The Volutes and Melon Shells 



found in private cabinets. Our native species is one of the most 

 rare and valuable sea shell to be found in American waters. 

 Several tropical species have long been known only by single 

 specimens in European cabinets. 



M. Duhant-Cilly, in 1840, described the eggs of volutes and 

 their development. The mollusks were seen in the clear water of 

 Magellan's Straits, each clasping the shells of a dead bivalve. In 

 the convexity of one valve the volute had deposited a mem- 

 branous mass, resembling in shape and transparency a watch glass. 

 Some looked milky; others showed three or four perfectly formed 

 volutes swimming about in the now clear fluid. In February, 

 the late summer of that region, the young have attained con- 

 siderable size. The transparent capsule has become leathery and 

 is three to four inches across, more than half the size of the mol- 

 lusk that laid the eggs. D'Orbigny conjectures that it expands 

 after coming in contact with the water. 



The Music Volute (K. musica, Linn.) has its whorls adorned 

 with sets of parallel revolving lines, which look like bars of music, 

 set the ordinary distance apart. The typical form has its "notes" 

 grouped in single lines directly above and below the bars. Fine 

 dots are thickly scattered between the two rows of large spots. 

 The ground colour is a creamy flesh tint. The lines are bright 

 chestnut, the dots dark brown. A deep bluish chocolate underlies 

 the other colours on the body whorl. Faint wavy lines set close 

 cross the bars. Nodules on the shoulder of all the whorls become 

 very prominent on the last one. The lip turns out; the thick 

 margin is marked with short stripes of dark brown. The colum- 

 ella has five main folds on a thick callus. 



This species exhibits great variation of colouring, but the 

 pattern is practically constant. Shells vary in length from two to 

 four inches. One is pinkish red and small, var. carneolata; another 

 is elongated in form, with pale colouring, var. tUarella. Var. 

 Icevigata lacks tubercles ; var. sulcata has ribs from its tubercles, 

 and is pale fawn-coloured. 



This West Indian volute is the only species having an oper- 

 culum. This is shaped like a long oyster shell, with the nucleus 

 at the apex. The eggs are laid in flattened oval capsules the size 

 of a finger-nail, in the concave of deep bivalve shells, to which 

 they are glued singly, three or four in each shell. 



The Flag Volute (K. vexillum, Lam.) is a small flesh-tinted 



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