Just completed, in Two Volumes, Sixty-two colom-ed Plates, £2. 16s. 



ELEMENTS OF CONCHOLOGY: 



AN INTRODUCTION TO THE 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SHELLS, 



AI^D OF THE AI^IMALS WHICH FOEM THEM. 



By LOVELL EEEVE, F.L.S., F.G.S., 



COEEESPONDI^TG MEMBEE OF THE NATUKAL HISTOET SOCIETY OP WURTEMBEEG, AND OF THE 

 LYCEUM OF NATUEAL HISTOEY OF NEW YOEE:. 



Shells are too much collected as mere articles of fancy or comioisseursliip, 

 fascinating the amateur by their varieties of form and colour, without exciting an 

 interest in the life. The conchologist should look upon his Shells, in the absence 

 of the soft parts of the animal, as the bones of a tribe of animals whose history 

 may to a great extent be ascertained by their structure and external characters : 

 and it adds surely to the interest of collecting if when looking at a drawer of 

 Shells the observer is able to gather up all that is known of the life of the Speci- 

 mens, and so picture to his imagination how they exist in their native haunts. 



The 'Elements of Conchology ' embodies a systematic history of the Mol- 

 lusca in their IN'atural Order, that is to say, an account of the living animal and 

 of its shell, of their Structure, G-eographical Distribution, Habits, Characters, 

 Affinities, Arrangement, and Enumeration of Species. There are Forty-six Plates 

 of Shells, illustrative of the G-enera, and Sixteen Plates of Shells with the living 

 Animals, all beautifully coloured. 



" Mr. Lovell E-eeve has provided entertainment for those who collect shells and also for 

 those wlio study the manners and customs of shell-fish. In the ' Elements of Conchology,' 

 which has been coming out in numbers for some time, and is now completed, he has given 

 us figures and descriptions of the principal geyiera of shells, with lists of all the species; 

 and has besides devoted considerable space to the structure and habits of molluscous '' 

 animals, a portion of the plates being reserved for then' representation. The arrangement 

 professes to be that of Lamarck, but it is in reality a considerable improvement upon 

 that famous system, which is the foundation of all our modern treatises. Some of our ac- 

 quaintances, who pride themselves on being ' advanced ' conchologists, will look upon this 

 acknowledgment of Lamarck as a very conservative or retrograde proceeduig ; but when 

 we consider what strange vagaries the ' advanced conchologists ' have performed, and how 

 utterly they differ amongst themselves (and sometimes/ro/?^ their former selves of a short 

 while ago), both as to arrangement and names — we cannot help congratulating Mr. Eeeve 

 on the reticence which has saved him and his subscribers from following any Will-o'-the- 

 Wisp into a conchological slough of despond."— CreYze. 



LOVELL REEVE & CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GTARDEN. 



