Page:Beautiful·Shells·of·New·Zealand-Moss-1908.pdf/40

 HAMINEA ZELANDIAE (Plate VII.).—Fig. 31 is an exceedingly thin, horny, white or grey shell. It is sometimes called the sea snail, and is found on the marine grass in harbours, as well as in the open sea. Stray ones may be found in mud or sand.

BULLA QUOYI (Plate VII.).—Fig. 32 is a smooth, greenish shell, an inch and a-half long. It is sometimes marbled with purplish-grey, or with white dots. This shell is found in Auckland and Australia. The Maori name is Pupu wharoa.

BARNEA SIMILIS (Plate VIII.).—Fig. 1 is a white rock borer, up to two and a-half inches long. It is found all over the North Island, and at Waikowaiti, in the South Island.

PHOLADIDEA TRIDENS (Plate VIII.).—Fig. 2 is also a white rock borer, found up to nearly two inches in length. It seems particularly fond of the soft sandstone in the Auckland Harbour.

PANOPEA ZELANDICA (Plate VIII.).—Fig. 3 is a widely-gaping white shell, upwards of four inches long. It is common in the North Island, but rare in the South. It lives a considerable distance below the surface of the sand in the open sea or on exposed beaches. One, caught in situ, by Mr. C. Spencer at Cheltenham Beach (Auckland) was about eighteen inches below the surface of the sand at about half-tide mark. One species of the Panopea family, which is found in South Africa, lives at a depth of several feet. All bivalves that live in the sand have shells which gape more or less, apparently to enable them to push their syphons through the sand to the water. The deeper in the sand the shellfish lives, the longer and stronger the syphon must be. The Panopea burrows deeper than any other of our shellfish, and therefore requires the largest gape. As mentioned on page 12, bivalves do not leave their beds to feed, but push the syphon through the sand to the water and draw the water down one syphon and eject it through the other, absorbing the animal and vegetable matter as it passes through the mollusc’s stomach. The Maori name is Hohehohe, which is also given to the Tellina family, on Plate VIII.

COCHLODESMA ANGASI (Plate VIII.)—Fig. 4 (late Anatina angasi) is a very white, almost transparent, thin shell, three and a-half inches long. One valve is nearly flat, and the