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have I heard my young friends regret the great difficulty experienced in identifying the things of beauty found on our coast; and some time back it occurred to me that the time had arrived when an attempt should be made to remedy this. New Zealand is a maritime country, most of its inhabitants living near the sea, and there are few indeed who do not enjoy occasionally the pleasure of wandering along the sea-shore, gathering shells, seaweed, echini, and the numerous other relics of the deep. This pleasant hobby is robbed of a great deal of its interest by a lack of knowledge as regards the names, habits, and mode of preserving the various finds, and especially the finds of shells. When properly preserved and carefully classified they are much more attractive than otherwise they would be. In almost every home shells are seen; some highly prized as ornaments, others as mementoes of pleasant hours in foreign lands; but seldom are our really beautiful shells represented in a collection.

In this work marine shells alone are dealt with, our numerous land and fresh water shells being, with six or seven exceptions, small and insignificant. Of land and fresh water shells about two hundred varieties, and of marine shells about four hundred and fifty varieties, have up to the present been discovered in New Zealand. For some inscrutable reason, however, the New Zealand authorities are continually changing the classical names of our shells. The names I have used are taken from the late Professor F. W. Hutton’s last list, published in 1904. It is really time some attempt was made to stop this foolish proceeding. Most of the shells, since I began collecting 20 odd years ago, have had their names changed once, many of them twice, and some even three times. It is more than probable some of the names will be altered while this volume is in the press. These frequent changes in the names cause great confusion, and but for the kindly help and encouragement given me by Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., of Auckland, I should have hesitated to undertake its publication.