©rigrnal Jlilides. 



SHELL-HUNTING AT THE ANTIPODES. 

 By Thgs. Ball. 



Some time ago I left England for the Colony of New Zealand. Having 

 seen a little of what the coast produces, I comply with a request to 

 publish, in the hope that my notes may not be altogether without 

 interest to readers of the Naturalist. 



The shells here are very interesting to a stranger from the " old 

 country," on account of the great novelty of the forms which they 

 present, and their contrast to the genera with which he has been 

 familiar, in the living state. He goes down to the coast line, perhaps 

 through a Mangrove swamp, and the first shell he sees belongs to the 

 curious genus Ampliibola — so characteristic of this antipodal region. 

 A flat through which I went down to the beach to-day is only 

 covered with water at high tide, and was quite dry at my passing, but 

 there the Ampliibola was crawling in a lively manner by thousands— 

 so thickly, indeed, that one could not avoid crushing the fragile shell. 



Setting down to the coast, the first thing that struck me was the 

 amazing abundance of an Ostrcea, a species of rock oyster ; for miles 

 the rocks are covered with it. I had previously made acquaintance 

 with this mollusc in the agreeable guise of an article of food. The 

 flavour, at any rate in the cooked state, is about equal to that of our 

 English " natives " ; raw, it does not look quite so tempting, as the 

 colour is slightly yellow — a tint to which one is not accustomed. But 

 the disadvantage of tint is compensated by the cheapness of the 

 article. Let an English lover of oysters try and fancy what it must 

 be to get five score of his favourites for a shilling the lot ! — which is 

 the price of the animal in its shell, But then comes the process of 

 opening. I tried knives of every known form, and worked round at 

 every point of the circumference of the shell, but all in vain ; the 

 occupant never thought of yielding to anything less than a hammer 

 and a cold chisel, and very reluctantly even to that. On account of 

 the difiiculty of opening, these oysters are usually sold taken out of 

 the shells and bottled. 



The next shell that strikes one is a relative of Ampliibola, a pretty 

 species of Siplwnaria. Though so much like a limpet, it is at once 

 distinguishable by its greater activity of movement, and by its sticking 

 to the rock much less closely. Then come large Turbines and Trochi, 

 and when one has only collected shells at home before, there is the 

 N. S., Vol. v.— May, 1880, 



