376 MARINE INVERTEBRATES 



genus, Strombus, of which we have but a few species. Strombus is 

 a scavenger, a buzzard among mollusks, and its sense of smell 

 is evidently very acute. Its eyes are much more highly devel- 

 oped than the usual gasteropod visual organs, and they are placed 

 at the tip-ends of two very substantial eye-stalks or -pedicels. 

 The tentacles are slender and project from the eye-pedicels. The 

 foot is curiously developed ; that portion of it which would nat- 

 urally constitute the creeping-disk is exceedingly small, but the 

 metapodium (the hinder part of the foot, upon which the opercu- 

 lum is situated) is very large. The corneous operculum upon its 

 end, which is far too small to close the entrance of the shell when 

 the creature retires within it, looks like a claw. Instead of creep- 

 ing along the sand, Strombus proceeds by jumps or awkward 

 leaps, turning its heavy shell first to one side, then to the other. 

 The shell is usually heavy, with the outer lip greatly thickened. 



GENUS Strombus 



S. jmgilis. The very common Floridian species, often three to four 

 inches in height, with a short spire covered with nodes or short, ob- 

 tuse spines, which are also found upon the shoulder of the body-whorl 

 (sometimes smooth). The aperture is long, with a wide notch in the 

 outer lip and a posterior canal. Living specimens have a tough, leathery 

 epidermis covering at least the body-whorl. The color is' brownish. 

 The columella is covered with a fairly thick callous deposit, and, as 

 within the aperture, is highly polished, and deep purple, blackish-chest- 

 nut, or vivid carnation-red in color. The smoother varieties have gone 

 under the name of S. alatus, but the identity of the two species is as- 

 sured. This pugilistic Strombus is a very active mollusk, and when 

 placed in a boat will sometimes effect its escape over the side in a most 

 surprising manner. The species is very abundant in all the shallow 

 waters of Florida. A piece of meat on a string, left overnight in some 

 sheltered sandy spot where there are from six to eight feet of water, 

 will surely attract them. In Florida, where the waters teem with life, 

 unless the bait is protected in a wire cage, the chances are that the hosts 

 of crustaceans and fish will make away with it long before the strombs 

 can arrive on the scene. (Plate LXX.) 



S. glgas. One of the largest of gasteropoda, very common on the 

 Florida Keys and also occurring in southern Florida. Hundreds of 

 thousands of these shells have been sent to Europe from the Bahamas 

 to be cut into cameos. This familiar shell is to be seen everywhere in 

 the Southj placed about flower-gardens and lining the paths and walks 

 in yards. It is generally known in Florida and the West Indies as the 

 " conch-shell." The animal is used as food in Key West, and is very 

 generally eaten throughout the Bahamas. From their habit of eating 



