THE NAUTILUS. 

 EGG-CAPSULES OF BUCCINUM TJNDATUM L.* 



BY OLOF O. NYANDER. 



The interesting paper on "Egg-capsules of the Ten-ribbed 

 Whelk," by Charles W. Johnson (Occasional Papers, Boston 

 Soc. Nat. History Vol. 5, pp. 1-4, pi. 1, May, 1921), brings 

 to mind a collecting trip which in this connection may prove of 

 interest. 



In the summer of 1906 I spent one month collecting Silurian 

 fossils in Cabscook Bay from Eastport to Whiting, Maine, and 

 as my work was mostly in the tidal zone I could not help but 

 observe the common marine shells while collecting fossils at 

 Broad Cove, near Eastport, where the average tide is about 22 

 feet. Shackford Head is at the west of the cove and near to the 

 deep water; there is an isolated rock outcrop just above low 

 water. In a part of this rock sheltered from the sun and among 

 the rock weeds was hanging a large bunch of Bucdnum undatum 

 egg-capsules, and three large specimens were depositing their 

 eggs in different parts of the bunch, which was 6 inches long, 

 nearly 3 inches broad and 2 inches high. As this mass of eggs 

 was hanging free about 5 or 6 feet above low-water mark, the 

 observation was perfect. I took the shells and the egg-capsules 

 which are now in my collection. This large egg-cluster must 

 have been the nest of many individuals, as I think they only 

 deposit a few eggs at a time and sometimes only one. During 

 my collecting trip I found many eggs of B. undatum deposited 

 on the rocks, on the rock weeds and on dead shells, ranging 

 from one single capsule to 25 and probably sometimes a hun- 

 dred or more. See Plate I, fig. 1. 



I have always been interested in the eggs of shells, and at 

 Newport, R. L, I collected, between 1886-92, many of the egg- 

 capsules of Busycon carica and B. canaliculatum, as they are very 

 common on the east shore of the island. When collecting at 

 Lake Worth, Florida, in March, 1892, I found some very large 



* The editors are indebted to the Boston Society of Natural History for the 

 use of the cut illustrating this and the article by Mr. A. B. Fuller. 



