Shells

Fresh ribbons are found during all the warm months along the Atlantic coast. In each case the development of the egg progresses, until the embryo stage is past. Then a round door opens on the lower floor of the chamber, on the side opposite the connecting string. Out tumble the little whelks and begin the life of independence on the sea bottom.

The Whelk or Lightning Shell (F. per versa, Linn.) is much like the northern species, but the spiral turns to the left instead of following the snail fashion. The young shells are bright with zigzag brown lightning streaks that radiate from the spire, crossing the fine spiral ridges that decorate the whorls. The lip is lined with brown. The knobs are blunt. The body is black. The shells fade and whiten with age; the largest speci mens are a foot long. They live on sandy beaches, and spend much time burrowing just under the surface for bivalves. They are preyed upon by Melongena.

Habitat.— Florida.

Sub-genus SYCOTYPUS, Gill Shell with deep channelled suture, square-shouldered whorls, without knobs; hairy, thick, brown epidermis covers exterior; interior yellowish, smooth.

66 The Whelks. Trumpet Shells The Channelled Whelk (F. canaliculatus, Say) is distin guished from its companion by the channel that follows its sutures. The egg cases have not the double-keeled edge, but narrow to a sharp margin. In most particulars the two species are alike.

The Indians cut the long, white columella of the giant whelk into beads to make their wampum belts. Three beads were worth an English penny in early Colonial days in Massachusetts. A fathom string was worth five shillings. In the South the shells are often used to border garden beds and paths. Drinking vessels

were made of them by Indians. Fulgur flower pots are often seen to-day in Florida. The sharp edge of the aperture made cutting tools for the aborigines. Length, 6 to 9 inches.

Habitat.—Cape Cod to Texas.

The Pear Conch (F. pyrum, Dillw.) has a depressed, unarmed spire, with a deep suture. The sculpture consists of alternately weak and strong spiral stria' and angular shoulder keels. Bands of pale brown cross the white ground of the whorls. The canal is long and tapering. Length, 4 to 5 inches.

Habitat.— Florida and Gulf of Mexico.

Genus EUTHRIA, Gray Shell spindle-shaped, smooth; aperture oval, ending in short, recurved canal. Species, ten, widely distributed.

The Dark Euthria (E. dira, Rve.), liver-coloured when the ashy powder is removed, well represents the genus. Deep re volving channels, close together, engrave the surface. The spire has longitudinal folds. Length, i to 2 inches.

Habitat.— Monterey, Cal., to Sitka.

Genus CANTHARUS, Bolt.

Shell bucciniform, with swollen body whorl and narrowing to base; aperture and spire of about equal length; siphonal canal at posterior end of aperture; columella arched and faintly ridged. About fifty species in warm seas.

The Painted Cantharus (C. tincta, Conr.) has the form of a typical Buccinum, with surface finely ribbed both ways, somewhat tuberculated, with variegated markings of brown and white. Length, i to l inches.

Habitat.— Florida, West Indies.

67 Giant Pear Conch or Knobbed Whelk, Ful gur carica (life size), and a section of the "egg ribbon." Several embryos develop in each flat capsule. At the lower end is a cluster of the conical egg capsules of a smaller mollusk.