The Cowries. Venus Shells 



was labelled "The Brindle Cowry of the Persian Gulf." No 

 further history of its has ever come to light. A second was found 

 on the southern shore of New Guinea. It is very high priced. 

 Mr. McCoy of Chicago has the only one I know of in 

 America. 



The White-tooth Cowry (C. Leucodon, Brod.) ranks with 

 it in rarity and value. The sole specimen known is in the British 

 Museum. 



The Tiger Cowry (C. iigris, Linn.) achieves its handsome 

 mottled shell colouring by a devious and interesting process. 



First it is a uniform chestnut bay; the colour then breaks up 

 into bands of close-set wave blotches of a richer hue; a coating of 

 white is then superimposed, and upon that is deposited a series 

 of rather distant zigzag flames. The rich colouring of the first 

 state is concealed. In the next state a second layer of white is 

 superimposed and upon this surface a number of dark spots are 

 deposited. These are again overspread by a third white coating 

 intermixed with numerous rich black and brown spots. — Reeve. 



The animal of Cyprcea iigris has more colours than the shell. 

 A naturalist who collected specimens from three to five inches 

 long off Cook's Island described the body with some minuteness. 

 The upper surface of the foot is dark brown marbled with black and 

 streaked with fawn colour. The sole is purple, shaded with 

 brown, and veined with black. Head, siphon and tentacles, 

 are gray. The mantle is creamy yellow, with scattered brown 

 spots, and longitudinally veined with brown. The mantle 

 fringe is amber, tipped with white. 



These cowries hide from the sun among the coral masses in 

 shallow water. When a specimen is discovered by the collector 

 it is seen with its shell entirely swallowed up in the dark mottled 

 and curiously tufted mantle, which has the peculiarity of chang- 

 ing its intensity of colour at the will of the mollusk. Touching 

 it with a stick causes the mantle to withdraw quickly into the 

 shell, exposing the polished back and sides. To clean a shell 

 one must first let the animal parts decompose. It is impossible 

 to remove the body by force when still fresh. Length, 3 to 5 

 inches. Indian and Pacific oceans. 



The rat cowry, the serpent's head, the rhinoceros and stag 

 cowries are named for some fancied resemblance to these animals. 

 The panther, lynx, leopard and cat cowries have colouring and 

 markings suggesting these fur-bearers. 



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