376 MARINE INVERTEBRATES 
genus, Strombus, of which we have but a few species. Strombus is 
a scavenger,—a buzzard among mollusks,—and its sense of smell 
is evidently very acute. Its eyes are much more highly devel- 
oped than the usual gasteropod visual organs, and they are placed 
at the tip-ends of two very substantial eye-stalks or -pedicels. 
The tentacles are slender and project from the eye-pedicels. The 
foot is curiously developed; that portion of it which would nat- 
urally constitute the creeping-disk is exceedingly small, but the 
metapodium (the hinder part of the foot, upon which the opereu- 
lum is situated) is very large. The corneous operculum upon its 
end, which is far too small to close the entrance of the shell when 
the creature retires within it, looks like aclaw. Instead of creep- 
ing along the sand, Strombus proceeds by jumps or awkward 
leaps, turning its heavy shell first to one side, then to the other. 
The shell is usually heavy, with the outer lip greatly thickened. 
Genus Strombus 
S. pugilis. The very common Floridian species, often three to four 
inches in height, with a short spire covered with nodes or short, ob- 
tuse spines, which are also found upon the shoulder of the body-whorl 
(sometimes smooth). The aperture is long, with a wide notch in the 
outer lip and a posterior canal. Living specimens have a tough, leathery 
epidermis covering at least the body-whorl. The color is brownish. 
The columella is covered with a fairly thick callous deposit, and, as 
within the aperture, is highly polished, and deep purple, blackish-chest- 
nut, or vivid carnation-red in color. The smoother varieties have gone 
under the name of S. alatus, but the identity of the two species is as- 
sured. This pugilistic Strombus is a very active mollusk, and when 
placed in a boat will sometimes effect its eseape over the side in a most 
surprising manner. The species is very abundant in all the shallow 
waters of Florida. A piece of meat on a string, left overnight in some 
sheltered sandy spot where there are from six to eight feet of water, 
will surely attract them. In Florida, where the waters teem with life, 
unless the bait is protected in a wire cage, the chances are that the hosts 
of crustaceans and fish will make away with it long before the strombs 
can arrive on the scene. (Plate LXX.) 
S. gigas. One of the largest of gasteropods, very common on the 
Florida Keys and also oceurring in southern Florida. Hundreds of 
thousands of these shells have been sent to Europe from the Bahamas 
to be cut into cameos. This familiar shell is to be seen everywhere in 
the South, placed about flower-gardens and lining the paths and walks 
in yards. It is generally known in Florida and the West Indies as the 
“conch-shell.” The animal is used as food in Key West, and is very 
generally eaten throughout the Bahamas. From their habit of eating 
