Page:Beautiful·Shells·of·New·Zealand-Moss-1908.pdf/26

 Sometimes it is over three inches in length. The animal equals the Cominella in voracity. The Maori name is Kakare,or Kaeo, both of which names are also given to the Astralium sulcatum (Plate VI., Fig. 18).

SCAPHELLA PACIFICA (Plate II.).—Fig. 12 (late Voluta pacifica) is a yellow or chestnut-coloured shell, with dark markings, and is sometimes nine inches in length. It is found in large numbers washed up on the beaches in both Islands after gales, and varies so much in colour, markings, and shape that a good pair is seldom procurable. Sometimes even the nodules, or lumps, shown in the plate, are wanting, and sometimes the markings are wanting. It was until lately known as the Voluta pacifica, being one of the well-known Volute family. It lives in the sand on exposed beaches. The Maori name is Pupurore, which name is also used for the Ancilla australis (Plate II., Fig. 7).

SCAPHELLA GRACILIS (Plate II.).—Fig. 13 (late Voluta gracilis), besides being smaller and narrower than the Scaphella pacifica, is distinguished by the markings, which in the latter appear to form bands, while in the former they do not. With such a variable shell, however, it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other.

MITRA MELANIANA (Plate II.).—Fig. 14 is a dark chocolate-coloured mitre-shaped shell. Being smooth and of the same colour, both internally and externally, it cannot be mistaken. About a score of dead ones, varying from one and a-half to two inches in length, have been found by my friends and myself on the ocean beaches near the entrance to Tauranga Harbour, and at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty. This is a particularly interesting discovery, as the Mitre shells (so called from their shape resembling that of a bishop’s mitre) hitherto found out of the tropics were minute. We have one other Mitre shell, which is pink or brownish, and under one-third of an inch long.

Plate III. represents two of our largest and most handsome shells. DOLIUM VARIEGATUM, the upper figure (from Latin dolium—a jar with a wide mouth) is a yellowish brown shell, with dark brown spots, and exceeds six inches in length. Being fragile, and having a very wide mouth, perfect specimens are rare, although numbers of broken shells are from time to time washed up on the ocean beaches in the Province of Auckland. It lives in sand,