Page 6 September 1979 No. 254 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES 
The chances of finding any rare unrecognized shell Sapte ie rake 
ermen is pretty remote, as I discovered only after je : ee 3 
through several thousand Cypraea tigris, in the a ees a a gZ 
them would be an unrecognized C. leucodon. I was perch re 
later that if any unusual-looking shell comes along which is no 
: ; : i iately take it to the 
readily recognized by the fishermen, they immedia Cote: 
i i i d. and if he does not recognize it 
head man of their particular island, rd uto the mata an 
it is put carefully aside to be later deli ; 
of Malé. These people will never disclose to the casual tourist any 
unusual shell of this nature. So much, then, for my hopes ofa 
leucodon. 
On the island of Malé, I found two different dealers who claimed 
they had had the leucodon. Obviously, I thought one of the two was 
not telling the truth. However, I subsequently discovered from Rod- 
ney Jonklaas on Sri-Lanka that there in fact have been two leucodons 
from the Maldives, and that he himself had identified both specimens. 
So each of the dealers was therefore telling the truth. The one 
leucodon went to a collector in India, and the other to Italy. 
The next surprise for me was a claim that one of these dealers had 
handled two Cypraea guttata. I did not believe this, and thought 
that they had simply found a picture in a shell book with a comment 
of its rarity. However, there is a stamp issued by the Maldive Is- 
lands commemorating the first finding of a guttata there, and I have 
enclosed one of these stamps for your interest. It would seem that 
only two specimens have been found, and later I was able to examine 
one of them on Sri-Lanka, where it is owned by a shell dealer in 
Colombo. The shell was light in colour, about 60mm, but unfortu- 
nately had a number of tooth marks on the dorsum. Despite that, it 
is a very beautiful shell. The dealer is not offering it for sale, 
and intends keeping it in his own private collection. At the same 
time there were reports of a number of Cypraea aurantium, but I was 
not able to verify this. It would seem that there have been no more 
than two or three of these. 
(To be continued) 

