Page:Beautiful·Shells·of·New·Zealand-Moss-1908.pdf/17

 with one side round, and the other (really an operculum) flat and as large as the shell; until we come to the perfect type with each valve the same shape and size. Then the operculum disappears, as in the limpet, and the covering shell becomes smaller and smaller, till in the Scutum ambiguum (Plate IX., Fig. 23) the shell bears about the same proportion to the animal that the little bonnet, fashionable a few years ago, bore to the lady that wore it. The shell is built up of very thin layers of nacre, or mother of pearl, and calcareous or chalky matter, the thinner being the layers of nacre the more lustrous and iridescent is the shell.

As would be expected from its isolated position, many of the genera of New Zealand shells are not found elsewhere. The late Professor Hutton mentions nine genera in this position.

The dispersal of shells is an interesting natural phenomenon. The eggs of molluscs are so small that they can easily be carried by currents, attached to floating seaweed or floating timber, on the hulls of ships, or in the feathers or feet of our migratory birds, such as the godwit, which every year travels from New Zealand to Siberia and back. A great many of our shells are found on the Australian coasts; and a surprising number are common to both New Zealand and Queensland.

In describing the illustrations, length means extreme length, and by measuring the shell on the plate the proportionate width can be ascertained. The illustrations are, generally speaking, half the natural length of the shell depicted; and the shell photographed, although in most cases an average full-sized specimen, in some instances was smaller than the average.