The Egg Shells 



The Great Egg Shell {0. ovum, Linn.) is as large as a goose 

 egg, white, tapering from its swollen middle to the blunt, canali- 

 culated extremities. The animal is black, with stout tubercles 

 covering its reflected mantle lobes. The shell lining is brown. 

 The lip is incurved and wavy toothed. 



The Pacific Islanders in holiday attire have these white egg 

 shells hanging from elbows, wrists, ankles and belts. They use 

 them very effectively in decorating their canoes, houses and 

 temples. 



A similar, but smaller species, O. tortilis, Martyn, with 

 rose-coloured lining, comes from Zanzibar and the Friendly 

 Islands. 



O. volva, Linn., has a canal at each end as long as the oval 

 shell, making a total length of from three to five inches. The 

 exterior is crossed by remote striations. The colour is a brownish 

 flesh colour. 



Habitat. — China, Japan, Philippines. 



The Poached Egg {0. patula), the little English species, 

 is yellow, fading into white. It lives among colonies of zoophites, 

 resembling our slender thin-shelled species of the Southeast. 



The valuable cargoes of sandal-wood obtained in some of 

 the Pacific islands for the China market are, in the first instance, 

 purchased from the New Hebrides by means of a shell — the 

 Ovulum angulosum, a white, porcellaneous variety of cowry with a 

 violet-coloured lip — which is found in the Friendly Islands, but 

 never in the sandal-wood region. This shell is so highly esteemed 

 as an ornament by the natives of the New Hebrides that for one 

 shell they will give in exchange a ton of sandal-wood. The trading 

 captains go expressly to the Tongan archipelago for the shells, 

 where they sell at a Spanish dollar each. — Simmonds. 



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