License. If you plan to collect li\e shells in California, obtain a Cali- 

 fornia fishing license. It is definitely required for abalone, cockles, and 

 sev^eral other things; a law recently enacted might be interpreted to cover 

 everything. Sorry if this seems inhospitable to visitors, but it is the law. 



Collecting Hints. Some unrelated facts: the northern shore of a rocky 

 cove frequently offers better collecting than the southern. Except when a 

 storm has thrown things up, a black sand beach is apt to be barren. On 

 few west coast beaches may shells be found in windrows (as I understand 

 occurs in Florida) but occasionally a strong on-shore wind will put inter- 

 esting specimens on the sand. 



Sandy bay collecting seems to offer more varied species than rocky 

 coves, and summer collecting is sometimes highlighted by numbers of a 

 single species in to spawn. Morro Bay, California, in July has yielded 

 Acteon punctocaelata, Calliostoma canaliculatum and tricolor; other bays 

 have their own annual visitors. 



No need to wait until extreme low tide; the intriguing trails made by 

 Natica, Bulla, some Murices and Olivella may be spotted and the makers 

 reached through several inches of water. Burrowing clams (Panope, Schizo- 

 thaerus, Tagelus, etc.) can also be so located, though digging is best left 

 until they are uncovered. But Drillia, Terebra, Sinum and some bivalves 

 may be entirely hidden while the tide is lowest, popping out of the sand 

 shortly before the fiat is to be covered by the incoming tide. Mactra some- 

 times shoots several inches above the surface. Screening for small Tellens, 

 Thracias, Epitoniums, etc. in the top two inches of mud flats is frequently 

 profitable. And sometimes it pays to dig Natica out though you do not 

 wish to take it; it may be working on a clam that you would find in no 

 other way, and its trails and bumps are not easily distinguished from those 

 of Sinum. 



Along rocky shores examine the roots (holdfasts) of washed-up kelp 

 for many things which live far below the low tide line. And look for 

 Haliotis under overhanging ledges and in crevices; the picture postcards 

 which show four or five big abalones clinging, partly on top of one another, 

 to the side of a rock surrounded by sand belong to the department of 

 humorous fiction. They just don't live that way. The traditional story of 

 someone trying to pull an abalone olT a rock, being held fast and drowned 

 by the incoming tide has not been verified, but one could certainly get 

 smashed fingers. Use a tire iron or piece of automobile spring to pry them 

 from the rock, but never reach under a rock without looking, for the Moray 

 eel may live there, a savage fellow who can slash through the thickest 

 glove. And finally, know the bag and size limit on abalones; young shells 

 may never be taken without special permit, and the bag limit varies. 



Special Habits. A red "sponge" on the rocks of the Washington coast 

 gives food and shelter to Velutina and some Lamellarias, while farther 

 south a yellow "sponge" shelters a little Cerithiopsis while another is food 

 for Tylodina fungina. The latter usually hangs shell down. 



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