HALTOTIDJ5. EAR-SHELL, OR SEA-EAR. 185 



mother-of-pearl; and mock pearls are now much used 

 for jewellery made of the pearl-shell; the effect being 

 nearly as good as real pearls, and far better than the 

 most successful imitations in paste; and Theophilus, in 

 his ' Essay on various Arts/ speaks of " sea-shells which 

 are cut into pieces, and filed as pearls, sufficiently use- 

 ful upon gold/'* Various kinds of shells are used for 

 ornamental purposes, on account of their beautiful 

 nacreous layer : e. g. a Mediterranean species of the 

 little Phasianella, which is made into necklaces, ear- 

 rings, &c., and known in England as Venetian shells ; 

 and in Paris I noticed some pretty bracelets, brooches, 

 earrings, necklaces, and studs, made of the Trigonia 

 pectinata, an Australian bivalve, so arranged as to show 

 the bright pinkish-purple nacre inside the valves. Mr. 

 Moseley tells us that numbers of this species of Trigonia 

 are dredged in Port Jackson, Sydney, and that this 

 shell is especially interesting to the naturalist, because 

 it occurs fossil in secondary deposits in Europe, and 

 was long supposed to be entirely a thing of the past, 

 until discovered living in Sydney Harbour. t Pearl- 

 oyster shells, set in whale's teeth, are considered to be 

 the most valuable ornament that can be possessed by a 

 Figian ; he wears it hanging on his breast, and he is 

 forbidden by the chiefs to sell it.J In the Api Islands 

 nearly all the men wear a small triangular ornament 

 cut out of the septa of the pearly nautilus shell, threaded 

 by the siphon hole in it, tied to their necks ; and I 

 have seen similar pieces of shell from Queensland, 



* Theophilus, * Qui et Rugerus/ &c., translated by Robert Hendrie, 

 chap. xcv. p. 391. 



"h 'A Naturalist on the Challenger,' by H. N. Moseley, p. 148. 

 J Idem. 



