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Capiz hanging lamps
One fine day, we landed on Crab Island, down the gulf. Up till then, I thought I could hardly find better shelling areas than
in Society Islands or around New Caledonia, but this one large sand island seems to have more different species of shells
than I ever experienced before. We filled eight plastic buckets and as many bags with shells, just picked from the beaches;
most of these shells were in very good condition. This was the first time in my shelling life I went after dead shells with
so much enthusiasm. They were piled up on the beaches by the thousands and the only trouble was to make up ones mind what to
pick. Among many others, this island yielded: Voluta turneri and sophia, Epitonium scalare, Ancilla velesiana, Melo,
Megalotractus, Turritella, Terebra, Strombus vittatus and pure white bubble shells, etc., etc. This small paradise also teems
with turtles. Towards late afternoon, scores and scores of these odd creatures crawl out of the warm waters and lay their
eggs in carefully dug "nests" in the sand. It was easy to take rides on these sluggish crawler's backs and we ate turtle's
eggs until I was sick of them.
I must admit, at this point, that I did not do as much skin diving as I wished, as huge sharks were always lurking nearby and
that rather cooled me off. And also large salt water crocodiles, twelve feet and up, were a new experience to me. We had the
bad habit of sleeping at night on the sandy beaches, and it was not uncommon, in early morning, to find huge croc tracks on
the sand not far from our "beds." Not very comforting, indeed.
The native divers were not in the least interested in shells, except pearl shells, which is the only industry. But after I
had been out with them a few times, I persuaded a few smarter boys that they could make a few extra pounds on the sideline.
Money is a powerful lever in any country and, before long, I was being offered shells from all directions. When pearl shell
is brought up from the bottom, they are cleaned of anything that is clinging to them and this is thrown back into the sea.
Word soon went around that "a crazy Frenchman" was buying all the rubbish that stuck to the "Gold lips," as the maleagrina
are locally called. So shells began to pour in and pretty soon, instead of having to buy the whole cartons, regardless of the
fact that I often only wanted two or three shells out of the heap, I could now afford to take my pick. The bulk of the loot
was composed mainly of Murex cervicornis, M. axicornis, M. cornucervi, M. macgillivrayi, M. adustus, an occasional small
winged Murex not yet identified, and, one fine day, four rare Murex bednalli, as well as a perfect Murex pinnatus. Cypraea do
not seem to be plentiful in that fascinating territory. miliaris, limacina and stolida turned up most often, although an
occasional hammondae also finished up in my loot. The three former are all from deep water and are all reddish when they are
fresh. Melo were the most common, beauties too, but Voluta sophiae, turneri and keatsiana, of the gatliffi variety, sometimes
turned up also. I was out of luck with Voluta bednalli and only got one.
The following names should be treated as synonyms: amabilis Jousseaume 1881 = walkeri; merista Iredale 1939 = continens;
barbara Kenyon 1902 and rossiteri Dautzenberg 1903 = bregeriana. The juvenile Ipserronea problematica Iredale 1935 surely
does not belong to walkeri (as Allan 1956, Cowry Shells p. 49 suggested), but to Erronea pyriformis Gray 1824 (see Iredale
1939, Austr. Zoologist 9:317).
In these years after World War II, many interesting cowries have been collected, and much new information became known to us,
also concerning walkeri, so that we were obliged to revise our views, both with regard to taxonomy and distribution.
Taxonomy: The East Australian continens cannot be separated from the Malayan surabajensis; but there seems also to be no
constant character of the Lemurian walkeri, though the latter seems to be generally smaller, paler, and less zonate than the
Malayan "race'' (which should be called continens by law of priority). Whereas the Philippine shells from Siassi Is. are
usually very large (30 to 35 mm.) and dark (dorsal zone vividly brown, well marked, aperture purple throughout), a population
from Ubey on Bohol Is. (destroyed in the museum of Hamburg, one shell No. 3120 in my collection excepted) recalls the
Lemurian shells in size (17 to 25 mm.) and color (creme, zones obsolete, interstices of columellar teeth only pale purplish).
Therefore all specimens from Lemuria to the Philippines and Queensland should be called walkeri. However, the New Caledonian
race bregeriana has proved to be of almost specific rank, and is characterized by tiny opaque white specks embedded into the
glossy orange base and margins, like no other cowry species, Chelycypraea testudinaria Linnaeus excepted: these white specks
are never absent in well preserved bregeriana (though overlooked by its author!), and generally are recognizable in beach
shells too; but they have never been observed in any walkeri coming from farther west than New Caledonia (Joanett Is.
excepted, see below).
Distribution: The areas from which walkeri has been known to the writer till 1941 have been marked by black circles (walkeri)
and triangles (bregeriana) in the map: The three races of walkeri mentioned above seem to be separated by zones uninhabited
by the species. However, after World War II many new localities became known to us which fill up these gaps, or extend the
limits in northern, eastern, and southern direction. Therefore the following areas should be added, which have been marked,
on the map, by empty circles and triangles respectively:
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capiz hanging lamps
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