WATERS OF WESTERN lNDfA, 77 



derivative thereof. I have also got other Murices, and a Fusus 

 (probably F. coins), a Ttjrula, arid others unidentified. 



Of Buccinidte we have a good many handsome sorts Eburnea 

 (spirata?), a Terebra, species at least, and I think a Nassa. Our 

 finest shell is a Volinm, as big as a boy's fist, which makes a pretty 

 ornament when the dull brown epidermis has been scrubbed off ; a 

 thing that often happens, to some extent, during the creature's life- 

 time. 



We have, I think, two purples, and I get a great number of 

 dead shells of Olives ; but have never secured a live specimen. They 

 are amongst the prettiest shells we have. Cones are numerous, 

 some of them over two inches long, partly or wholly covered when 

 alive with a bristly epidermis concealing the markings. The little 

 boys call them " Kuttrya" ( == dog-shells.) 



I have once or twice received Mitres, dead shells, and constantly 

 receive living cowries of three species, the reticulated Cyprcea 

 Arabica, a larger species spotted " like a pard," and a small species 

 seldom exceeding an inch in length. This shows a great variety 

 of very beautiful spots, speckles, and marblings and colours varying 

 from marble yellow to very deep brown. The specimens, however, 

 when placed side by side show such a gradation that I think they 

 are all of one species. The young are very unlike their elders, 

 little wheat shaped shells, with a long foraminated, turned-up spike 

 at each end. 



The money cowry occurs locally on this coast as a dead shell in 

 considerable numbers ; and wherever this happens, you will generally 

 be able to trace it to the wreck of a dhow from Zanzibar. I know 

 two such cowry mines myself.* 



I have only got Natica and Lamellaria as dead shells. A Pota- 

 mides is common in the inangTOve swamps ; but perfect specimens 

 are rare ; they seem to get broken at both ends during life. 

 A handsome pied Nerita takes the place upon our reefs that the 

 periwinkle does at home, and is, like it, a favourite food of the poor. 



* The little boys call cowries " Dnkari " ( = pigshell). It is curious that a small 

 shell of the same family is called "piggy" or" pigshell" in the British Isles. 

 Colonel Yule (I think) says that Porcellana " (with the same meaning) is the name of 

 an allied Mediterranean form amongst Sicilian children ; and that probably this gave 

 the languages of Europe their name for porcelain, the texture of that material, when 

 first imported, being fairly enough compared to that of the shell. (Porcelain was little 

 or not at all known to the earlier Greeks and Romans.) 



I may add, that probably a similar name was applied in France to some shell or 

 other, and may be still. It is certain that the earlier French Canadian discoverers 

 called shell wampum " porcelaine." 



