Pvn H,i I'UitlS

430 MACTRIDiE.
coasts of Northumberland and Galway. L. elliptica is
fossil in all our upper tertiaries from the Scotch glacial
beds to the Coralline Crag ; Subapennine strata (Broc-
chi); neighbourhood of Bordeaux (Lamarck); Sicily
(Philippi). It is also recent in Finmark (Lilljeborg);
Bergen (Sars); north of France (De
Gerville and Bou-
chard-Chantereaux) ; shores of Spain and Portugal
(M f
Andrew);
and Philippi).
Algeria (Weinkauff); Sicily (Maravigna
Our earliest conchologist, Lister, discovered this spe-
cies. It is edible in spite of its muddy habitation ; for
we are told by Mr. M fAndrew that it is sold in Vigo
market; and Mr. Dennis says, "the Herm people eat
every kind of shell-fish which is big enough ; even Lutraria
elliptica and L. oblong a— c
Clumps'' as they call
them." The following observations by Montagu may be
useful to those who are so devoted to conchology as not
to object to turning mudlarks :—"
It is rarely obtained
when the tide is
alive, except by digging, and that only
unusually low :
their place of concealment is generally
known by a dimple on the surface, through which they
eject water to a considerable height, though the shell is
frequently buried two feet beneath." The shell is occa-
sionally distorted, and varies in the proportion of length
to breadth.
It is the Mactra lutraria of Linne, Chama magna of
Da Costa, and L. vulgaris of Fleming.
2. L. oblon'ga*, Chemnitz.
Mya oblonga. Chernn. Conch.-Cab. vi. p. 27, t. 2. f. 12. L. oblonga,
i.
p. 374. xiii.
pi.
f. 1.
F. &H.
Body pale yellow : mantle closed to the same extent as in
the last species : tubes of unequal size ; the alimentary (or
* Oblong.