CHAPTER VI 



How to Know 

 American Seashells 



The satisfaction of gradually becoming master of a study and the enjoyment 

 of devoting a full interest to one of the many fields of natural history, 

 whether it be wild flowers, butterflies or seashells, are the two strongest 

 motivations among naturalists in their search for new facts and additional 

 specimens. "Knowing seashells" is not so much a state of knowledge, attained 

 after so many years of study, as it is a continuous process of adding to our 

 store of information and experience. Through personal observation, by tak- 

 ing advantage of what others have discovered and recorded, and by increas- 

 ing our ability to identify species, we gradually become familiar with our 

 mollusks. 



Whafs the name of that shell? Is it rare or covnnon? How does it 

 live? Where cai2 1 find more and better specimens? These are four of the 

 most frequently asked questions among shell collectors. Because people who 

 are incurably or only mildly "shell-shocked" are continually asking for the 

 names of shells, over three fourths of this book is devoted to the problem of 

 recognizing and naming our American seashells. 



To know the name of a shell is in many ways to know the object itself. 

 What we may gain in observation of the shell, the animal which builds it or 

 the habits of the creature, we can, with its correct name, compare w^th the 

 findings made by other students. "So this is Sozon's Cone!" transforms the 

 shell in your collection into an object of rarity and opens the door to fasci- 

 nating^ accounts of fatal, venomous cone shells or the tales of bygone shell 



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