Pvn H,i I'UitlS

440 MACTRTD^.
Habitat :
Estuaries, creeks, and bays, gregarious in
mud, from the low-water mark of spring tides to 40
fathoms. An odd valve was dredged by Capt. Beechey
off the Mull of Galloway in 110-140 fathoms. Var. 1.
Deal Voe, East Shetland, in 3 fathoms (J. G. J.).
co. Antrim
Var. 2. Lough Strangford (Waller) ; Larne,
(J. G. J.). This species occurs in all our upper ter-
tiaries, from the Clyde basin to the Coralline Crag ;
glacial beds at Udde valla, and upper miocene strata at
Biot in the south of France (J. G. J.) ;
Panormi in Sicily
(Philippi).
It is common on all the Scandinavian coasts
in 4-40 fathoms, and in other parts of the North-Euro-
pean seas from Boulogne to Lisbon in 7-30 fathoms, as
well as throughout the Mediterranean and iEgean in
3-50 fathoms. The variety rachata was found by Loven
in the Bohuslan district, by Malm at a depth of from
3 to 6 fathoms in the estuary of the river Gotha (where
the water is brackish), and by Meyer and Mobius in
Kiel Bay. A third and nearly transparent variety was
taken alive by Forbes at the great depth of 80-185
fathoms in the Gulf of Macri, and described by him in
the Reports of the British Association for 1843, under
the name of Ligula profundissima ; his typical specimens
are preserved in the British Museum.
This little mollusk, although living in mud, takes care
not to be smothered in it, but keeps up its commu-
nication with the sea. If, in dredging it,
the contents
of the net, mud and shells, are put into a tub and left
for some hours to settle, the S. alba will be seen on the
surface, having worked its way upwards by means of its
muscular and flexible foot. It reminds me of an anec-
dote connected with the British Association. During
the Southampton Meeting in 1847, Mr. M cAndrew
treated some of the members to a dredging-cruise in