28 hey: YORKSHIRE MARINE SHELLS. 



Solen ensis L. 



Coatham Sands, but in no great plenty. The young of the 

 next species is often mistaken for it. 

 Solen siliqua L. 



Abundant on sandy beaches near low-water mark. After 

 rough weather it is cast up by thousands on Redcar beach, and 

 sometimes in equally large numbers at Bridlington Quay. This 

 species is a favourite bait with the fishermen, who dig it up with 

 a fork at spring tides. It must be wonderfully prolific and rapid 

 in growth to maintain its numbers as it does. 



MACTRIDM. 



Mactra solida L. 



May always be obtained alive on Coatham Sands after rough 

 weather, though seldom very plentiful. 

 Mactra subtruncata Da Costa 



Very abundant at Coatham and Redcar, but all the specimens 

 I have seen are very small. 

 Mactra stultorum L. 



The commonest of the genus, often cast up in thousands 

 alive near Coatham. Frequent also at Saltburn, Scarborough, 

 Filey, and the south sands at Bridlington. On one occasion 

 Redcar beach was strewn exclusively with very young specimens 

 only a few lines broad. 

 Var. cinerea Mont. 



Hardly less common than the type. Fine at Redcar. 

 Mactra elliptica Brown. 



A deep-water species, which I have taken from the stomachs of 

 haddocks caught at Staithes. Also obtained at Redcar and 

 Scarborough. 

 Lutraria elliptica Lam. 



This fine shell lives with the Myce in the estuary of the Tees, 

 and is cast up at Coatham after rough weather, sometimes in 

 numbers. I have also taken it alive in Filey Bay. The animal 

 will sometimes startle the collector by squirting salt water into 

 his face with surprising violence. 

 Scrobicularia piperata Gmel. 



This thoroughly estuarine species was very numerous in the 

 Tees mudflats, and its dead shells strew the ground recovered 

 by banks from the sea, but I cannot now find it in a living 

 state. I once observed it thrown up in cleaning out some ditches 

 near Coatham, a quarter of a mile distant from present high- 

 water mark. These ditches twenty-five years ago contained 

 Conovuli; now they are tenanted by Limnceadcs. This species 



Naturalist, 



