Pvn H,i I'UitlS

380 TELLINIDjE.
Habitat :
All sandy beaches, at the low-water mark
of neap tides or at the depth of a few fathoms. Fossil
in the Belfast deposit (Grainger), Scotch glacial beds
(J. Smith and Crosskey), as well as (on the authority of
Philippi) in the Neapolitan and Sicilian newer tertiary
strata. Its northern range comprises Upper Norway,
in 10-40 fathoms, (and possibly Finland,) Sweden, and
Normandy ; and southward it has been noted on the
4* '
Lnsitanian shores, in the Mediterranean from Spezzia,
Corsica, and Mogador to Sicily, and also in the Black
Sea.
Known to Lister, who figured it as English in the
'
Historia Conchyliorum/ Being also a Swedish shell
it could hardly have escaped the notice of Linne, and it
probably was his T. incarnata. That species is described
in the l
Fauna Suecica/ and the size given (" extimi
pollicis") is the same as that of T. bimaculata. The
identity of our shell with the first-mentioned Linnean
species was suspected by Mr. W. Wood but as another
;
species has been called incarnata, and Da Costa's name
tenuis is now universally adopted for the present species,
it is better to retain the latter name. According to
Philippi, Mediterranean examples are much smaller than
those from the German Ocean. In a specimen from
Tenby the lateral tooth in the right
valve is extraordi-
narily developed. The present species differs from T.
balthica in the shell being oval, flat, thin, and remark-
ably glossy, with a sharp angle at the posterior extremity.
Mr. Clark suggested the removal of both species
to another genus. Possibly the Tellinula of Chemnitz,
or Tellinides of Lamarck, might receive these and other
species comprised in the section now under consider-
ation.
T. tenuis does not burrow deep in the sand ; and the