hell 
ein ealand 
Plate XI 
No.7 
the shape of the lunule, which is the little heart-shaped or 
lancet-shaped area situated on the anterior side of the 
beaks, opposite the ligament, and half of it on each valve; 
also the relative flatness or rotundity of the valves. The 
interior is white or bluish white, with a well-defined border 
of purple, either bright, or brownish purple. Now, if we 
take a hundred specimens, or a thousand, picked up at 
random, for they are common enough, it will be noticed 
that the lunule is wider or narrower, just according to the 
width or flatness of the shell, and bears not the slightest 
relation to the colour or markings, inside or out, of any 
specimen. Should you incline to the belief that this species 
is not masquerading under two names, and that there are 
really and truly two different individuals, and you have, 
say, a real and genuine C. crassa, you open it to examine 
the interior, and behold!—it should be a C. mesodesma. 
Finally, you give it up as a hopeless business or you search 
diligently, and carefully select specimens from either end 
of your long series, label them conscientiously, and deposit 
them in your cabinet, conveniently ignoring all the rest as 
freaks, mongrels, or reversions of type; though I think 
even the most ardent pluralist would have some difficulty 
in accounting for two species having something like ninety 
per cent. of overlapping types. 
Although this mollusc is known under no less than 
nine different aliases, the budding conchologist may take 
heart of grace and, recovering from his bewilderment, 
breathe a sense of gratitude to Iredale and Smith for un- 
tangling the problem, and realise that if the scientific nat- 
uralist does stand upon a lofty pedestal, his feet, after all, 
are the feet of clay. 
The Chione spissa is found throughout New Zealand 
on sandy beaches between tide marks. Mount Maunganui. 
CHIONE STUTCHBURYI (Chione, the daughter of 
Boreas; Stutchbury, the naturalist) —This fairly large, 
bluish or greyish-white or reddish-brown cockle, with 
curved beaks directed forwards, is called the Pipi by the 
Maoris, and is highly esteemed by them as one of their 
standing dishes. The sculpture consists of radiate ribs 
and fine concentric ridges, the ridges more prominent than 
the ribs, especially at the ventral margin and towards the 
anterior end. About the upper quarter of the shell the 
ribs and ridges appear to be equally defined, crossing each 
other at right angles, and so forming little hollow squares. 
The interior is white or bluish white; the posterior end, 
and more than half of the ventral margin, exhibits a broad 
106 
