a leader on fishing lines and there are many beautifully prepared speeimens 

 where the only tool used was a safety pin with the point bent into a hook. 

 Many collectors use hooks on but few occasions but resort to the use of a 

 syringe to clean out the shell. The best syringe to use is the one used by 

 dentists and is of the piston type, but the common rubber ear syringe may 

 be used. This does not give nearly the amount of force, but is much less 

 expensive. 



Rake. A useful device for collecting Cyphomas consists of a child's toy 

 rake, to be obtained at any ten cent store. The teeth of the rake are bent 

 inward on a curve and a small piece of screen wire attached at each side 

 and at the back, thus forming a sort of basket with projecting teeth. By 

 bringing the hook under a strand of Gorgonia on which a Cyphoma is 

 resting, it may be hooked or scraped off and falls into the basket. By 

 attaching a long handle to this device, it may be used from a boat in 

 deeper water. 



Paper Plates. A supply of paper plates should always be on hand for 

 convenient drying of specimens. 



Crochet Needle. For removing the bodies from the larger Conus, it has 

 been found that a common crochet needle is useful. The end should be 

 slightly bent. 



Rock Dwellers. A malacologist in quest of rock dwelling mollusks bears 

 no resemblance to the ordinary collector. His equipment consists of a chisel 

 or two and a hammer. This is the visible equipment. The other 50 percent 

 consists of either superhuman control of his speech organs or a vocabulary 

 that would make the ordinary mule driver green with envy. After all, it is 

 exasperating to carefully remove rock surrounding a burrow of Botula fusca, 

 bit by bit, using the greatest care until the prize is almost within reach, 

 when a glancing blow of the hammer shatters the specimen. Any sort of 

 explosion is justified, for this sort of thing happens all too frequently. 



Usually the entrance to the burrow is in a more or less protected part 

 of the rock near the water's edge, so the collector must assume all sorts of 

 unusual and awkward positions while working. The entrances to the 

 burrows of the various mollusks that live in the rocks are as variable as 

 their owners. Lithophaga antillarum, L. nigra, and Botula fusca have 

 entrances that are oval in shape. On rare occasions, when covered with 

 water, the mantle of the mollusk may be seen at the entrance, but the 

 usual procedure is to search for the entrance and to investigate every 

 promising hole in the rock. 



With Lithophaga hisulcata the entrance is perfectly round and sur- 

 prisingly small when compared to the size of the mollusk. At times the 

 tip of the shell may be seen at the burrow's entrance. The burrows of all 

 the foregoing are of the same shape as the shell they conceal. Gastrochaena 

 ovata and G. cuneiformis construct a pair of short perpendicular tubes of 

 shell substance at the entrance of the burrow. Once found, these are very 

 conspicuous, but it is surprising how many of these "signs" are overlooked. 



(3) 



