450 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



foggy sound that carries for a long distance. In former times it was a cou- 

 veuieut instrnment with which to siunmon the laborer.s from their shimbers. or, in 

 more strenuous times, to cheer the faithful on to victory at arms. The grace- 

 fully tapering shell is variegated with buff, brown, purple and red in a very 

 rich and characteristic pattern. The outer lip is toothed, and whitish, with 

 double streaks of brown which soon fade into the ruddy aperture. 



The more common species, especially in Honolulu and Pearl Harbor, is the 

 hairy triton^'' known as pupu ole. It may be recognized by its bristly olive- 

 colored epidermis. On beach-worn specimens this peculiarity disappeai-s, leav- 

 ing the whole exterior of the shell streaked with revolving bands and folds. In the 

 tritons, as with most shells, as age advances the lip thickens and changes take place 

 between young and old specimens which confuse even those who profess to 

 considerable knowledge of the science which deals with the shell-bearing 

 animals.-''** 



The quilted triton ^o is a .smaller, more solid species, seldom more than two 

 inches in length, and is far from being the most common triton in the islands. 

 It exhibits considerable variation in coloring and other characters, but is 

 usually light or dark brown with the I'ibs and tubercles lighter, and there is 

 sometimes an ill-defined whitish band on the large or body whorl. The nodu- 

 lated teeth and the mouth of the shell are whitish and thickly enameled. The 

 interior of the aperture is orange-red. 



Spindle Shells. 



The spindle-shell ^" family has a typical Hawaiian form in a graceful 

 white species "•! in which the long canal equals, or exceeds, the spire in length. 

 The species is fond of mud-flats, where it burrows in the soft deposits. For 

 this reason it is a common shell in harbor dredgings. The chick-pea shells ■*- 

 and the genus Peristernia are common shells that are grouped in a sub- 

 family *3 of the spindle shells, but to the ordinary observer, unacquainted with 

 all the details of classification, they appear to have little in common with the 

 more typical forms. 



Whelks. 



So far as is known, the whelk ^"^ family, which includes the f nlgur 

 shells commonly figured in books on sea shells, are represented in Hawaii by 

 only a few small species. The family as a whole is described as thick, ovate 

 or pear-shaped shells with a short canal and with the columella (the pillar 

 around which the whorls or turns of a spiral shell revolve) without plications 

 or folds. The sub-family *^ to which the island species belong is characterized 

 as small heavy shells, usually less than an inch in length, with teeth on the 

 outer lip and the columella rough and thickened. The pisa shells -"' and the 

 tankard shells ^" belong to this group. They are few in number and difficult 

 to place even by skilled collectors. 



