112 WEST AMERICAN SHELLS 
when the tide was low. The shell is so delicate 
that it is almost impossible to remove the animal 
without injuring the inner parts of the shell. For- 
tunately excellent specimens may be found, al- 
most fresh, from which every trace of animal mat- 
ter has been eaten by little crabs and similar crea- 
tures. The shell is sometimes wholly brown, but 
in the finest specimens it is mottled with white and 
yellow clouds. 
Haminea vesicula, Gld., the White Bubble-shell, 
is shown in Figure 98. The shell is not strictly 
white, however, unless it. is bleached, 
but when fresh it is of a pale greenish 
yellow. It is very thin and fragile, 
and can easily be crushed by the fin- 
gers. And yet its inhabitant is not 
strictly a vegetarian, but devours 
small mollusks and crabs that happen 
to come to its home, which consists of muddy 
places along the shore of the ocean near the 
mouths of rivers. It has a powerful gizzard 
armed with teeth to crush any hard morsels that 
it may have swallowed. The figure represents a 
rather large specimen. You will notice that the 
aperture is extremely large, the spire depressed, 
and the whole shell quite like a bubble. 
Haminea viréscens, Sby., the Green Bubble- 
shell, is smaller than the last, and has a very short 
body-whorl, while the outer lip is greatly extended. 
The animal which it is supposed to protect is 
much larger than the shell, however, and its deli- 
cate, greenish covering can give it but a scant cov- 
