Page:American Seashells (1954).djvu/482

I to 2 inches in size, higher than long, poHshed smooth, inflated, fairly thin and obscurely ribbed. Exterior generally whitish, but may be rose-tinted, mottled with brown or flushed with purple, yellow or burnt-orange. Interior similarly colored. With about 60 very fine, subdued radial ribs. A common shallow-water species. The name serratiim Linne has been erroneously ap- plied to our Atlantic species by some workers. Laevicardium vtortoni Conrad Morton's Egg Cockle Plate 39I Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. % to I inch in size, ovate, glossy, similar to laevigatum, but commonly with brown, zigzag markings and with fine, concentric ridges which are minutely pimpled. Common in southern New England from shallow water to 2 fathoms. A food of wild ducks. Laevicardium pictmn Ravenel Ravenel's Egg Cockle South Carolina to southeast Florida and the West Indies. /4 to I inch in height, obliquely triangular in shape, polished and only moderately inflated. Exterior white or cream with delicate shades or rose or brown and with a weak, iridescent sheen. A color form has strong, brown, zigzag streaks. Beaks very low and near the anterior end. Very faint radial and concentric lines present. Dredged from 75 to 85 fathoms. An uncommon and attractive species. Laevicardium sybariticum Dall 1886 (Dall's Egg Cockle, rare, same range), is more inflated, squarish in shape and with deep-pink breaks. Laevicardium substriatum Conrad Common Pacific Egg Cockle Ventura County, California, to the Gulf of California. Less than i inch in size, obliquely ovate, smooth and slightly compressed. Color tan with closely set, narrow, radial bands of reddish brown. These lines are commonly interrupted. Interior cream with cobwebby mottlings of purplish brown. Very common in such localities as Mission Bay and New- port. Laevicardium elatum Sowerby Giant Pacific Egg Cockle San Pedro, California, to Panama. 3 to 7 inches in height, oval, inflated, slightly oblique, with numerous, shallow, radial grooves, but the posterior and anterior regions are smooth.