having a great tendency to fade, specimens should not be 
exposed to the light more than is necessary; in fact, all 
marine shells retain their colours better for being kept in 
the dark. When held up to a strong light, the bands on 
the Sunset shell appear much deeper and richer in colour. 
The interior is a fine deep purple or purplish white, very 
smooth and glossy. About two and a-quarter inches in 
length. Live specimens are often washed ashore on ocean 
beaches. 
Throughout New Zealand. Bay of Islands; Mount 
Maunganui. 
SOLETELLINA NITIDA (solen, a razor; tellina, a 
kind of mussel; nitida, shining)—An exceedingly thin, 
semi-transparent mauve-coloured bivalve, narrow and ob- 
long, of about one and three-quarter inches in length, more 
or less covered with a thin, glossy, transparent epidermis, 
generally worn off in the middle of the valves. The interior 
is mative. Washed ashore on sandy ocean beaches. 
Throughout New Zealand. Mount Maunganui; Bay 
of Islands. 
CORBULA ZEALANDICA (corbula, a little basket; 
New Zealand).—A small bivalve, commonly known as the 
Basket shell, about the shape, colour, and size of an orange 
pip. It is opaque, and has the posterior end somewhat 
angled and the valves unequal. The right valve, larger 
than the left, is described technically as embracing the left, 
which is smaller, and represents the lid of the basket. The 
escutcheon is well marked, and bordered by a keel, or ridge, 
on each valve, descending from the beaks to the angle 
where the posterior end meets the ventral border. The 
shell is sculptured with concentric striations, which are well 
developed. It is about half an inch in length, and is found 
throughout New Zealand, in ten to a hundred fathoms 
of water. It may be picked up on beaches, washed up 
after gales, always with sponge or sprays of seaweed at- 
tached to the posterior end. It is by means of this sponge 
and seaweed that the live molluscs are wrenched from the 
ocean depths during extra boisterous weather. 
Common in the North Island; Mount Maunganui; also 
Australia. 
_ SAXICAVA ARCTICA (saxum, stone; cavo, excavate ; 
Arctic)——Commonly known as the Rock-borer; not e¢x- 
actly a good name, for it is not the only rock-borer, and, 
so far as my experience goes, it does not appear to be a 
rock-borer at all. The most insignificant, misshapen, and 
111 
Plate XII 
No. 14 
Plate IX 
No. 17 
Plate IX 
No. 6 
Sea Shells 
of New Zealand 
