Page 4 November 1980 No. 266 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NOTES 
4tten description of 
tion at the back of the book, has a brief wr 
naLapnt shell characters, and a very brief indication of its general 
range of occurrence. 
The book is written by a known expert on Radon PAGER, Bt aa 
Given his familiarity with shells, 4t can be use + sp ebiode 
lector hobbyist to identify his or her specimens it rede datos 
guarantee of accuracy. Used in conjunction with its p 
volumes, TROPICAL PACIFIC MARINE SHELLS fulfills that purpose. 
' 
HAWAIIAN MARINE SHELLS is the mollusk portion of the Bishop Museun's 
multi-volume revision of C. H. Edmondson's REEF AND rte Pod 
HAWAII. This prestigious series has a high quality o ; oria 
control, and Kay's work is a worthy volume. This book is a Ri a 
hensive malacological faunal overview, similar in style and intent 
to A. Myra Keen's masterpiece, SHA SHELLS OF TROPICAL WEST AMERICA. 
Kay carefully documents the majority of her statements, properly 
acknowledging the other scientists upon whose work any researcher 
is dependent. All of her references are detailed in the literature 
cited, including the authorship of the species. The reader can 
readily determine the basis for synonymies and sources for other 
information presented. 
The introduction consists of an excellent survey of the ecology and 
zoogeography of Hawaiian marine mollusks, their human exploitation 
and study, and the natural history of the islands. 
Besides being an authoritative guide for the identification of al- 
most all the Hawaiian mollusks, it also introduces major aspects of 
the biology of these animals and gives the researcher a ready entry 
into the literature. 
There are a number of new species described in the book. Regretta- 
bly they are not separately indexed; a separate listing of these 
new taxa should have been included. 
For a majority of species the known range in the Hawaiian chain is 
not specified. Since these islands stretch across 1600 miles, ani- 
mals known only from some of the islands have a different distribu- 
tion than those known from all the islands. It would also have been 
appropriate to have given more information about the illustrations 
(including specimen collecting locality of an original picture). 
Both of these recent books were written by well-known researchers. 
They are different in extent of coverage (Kay's is a fairly compre- 
hensive faunal guide), amount of information and literature sources 
given (Cernohorsky has written a conchological book, whereas Kay 
has authored a malacological reference work). The prospective pur- 
chaser of either volume must keep these differences in mind. 
This reviewer personally prefers Kay's volume, because it is more 
complete, is easier to use, has well-documented references, and 
contains a great amount of information on the bi 
history of mollusks. biology and natural 
(TROPICAL PACIFIO MARINE SHELLS, Pacific Pub.. a 
* pproximately $28.30.) 
(HAWAIIAN MARINE SHELLS, Bishop Museum rida 94a fa sue. y 3 

