Page:American Seashells (1954).djvu/538

440 2 inches in length, moderately inflated. Sculpture of numerous, coarse, irregularly sized, radial threads. Color variable and brighter on the inside: whitish, yellow, or stained with red, rose or purple. Beaks inflated and rolled in under themselves a little. A moderately common, intertidal species, also known from the Indo-Pacific. Genus Tagelus Gray 1847 Tagelns plebehis Solander Stout Tagelus Plate 3od Cape Cod to south Florida and the Gulf States. 2 to 3^4 inches in length, oblong, subcylindrical, rather inflated, rounded posteriorly, obliquely truncate anteriorly. Beaks indistinct, close together and nearer the posterior end of the shell. Hinge with 2 small, projecting cardinal teeth, with a large bulbous callus just behind them. Exterior smoothish, with tiny, irregular, concentric scratches. Periostracum moderately thick, shiny, olive-green to brownish yellow. Moderately common in shallow water in mud-sand intertidal areas. T. gibbiis Spengler is a later name for this species. Tagelus calijornianus Conrad Californian Tagelus M onterey, California, to Panama. Plate 29U 2 to 4 inches in length. Pallial sinus does not extend past a line vertical to the beaks. External color yellowish white under a dark-brown periostra- cum which is radially striated. Interior white. Common on muddy sand flats near marshes. Lives 8 to 10 inches below the surface of the sand. Tagelus affinis C. B. Adams Affinis Tagelus Southern California to Panama. 1/4 to 2% inches in length. Shell thin. PalHal sinus extends to a line shghtly beyond the beaks, that is, about 53 to 60 percent of the total length of the shell. Dredged from 3 to 40 fathoms in mud-sand, but commonly washed ashore. Subgenus Mesopleura Conrad 1867 Tagelus divisus Spengler Purplish Tagelus Plate 30g Cape Cod to south Florida, the Gulf States and the Caribbean. I to I /4 inches in length, elongate, subcylindrical, fragile and smooth. The valves are reinforced internally by a very weak, radial rib (commonly