NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NotEs 
Page December 1978 No. 247 
ened. After the first invasion 
It soon became obvious what had happ ing that ensued, word soon 
; ied collect 
eigen, re a eee Ene Spee had been “collected out." A tedious 
spread that the new subspec 
rip to the Mogote Pita Wonka thus be useless. The carbonar ius 
colony was left unmolested -- that is to say, the smaller, immature 
specimens and the unhatched eggs (Liguus deposits its eggs below 
the surface of the soil. “Bays an ne ane was perdi 
ate. The same thing must have happene n e case es 
and the ducks. Word swiftly spread among the ducks that toothsome 
thiara snails were no longer available in Port Malabar Pond. Ducks 
stayed away and the colony quickly revived. (A thiara observed in 
the aquarium hatched as minute crawling young. -Ed.) 
These two instances illustrate Dr. Tucker Abbott's premise that col- 
lectors alone cannot exterminate colonies of mollusks, especially 
rare species in not easily accessible places; that colonies have a 
built-in protection from extermination by collectors (as outlined 
above), and that only when the ecology of a locality is severely 
damaged do the creatures vanish completely. 

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE OCTOBER MEETING 
The day's display of shells from the collections of members, a new 
feature of our meetings, were specimens named for Hugh Cuming, in 
recognition of our invited speaker's topic. The shells were drawn 
from a number of collections including that of the American Museun. 
Cecelia and Mansfield Fuldner announced that the day was their 57th 
wedding anniversary. A round of applause helped them mark the event. 
Bella Kudatsky announced that she is willing to sell her set of 
Shell Notes, which is complete from No. 37 to date. 
The speaker for the day was S. Peter Dance, English author and con- 
chologist. His presentation was titled, "Hugh Cuming - Prince of 
Collectors." Mr. Dance noted that twenty years ago, when he first 
became interested in this early, renowned collector, his first at- 
tempts to find information on his life and his impact on conchology 
were futile. It required diligent searching to turn up the bits 
and pieces that now form a fascinating, if incomplete, account of 
his background and conchological activities. 
Cuming was a sailmaker who emigrated from England to Buenos Aires 
in HN ke een OP iid peli eecddadeye In 1822 he relocated to Val- 
paraiso, e, where he made conchological stud = e 
retired in 1826, wealthy and still a dane man, soe. oes ee 
tures that much of his fortune may have come from smuggling or gun- 
running. He built a yacht designed for natural history exploration 
and named it "Discoverer." Cuming's journal for his first expedi- 
tion, to Polynesia, was never published, and Mr. Dance is the only 
conchologist who has read it. "Discoverer" made its second voyage 
in 1828-29, from southern Chile to Honduras, 
Cuming returned to England in 1831. His third at- 
ee him to the Philippines in a icoumer il pant 
o S voyage was lost, and the record in letters. 
The trip extended from 1836 to 1841, and th Se nasetcdi 
e ¢ 1 
specimens, insects, mammals, etc, he donated fo Gabtiaenag 

