4 
What most ennobles science is the willingness to give assistance 
to beginners shown by really scientific men, and doubly pleasing 
is that help to the recipient when given spontaneously and without 
stint. 
This is the first attempt to publish a popular work on New 
Zealand shells, and is written by an amateur for amateurs. Nearly 
every shell likely to be met with by an ordinary collector (except 
the minute shells) will be found in the ten plates at the end of 
this work. I have endeavoured to describe the shells in simple 
language, as the scientific words may puzzle some of my readers. 
For instance, Professor Hutton describes a certain shell as ‘‘ thick, 
irregular, sharp ribbed, with the margin dentated or lobed, very 
inequivalve; upper valve opercular, compressed, wrinkled, with 
thick concentric laminae; lower valve cucullated, purple, white 
within, edged with purple or black; lateral margins denticulated ; 
hinge generally attenuated, produced, pointed.’’ When a shell is 
found that fully answers this description you will know it is an 
Auckland rock oyster. Errors and omissions will, I trust, be 
charitably dealt with, as the inevitable mistakes of a man who is 
blazing a track. I have endeavoured to give the Maori names 
also, but, unfortunately, in different parts of New Zealand the 
same name is frequently used for different shells. 
My own collection of New Zealand marine shells, made 
during my residence in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, is, I believe, 
the best and largest yet made, and among the specimens I can 
number no less than a dozen new shells which I had the pleasure 
of adding to the recognised list. Over 90 per cent. of the known 
species of New Zealand marine shells were found there by my 
friends or myself during the 15 happy years I spent in that de- 
lightful, though not very progressive, part of New Zealand. 
My thanks are especially due to Mr. Charles Spencer, of 
Auckland, an ardent conchologist, and for many years my col- 
- league in collecting shells, for the care taken with the photo- 
_ graphs, and for valuable suggestions and help. 
