CHAPTER XX: THE COWRIES. VENUS SHELLS 

 Family CYPit«iD/E 



Shell solid, oval, or pear-shaped, ventricose, highly polished 

 and handsomely coloured; spire covered by body whorl in adults; 

 aperture long, narrow, ending in two short canals, both lips 

 toothed; operculum wanting; animal large, highly coloured; 

 mantle two-lobed, reflected over the shell, its surface warty, 

 variously coloured; foot large, simple, oblong, with marginal 

 folds; usually coloured; siphon broad, short, often fringed; 

 head cylindrical, blunt, with long tentacles bearing eyes; rad- 

 ula long, well developed; jaw horny. 



A large family of shy, slow-moving mollusks in warm seas, 

 feeding on coral polyps. The shells are among the most beautiful 

 and most highly prized. It is believed by children in many lands 

 that the sound of their native sea is imprisoned in these shells. 



Shake one, and it awakens; then apply 

 Its polished lip to your attentive ear. 

 And it remembers its august abode 

 And murmurs as the ocean mumurs there. 



— Walter Savage Landor. 



Genus CYPR.ffiA, Linn, 



Characters of the family. A large genus of good-sized 

 mollusks, highly coloured and richly ornamented in body and shell. 

 Weinkauff describes 189 living and 97 fossil species. 



Three cowries live on our Florida coast, another belongs to 

 Southern California. From these northern representatives of a 

 tropical genus we'^et but a faint notion of the wonderful richness 

 of colour and patteri^i to be seen in the nearly two hundred distinct 

 species and their varietal forms which the ardent collector assem- 

 bles from tropical and sub-tropical coasts. The handsomest 

 shell is not so handsome as the living animal that inhabits it, 

 engulfing the shell conipletely as it glides along in mantle folds 



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