a number of patterns is the hinge constructed, from the 
long row of neatly interlocking teeth in a Nucula to the 
simple ligament of a mussel!” 
It is fairly common. 
Auckland and Wellington Harbours; Great Barrier 
Island; Chatham Islands; Mount Maunganui. 
MALLETIA AUSTRALIS (malleus, a hammer; Aus- 
tralis, southern) —This rare shell is an elongated bivalve, 
ark-shaped, asymmetrical, with the beaks situated about 
the anterior third or, in plain words, one-third the length 
of the shell from the front end. The anterior end is 
rounded, and the posterior end terminates in the form of a 
fish tail with a notch in the middle, the dorsal lobe being 
much larger than the lower lobe and having a decided up- 
ward turn. There is also a shallow groove curving upwards 
from the notch towards the beaks. The colour is pale 
olive green, and the sculpture consists of well-defined con- 
centric ribs equally spaced and following the general out- 
line of the valves. The ventral margin is fairly straight, 
curving upwards at either end; the interior is shining and 
of a bluish-white tint. It attains a length of an inch and 
a half, and a depth of half an inch. Dredged in about 
sixteen to twenty fathoms. 
Great Barrier Island; Auckland Harbour; Opotiki; 
Wellington Harbour; Stewart Island. 
ANOMIA WALTERI (anomia, unequal; dedicated to 
Th. Walter )—One of the Saddle oyster or Window shells; 
sometimes called the Bitter Oyster, on account of its being 
unpalatable. The valves are very thin and fragile. Con- 
centric laminee form the sculpture, crossed by radiate ribs, 
though neither are regular or pronounced, The right valve 
is flat, and has a rounded hole near the hinge for the pas- 
sage of a cartilaginous foot, by which the shells are at- 
tached to rocks, etc. The left valve is deep. Young shells 
vary in colour according to the locality or the depth at 
which they are found. Bay of Island specimens up to an inch 
and a half in diameter, obtained in shallow water, are 
famed for their beautiful golden honey-coloured valves, 
the left being always the richer of the two. Some dredged 
on the Coromandel coast in twenty fathoms are extremely 
thin, almost transparent, and scarcely coloured at all. 
Others again, taken from the old piles of Hobson. Wharf 
in Auckland Harbour, are of the palest greenish white, 
with the merest tinge of gilding on the left valve, showing 
how the turbid waters of the port are incapable of pro- 
ducing such brilliant hues as the purer and clearer seas of 
85 
Plate IX 
No. 20-20a. 
Plate XIT 
No. 1 
Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
