106 STROMBUS. 



Subfamily Strombinse. 



Genus STROMBUS, Linn., 1758. 



The Strombs are powerful, active mollusks, having extraor- 

 dinary visual powers for gastropods, the eyes being large, with 

 the iris usually colored in concentric zones. Their foot is not 

 adapted for ordinary locomotion, but enables the animal to 

 progress in a series of awkward leaps, and even to right itself 

 by a somersault if placed on its back. The strong teeth and 

 thick quadrangular corneous jaws indicate carnivorous habits, 

 yet the animal is supposed to feed only on dead flesh. 



Upon the eyes of Strombus, see an excellent paper b}* Dr. 

 Paul Fischer, Jour, de Conch., 213, 1861. 



They usually inhabit shallow waters, and occur plentifully. 

 The distribution is tropical, and rather restricted for some of 

 the species, whilst others have a very extensive range as 

 might be expected for the whole group considering that the 

 larva is a free swimming animal provided with six ciliated arms 

 (Macdonald, Linn. Trans., xxiii, 72). 



Strombus has existed since cretaceous times, and is repre- 

 sented as late as the quarternary of the Mediterranean region, 

 although not now living in that sea. The fossil forms belonging 

 to the family far exceed in number those now existing, besides 

 showing a variability contrasting with the fixed and readily dis- 

 tinguished characters of most of the recent species. 



Strombus giya,s, the largest species is still eaten at the island 

 of Barbadoes, and numerous ancient weapons and implements 

 made from its shell have been dug up on that island and else- 

 where. It is a common mantel, hearth and garden ornament in 

 the coast portions of the United States. In England it is 

 extensively used in the manufacture of the finer kinds of porce- 

 lain ; 300,000 have been imported into Liverpool in one year, 

 chiefly for this purpose. It sometimes produces a beautiful 

 pink pearl ; but in jewelry it is principally used for carving into 

 cameos for brooches, a purpose for which it is well fitted by the 

 different colored layers of which its shell is composed. 



" The perfect development of the large, fine, pedunculated 

 eyes of Strombus, together with its very elongated, powerful, 

 muscular foot and body, and claw-shaped, stout, jagged, horny 



