GASTEROPODS 401 
about the base. Professor Keep speaks of the vast numbers of these 
olivellas on sandy stations along the Pacific coast. Having found a place 
where a “little stream of water was oozing out from the bank of sand,” 
he proceeded to dig with a hoe. “I found them [0. biplicata] by the 
hundreds,” he continues, ‘‘and I had gathered about a thousand before 
the tide camein. They seemed to lie in groups just under the surface 
of the sand, yet wholly concealed from sight.” (Plate LXXVIL.) 
O. boetica. A much smaller Pacific form, with a higher tapering 
spire. It is brown to bluish in color, and often has yellowish stripes. It 
is polished and shining. Found in sandy stations. 
FAMILY cONIDE 
GENuUs Conus 
This is a comprehensive family of several highly diversified 
genera. Its most prominent genus is Conus, a name which indi- 
cates the principal feature of the shell, for it is almost an exact 
cone in shape. Conus, along with Voluta and Cyprea, is entitled 
to the honor of being considered an aristocrat among mollusks. 
There are about three hundred and fifty species known, mostly 
tropical and Indo-Pacific in distribution. The shells have many 
points of beauty and are often of very high coloration and ec- 
centric markings. Some of the rarer forms are famous in con- 
chological annals for the enormous prices which they have 
commanded. The rare and beautiful Conus gloria-maris once 
brought £48 ($215) at an auction sale in London. In all shells of 
Conus there is a notch at the upper edge of the aperture for the 
accommodation of a posterior canal. In some other genera of 
this family this notch becomes a more prominent feature. The 
animal has a well-developed foot, a retractile proboscis, eyes 
situated upon the tentacles, and a fairly long siphon. Upon the 
under surface of the foot is a conspicuous pore, which opens into 
a water-vascular system of the foot. Conus is accused of having a 
poison-gland connected with the radula and of having shown 
vicious traits when captured. The animals are shy, and remain 
most of the time in hiding, while their pretty shells during life 
are generally rendered obscure by a dull, colorless epidermis. 
There are but few species of Conus upon the Atlantic shores of 
the United States, and these are confined to the warmer waters 
of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. 
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