NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES No.233 _June-July-Aug. 1977 _ Page 3 
in their presentation were studies of other constr = 
rines of swimmers, imaginative sea monsters, OS ees ae 
Other photos showed how Mr. and Mrs. de Jong have decorated the 
grounds of their home at Martha's Bay, Curagao, with large chunks of 
coral, and anchors and bottles retrieved from_the sea. Still other 
pictures caught shells from unusual angles, in multiple arrangements, 
and "posed" against snow. 
Milton Werner, Recording Sec'y. 

REVIEW: 
MUREX SHELLS OF THE WORLD: 
An Illustrated Guide to the Muricidae 
by George E. Radwin and Anthony D'Attilio. Stanford University Press, 
Stanford, California. 284 pp; 32 color plates; 192 text figures, 
$35.00. 16 December, 1976. 
Muricidae being among the most showy of all molluscan shells, it is 
rather surprising that collectors have had to wait so long for a 
book that would list and figure a substantial number of them, which 
this book does well. On the 32 color plates and in the black-and- 
white figures, over 450 species are illustrated. Large-scale draw- 
ings of sculptural details, of radula teeth, and other special fea- 
tures such as apical whorls add a dimension missing in most books. 
In the 18 pages of introduction the authors briefly discuss classifi- 
cation of the family; significant anatomical structures, especially 
as related to behavior and habitat; the units into which the family 
ig divided for convenience of study (subfamily and generic classifi- 
cation); and, in alphabetical order, the species assigned to each 
unit or taxon. 
The review of species follows a standard sequence of parts in the 
text -- general definitions, then under each subfamily the generic 
units in alphabetical order, with a few paragraphs on each species, 
again in a standard order: name, brief synonymy; shell features, with 
occasionally some notes on related forms (more of these would be use- 
ful to the reader); geographic distribution; and reference to color 
figures. 
In their introduction the authors explain that they prefer to lump 
at the specific level and split at the generic level. Thus, they 
recognize no subspecies or subgenera, synonymizing the former and 
elevating most of the latter to generic rank (a few subgenera disap- 
pear into synonymy entirely). The resulting array of units may 
startle the novice users of the book, especially students who pre- 
viously had as guides only the conservative terminology of earlier 
workers, The rationale for this "practical solution" may escape 
such users, and, indeed, one would wish that there were more comments 
on synonymies, particularly on those on which even the specialists 
disagree or those being made here for the first time. 
e radula as guide in classifica- 
tion, the authors make some surprising reallocations. For example, 
the West American Trophoninae are broken apart, 
of Acanthotrophon and Nipponotrophon going 
rou hon and allie t 
ered in the SoeE}— Trophoninae, which reach their climax in deep 
water and the Southern Hemisphere, 
