Page:Beautiful·Shells·of·New·Zealand-Moss-1908.pdf/34

 AMPHIBOLA CRENATA (Plate VI.)—Fig. 10 (the New Zealand winkle), lately known as Amphibola avellana, is an uneven, battered-looking shell of a mixed brown and purple colour, the interior being purple and the mouth whitish. It is an inch or more in length. Most mud flats up to high water mark are strewn with Amphibola. The natives eat this shellfish, which they call Titiko or Koriakai, in large numbers; but the muddy flavour, according to our ideas, makes it unpalatable.

MONODONTA SUBROSTRATA (Plate VI.).—Fig. 11 is a yellowish shell, about half an inch across, and is usually found near half-tide mark in harbours. The exterior is covered with black or bluish irregular bands. The interior is nacreous, and of a greenish colour, with a white patch round the columella.

MONODONTA AETHIOPS (Plate VI.).—Fig. 12 is a purplish-black shell, tesselated with white between the grooves. These grooves look like lines in the plate. The interior of the mouth is white. Besides being usually covered with vegetable growth, part of which is seen in the illustration, the point of the spire is frequently worm-eaten and defective. This is the usual state in which all shellfish that herd together are found. It is upwards of an inch across, and found in large numbers amongst rocks, especially at the entrance to harbours, and from half-tide mark downwards.

MONODONTA NIGERRIMA (Plate VI.).—Fig. 13 has a smooth, purplish-black exterior, sometimes with small blue spots. The interior is white, and the shell about half an inch across.

MONODONTA LUGUBRIS (Plate VI.).—Fig. 14 is a thick, solid black shell, sometimes over half an inch across, and covered with coarse, irregular granules. The interior is white. This shell is found in large numbers under stones, at the entrances to harbours and sheltered beaches, almost up to high water mark.

There are six or seven other Monodonta in New Zealand, but they are small, and the four above described are the ones most likely to be met with.

TURBO GRANOSUS (Plate VI.).—Fig. 15 is a reddish-purple shell, varied with white, and is sometimes over 2½ inches across. The specimen photographed was much below the average size. The exterior is covered with well-defined rows of granules,