48 



IMPERFORATE HALIOTIS TUBERCULATA. 



By E. D. MARQUAND, A.L.S. 



(Read before the Society, Februry lo, 1904). 



About eleven years ago Mr. Edgar A. Smith, F.Z.S., announced in 

 the Concho iogist, vol. 2, p. 75, the presentation to the British 

 Museum of an Ormer shell, in which the characteristic perforations are 

 entirely absent: a pecularity which, Mr. Smith remarked, "appears to 

 be of the gceatest rarity, for I only find that one notice of its occur- 

 rence has ever been published; nor has it been observed by any of the 

 conchologists and others whom I have consulted." The record 

 alluded to occurs in Jeffreys' "Brit. Conch.," vol. 3, p. 281, where the 

 author states, speaking of Haliotis tiiberculata, that "one in Mrs. 

 Collings' collection has no orifice, although it is about an inch and a 

 quarter in length." 



I am pleased to be able to record the occurrence of another 

 example, which was found on the famous shell beach at Herm, about 

 thirty years ago, by the late Mrs. R. 3. Boley, of Guernsey, who 

 treasured it as a curiosity, until I informed her of its extreme rarity; 

 and a few months before her death she most kindly presented it to 

 me. This specimen is smaller than the others, being only 12. milli- 

 metres in length, whereas the one mentioned by Jeffreys, which I have 

 lately had an opportunity of examining, is 28 millimetres long, and 

 the British Museum example Mr. Smith says measures two and a 

 quarter inches (56 mm.). 



Jeffreys was mistaken in supposing that the imperforate specimen 

 he mentions was "in Mrs. Collings' collection," — but the error is 

 easily explained. In the early sixties Jeffreys used to come over to 

 Guernsey shell-collecting, and became very intimate with the Lukis 

 family, more especially with the late Dr. F. C. Lukis, who was an 

 ardent conchologist. This gentleman's two sisters, the late Mrs. 

 Collings, the wife of the then Seigneur of Sark, and Miss Lukis, who 

 is still living, had also studied the shells of these islands, and, of 

 course, submitted their collections for the inspection of the author of 

 "British Conchology;" and so, quite unintentionally, Mrs. Collings 

 got the credit of possessing a shell which had really been found by, 

 and had always belonged to, her sister. 



Miss Lukis, who distinctly remembers showing the shell to Jeffreys, 

 tells me she found it alive on the north coast of Guernsey; but she 

 does not recollect noticing any peculiarity about it at the time; and 

 it was only after the shell had been cleaned (it still shows traces of 

 animal matter) that the absence of holes was discovered. 



