Found in the North Island. Whangarei Heads; Mount 
Maunganui; Cook Strait. 
PHALIUM LABIATUM (phalos, part of a helmet; 
labiatum, lipped).—This species and the sub-species, P. 
pyrum, both commonly known as Helmet shells, present 
so many similarities, or rather there is such considerable 
overlapping in their essential characteristics, that it is ad- 
visable to collect a large number of shells and carefully 
study each one, noting the general shape and proportions, 
the colour, the sculpture, the outer lip, the inner lip, or, 
as it is sometimes called, the columellar lip, and the size 
and shape of the open umbilicus. No doubt interbreeding 
will account for the many varied types, but pure thorough- 
breds are exceedingly rare. 
The Phalium labiatum is much the rarer of the two, 
and it is probable that out of several score specimens col- 
lected not more than one or two will be the true species. 
In the first place the spire whorls are smooth, and the 
nodules, which are so conspicuous on the body whorl of 
the P. pyrum, are absent or only slightly indicated. The 
outer lip is solid and thick, with a sharp edge on the outer 
side, while it is slightly toothed on the inner side towards 
the base. The colour is pale tawny or yellowish ash, and 
there are spiral rows of whitish spots on the body whorl. 
The inner lip is bent round the columella, leaving only a 
small chink-like opening for the umbilicus. A large speci- 
men may be as much as three inches in height. The species 
lives on a rocky ground. 
Ohmaha; Whangarei Heads; Mount Maunganut. 
PHALIUM PYRUM (phalos, part of a helmet; pyrum, 
a pear).—This Helmet shell differs from the species in 
being much thinner and lighter in weight, in having the 
shoulders of the whorls angular, the upper whorls spirally 
striated, the body whorl with nodules on the shoulder, and 
the inner lip forming a doubled plate, expanding or jut- 
ting out beyond the columella, leaving the umbilicus as a 
wide triangular opening. In addition to these differences, 
the spire is shorter and the whole shell more plump in 
shape; and here I must whisper that your true concholo- 
gist bears no love for the “well of English undefiled.” To 
him no shell is plump; it is ventricose, globose, globulose, 
globulous, globous, or, as when Homer nods, it may be 
merely globular. In colour there is also a distinction, the 
sub-species being of a “bay, or pale dun colour, with wavy 
spiral bands of chestnut brown.” (Suter). A varix 1s 
sometimes found on this shell, like a rounded cord vari- 
59 
Plate IV 
No. 19 
Plate IV 
No. 20-20a. 
Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
