335 



Gastehopoda.- 



-MOLLUSCA.- 



-KOSTRIFERA. 



anil black tipped tentacles, gives it a very peculiar 

 appearance. 



Family— CYPB^ID^ {Coicnes). 



The family of Cowries which come next in order, 

 like the preceding, have the mantle of the adult animal 

 expanded, and generally reflexed over 

 the shell, giving it a fine polished appear- 

 ance. The foot is simple, and there is 

 no operculum. The lobes of the mantle 

 are often ornamented externally with 

 forked or pointed beards or filaments, and 

 the end of the siphon with which it is 

 furnished is frequently fimbriated. The 

 shell is involute, ventricose, with a linear 

 mouth, toothed lips, and the canal 

 recurved like a notch. The surface is 

 of a porcellanous structure, and there is 

 no appearance of an epidermis. The ,--^^. 

 family, indeed, is remarkable for the 

 exquisite beauty of the shells, as well as 

 their inhabitants. The great majority 

 are natives of tropical regions, delighting in warm 

 climates; and, as they glide along among the coral 

 reefs, and in the shelter of rocks, with the lateral 

 lobes of their mantles adorned with showy colours, they 

 present to the eye of the pleased spectator objects of 

 singular interest and beaut}'. They are shy creatures, 

 and crawl slowly. " The difference of aspect," says 

 Professor Forbes, " between these mollusks when 

 crawling, with all the beautifully-coloured soft parts 

 exposed, often completely concealing their enamelled 

 shells, and their appearance when, after being seized, 

 they suddenly and instantaneously withdraw their 

 bodies and mantle lobes, and expose the shell only, is 

 very curious and surprising." Individuals of the same 

 species vary greatly in size — a difference so great that 

 it has been attempted to be explained by the theory 

 Ihit the animals shed their shells as lobsters do their 

 skins. This, however, is not the case, for we often 

 find young shells much larger than adult specimens in 

 the same species. In the young state, they are also 

 very dissimilar in form from the adults, and thus mis- 

 takes have been often made with regard to species. 



Genus Cypilea. — This genus, as now restricted, 

 contains some of the handsomest, largest, and most 

 valuable of all the Cowries. The Orange Cowry, for 

 instance, at one time fetched an enormous sum for a 

 single specimen. It is a native of the South Pacific 

 ocean, and is worn as an ornament by the natives of 

 the Polynesian islands. " The highest order of dignity 

 among the Friendly Islanders is the permission to 

 wear the Orange Cowry." — {Johnston.) There are 

 one or two species in the collection of the British 

 Museum, the specimens of which are unique — such, 

 for example, is the Cyprwa leucodon. 



THE C. PRIKCEPS is perhaps the most beautiful of 

 all the Cowries. It is also exceedingly rare, only two 

 other specimens being known besides the splendid one 

 in the National collection. 



THE TIGER COWEY {Ci/prira ttgris) is one of the 

 most common, but at tlie same time a very beautiful 



species — fig. ^19. It is a thick, oval, and swollen shell, of 

 a bluish-white, dotted with a great number of rounded, 

 scattered, black spots, and a dorsal line of ferrugin- 

 ous colour above, and very white beneath. It is a 

 native of the Indian seas from Madagascar to the 

 Moluccas. 

 Other fine species are the Map Cowry (C mnjipa), 



Fig. 219. 



Cyprffia tigris (Tiger Cowry). 



and the Blotched or Spotted Cowry [C. guttata), 

 specimens of which have lately sold for £40. 



Genus Aricia. — This genus contains several elegant 

 and beautiful species ; but perhaps the one of greatest 

 notoriety is the Money Cowry {Cyprcea moneta). It 

 is a small, oval, depressed, and somewhat noduled 

 shell, flat and white beneath, with thick edges, and of 

 a yellowish-white or pale citron colour on the upper 

 surface. It inhabits the Pacific ocean and the Indian 

 seas from the Moluccas to the Atlantic ocean. " Many 

 tons weight of this little shell are annually imported 

 into this country, and again exported for barter with 

 the native tribes of Western Africa. In the year 1848 

 sixty tons of tbe Money Cowry were imported into 

 Liverpool; and in 1849 nearly three hundred tons 

 were brought to the same place, according to the 

 statement of Mr. Archer in the Industrial Exhibition." 

 ( Woodward). This little shell, as well as tbe C. asel'ii.'), 

 a small white-coloured shell, with three dark bands 

 running across the upper surfiice, is extensively used 

 as current coin in India. We have often seen the 

 two species used indiscriminately in the villages ui 

 Bengal. 



Genus CypR.eovula. — This genus contains few 

 species the most remarkable being the Cyprcea nmhi- 

 licata. A specimen of this shell, in the collection of 

 the British Museum, was long considered unique. A 

 few years ago two additional specimens were sent to 

 this country by Mr. Ronald Gunn from Van Diemen's 

 Land, which were valued at about £35 a-piece. A 

 few more specimens having since then been imported 

 from the same locality, their value has been in conse- 

 quence very much reduced. 



Genus Trivia. — The genus Trivia, or Pig-shell, 

 contains a number of small shells of a sub-globose 

 figure, and generally ribbed across the back. The 

 species are about thirty in number, and are widely 

 distributed, inhabiting Greenland, Great Britain, the 

 West Indies, South Africa, Australia, the Pacific, 

 and Western America. " Our native Cowry {Trivia 



