protexta Con., Cook's Geol. N. J., p. 725. 

 1876. Nucidana protexta Gabb, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. 



(1876), p. 318. 

 1886. Nuculana protexta Whitf., Pal. N. J., vol. i (Monog. 



U. S. G. S., vol. 9), p. 105, pi. II, fig. 10. 

 1905. Leda protexta ]oh.r):s., Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil. (1905), 



p. 8. 



Description. — "Shell very elongate and narrow, the narrow 

 end about once and a half as long as the wider and strongly re- 

 curved. Valves moderately ventricose and the beaks only moder- 

 ately elevated; anterior end narrowly rounded and the posterior 

 extremity extended and narrow ; basal line gibbous in the middle. 

 On the cast the hinge is seen to be marked by a very large num- 

 ber of small tpeth, but the number cannot be made out on any 

 of the several specimens examined. The cartilage pit beneath the 

 beak has been of moderate size. Surface features of the shell 

 unknown." (Whitfield.) 



Remarks. — This species is only known from somewhat im- 

 perfect internal casts which do not show the external features 

 of the shell. The species differs from any other member of the 

 genus in the New Jersey faunas with a similar outline, in the 

 much more strongly ventricose valves. The species has not been 

 met with in the recent collections of the Survey. 



Whitfield has commented on the various uses which have 

 been made of the specific name protexta for several closely allied 

 shells of this group. Gabb has used the name twice and Conrad 

 twice for shells which constitute three different species. The 

 name is here used in the same sense as it was used by Whitefield, 

 for the first shell to which the name was given by Gabb, that 

 author's other species being changed to L. gabbana. Conrad 

 himself changed the name of one of his species, an Eocene shell, 

 to L. albaria, and his other species is the type of the genus Perri- 

 sonota and retains the specific name protexta. Johnson^ seems 



'Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil, (igos), p. 8. 



