CONCHOLOGY. 



justification of Linnaeus in placing the hammer shells v/ith the Ostreae. 

 It has been indeed advanced that Linnasus was not aware of these 

 hammer shells being furnished with a byssus, or that he would have 

 referred them to the Mytili, but this observation cannot be correct, 

 because in the figure given of these shells by Seba, to which Linnaeus 

 refers, the byssus, which is very conspicuous, is represented pendent 

 or hanging to a considerable length out of the shell. 



From an attentive examination of the different Conchological 

 authors, it does not appear to us that the shell before us has hitherto 

 been figured, and we have reason also to beheve that it has never 

 been described. These circumstances are the more probable since, 

 as we have before observed, the shell is at this time very little known 

 among the Continental Cabinets. The nearest approach, so far as we 

 can judge from the description, unassisted by any figure, is the Marteau 

 Normal (Malleus Normalis) of Lamarck, a species defined by him as 

 testa hiloha; loho basis unico anticali ad normam, our shell is certainly 

 bilobate, for it has only one lateral lobe at the beak, and that more- 

 over advances from the beak, pretty nearly, though not exactly, in 

 a right line ; but its general description does not sufficiently accord 

 with our shell to authorise as a conclusion that they are the same. 

 Lamarck informs us that there are two varieties of his Malleus 

 Normalis, one of which is a native of the ocean of the Great Indies, 

 the other of the seas of New Holland. The first, or Indian kind, he 

 describes as being on the inside as well as outside of a black colour, 

 with a longish lobe at the base of the shell.* The New Holland 



* Testa extus intusque nigra : lobo basis longiusciilo. Animaux sans 

 vertehres. T. 6. p. 145. 



