Pvn H,i I'UitlS

TAPES.
351
at Belfast and in the Sussex tertiaries and Mammalian
Crag. Var. 1. Cork (Humphreys). Var. 2. Bantry Bay
and Falmouth (J. Gr. J.). Two other varieties were
found by Dr. Turton in a semifossil state imbedded in
blue clay at Clontarf near Dublin. One of them he
described and figured in his 'Conchological Dictionary'
as Venus cenea, and the other as V. nitens. These last
are much smaller and thinner than the typical form,
and may belong to some of Lamarck's species from the
Mediterranean which have been carved out of T. aureus.
Clark referred Turton's varieties to T. virgineuSj and he
questioned
if that and T. aureus were not the same
species. Sars has taken the ordinary sort of a large
size by dredging off the Loffoden Isles ; and Loven,
Asbjornsen, Danielssen, and Malm have also recorded
it from the Scandinavian coasts, at depths varying only
from 5 to 10 fathoms. South of Great Britain it is
found everywhere as far as the iEgean, where Forbes
took it in 4-10 fathoms ; Middendorff gives the Black
Sea as a habitat. It is strange that the animal of a
species so common as this on many of our shores should
never have been described or noticed. I hope the
"
hiatus valde deflendus" will soon be filled up, with
others of the same kind. The shell, which is very pretty,
was figured by Lister as English. In Turton's collection
is a monstrosity which he mistook for the Venus sinuosa
of Pennant. It has an oblique fold extending from the
umbonal area to the front towards the posterior side.
I possess another distortion which is less flexuous.
The present species appears to be the Venus Iceta of
Poli, the animal of which he has described as follows :
— Body whitish : mantle having its edges waved and
fringed : tubes of unequal size, rather wide, united for
three-fourths of their lengths ; orifices cirrous, and en-