The Nautilus. 



Vol. XIX. DECEMBER, 1905. No. 8. 



SOME NOTES ON LIVING STROMBUS PUGILIS. 



BY HAROLD SELLERS COLTON. 



In the latter part of January a severe norther cast many indi- 

 viduals of Strombus pugilis upon the heach of Sand Key near Clear- 

 water Harbor, Florida. I sent many north to Dr. Burnett Smith, 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, who had intended to determine if 

 there was a case of sexual dimorphism in this species. Circum- 

 stances preventing him from touching the material for the present, 

 he persuaded me to work upon it. The results of my measurements 

 were published in the March Nautilus. As the natural history of 

 the Mollusca is so little known, I hope a few notes of my observa- 

 tions will not be out of place. 



Strombus pugilis is very hardy and easily transported. I ex- 

 pressed alive twenty-five individuals in a starch box. Each one I 

 wrapped in dry newspaper ; two weeks afterward, and a week and 

 a half after they had rested in a warm room, a number were yet 

 alive and none had as yet begun to decompose. Another lot I packed 

 in damp seaweed and four days afterward I unpacked them and 

 placed them in an aquarium in Philadelphia. They started to 

 crawl about at once. When I left Philadelphia in the early part of 

 June one was yet alive. Several were killed by the starfish and the 

 others lived for four months and then died from unknown causes. 



I had occasion to break open a number of the shells with a hammer 

 in order to remove the soft parts for anatomical purposes. This I 

 found a very difficult task. The shell is so resisting that many blows 

 in the same place were required to make even a small hole. This 



