The Conch Shells 



long as the shell proper; posterior and anterior canal prominent. 

 Four species in the North Atlantic. 



The Pelican's Foot (A. pes-pelicani, Lam.) is a strange- 

 looking customer. The four webbed toes of a pelican's foot are 

 certainly suggested by the modifications of this shell's outer lip. 

 The toes and thin webs extend backward, covering a consider- 

 able portion of the body whorl of the shell. 



This mollusk is slow and awkward in movement, throwing 

 out its foot and twisting its neck in its efforts to get along. Its 

 forked shell lip is formed late in life, after which it merely becomes 

 thicker. By counting the layers, it is believed, one may determine 

 the age of the individual. The flesh is eaten by the poorer classes 

 in Venice. In Edinburgh it is called the "blobber-lipt whilk." 



This peculiar shell is likely to occur in any collection. It 

 is yellowish brov/n. Length, about 2 inches. 



Habitat. — European seas. 



A. occidentalis, Beck, the western species, is known so far 

 by its shell alone. Fish pick up the living mollusks in deep 

 water oflf the Newfoundland Banks, and the shells are taken 

 from their stomachs afterward. Imperfect specimens are washed 

 ashore on Newfoundland beaches. The spire is closely ribbed 

 both ways, and the outer lip expands into a wide, three-cornered, 

 concave wing. Knowledge of the animal may eventually take 

 this shell out of the genus to which it is now tentatively assigned. 



THE OSTRICH-FOOT SHELL 

 Genus STRUTHIOLARIA, Lam. 



Shell oval oblong, spire turreted, whorls with angled, knobbed 

 shoulder; aperture roundish, narrowed by the thickening and 

 flattening of both lips; operculum short, claw-like, with apical 

 projection. 



This New Zealand genus, containing three or four species, is 

 allied with Strombus and Rostellaria. The form of the aperture 

 and operculum account for the name. Length, 2 to 3 inches. 

 Type, S. nodulosa, Mart. 



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