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Shell inlay shell tiles
I have an item of considerable interest to report on. Cypraea aurantium has been collected live here on Guam and both finds
have been verified as true. I first saw Mr. Elbo's shell three days after he had found it and it was still in the rotting out
stage. Mr. Joe Campbell of the Marianas Divers saw the second one that was found with the animal still in the shell. Dead
specimens have been found here before but as far as I can find out these are the first live ones.
The Elbo shell was found clinging to the side of a large rock. This shell now rests in the Montgomery collection. I had quite
a time getting him to part with it but he finally broke down and sold it to me. It measures approximately 3-3/4 by 2-1/8 by
1-7/8 inches. I know this is supposed to be in millimeters but I have no millimeter scale. A black dot on the columella is a
rust blemish as is the small blemish on the dorsum.
Editor: Thank you Tom for this interesting information.
The five little yellow money cowries shown above have an interesting history behind them. They presently belong to my wife,
Daisy, and were left to her by a family friend, Mrs. Leslie Hurum. The envelope in which they are kept has the following note
written on it by Mrs. Hurum.
"These five kupee (Philippines for bracelet or bracelet ornament) were once strung on a velvet ribbon and worn on the wrist
of Queen Kinau, daughter of Kamehameha I and mother of Kamehameha the IV and V. She gave them to her namesake, my
grandmother, Elizabeth Kinau Judd Wilder, when she was a little girl. Three were made into a pin in Italy about 1870.
Grandmother gave them to me in 1894 on my 10th birthday. The two extras I had made into cuff links for my husband about 50
years ago. They would make nice earrings. I am leaving them to you Daisy as I feel the alii (pertaining to royalty) things
should go to the decendants of the alii and they are supposed to bring protection to whoever of the same blood has them."
In the Museum of Vienna there is a teulerei labeled "Eden" which word may be understood as Aden misspelled in a German way
according to the pronunciation, and in coll. Lancaster (Lyme Regis, England) I saw a teulerei labeled Arabian Sea, which
locality also has been mentioned by Melvill (1888, Mem. Manchester Soc. (4)1:239).
Therefore the distribution of teulerei seems to coincide with that of Luria pulchra Gray and Erosaria turdus Lamarck. Both
occur from the Red Sea around Arabia to the Persian coast. But the indication Zanzibar (British Museum and Mus. Berne),
Ceylon (Hidalgo), Australia (Mus. Hamburg, destroyed in World War II), and New Zealand (habitat rejected by Hidalgo) are
evidently erroneous as such relics use[d] to be restricted to small areas in present times.
THE CYPRAEIDAE OF FIJI
The April 1964 issue of The Veliger (Vol. 6, No. 4) devotes 25 pages and six plates to a detailed review and description of
Fijian cowries, by Walter Oliver Cernohorsky, of Vatukoula, Fiji. By way of introduction, he reviews the geography of Fiji,
with a map; and discusses habitat and variation, the animal, which is included in descriptions, the classification, methods
and observations, end distribution. Then follows the description of and notes on 57 species of Cypraea: testudinaria,
isabella, arabica, maculifera, depressa, eglantina, scurra, mappa, mauritiana, aurantium, argus, talpa, tigris, lynx,
vitellus, ventriculus, carneola, schilderorum, mariae, globulus, bistrinotata, cicercula, margarita, childreni, annulus,
moneta, dillwyni, labrolineata, helvola, caputserpentis, poraria, erosa, eburnea, limacina, staphylaea, nucleus, walkeri,
errones, caurica, listeri, punctata, asellus, clandestina, humphreysii, ziczac, fimbriata, minoridens, microdon, pallidula,
summersi, teres, kieneri, hirundo, ursellus, stolida, chinensis, cribraria.
Five more are noted as having been reported from Fiji. A number of papers are cited. Figures are given of all 57 species,
together with generous discussion, and an alphabetical index, with mention of subgenus.
It is interesting to note that Franz Alfred Schilder and Maria Schilder, in the same issue of The Veliger (pages 221-226 with
a map of Viti Levu, Fiji) give details concerning one of these species, listed by Cernohorsky, Mauritia eglantina. Notes
include distribution, frequency, sex, size, dentition, color, dorsal markings, spire blotch, shell abnormalities, and notes
on rows and teeth, and comparisons.
There are other articles of interest in the issue, including another new species of Mitra from the Western Indian Ocean
described by Jean M. Cate and named Mitra boswellae for HMS member Mrs. Helen Boswell.
One fine morning, I landed in Sydney, three days after I had sailed from Noumea. Four hours later, I was in the plane on my
way to Brisbane and Rockhampton, where Tony Marsh, the well known Australian cone expert met me at the airport. We enjoyed a
whole week trading shells, swapping yarns and information, and meeting other shells collectors of that interesting area.
After a last hop of twelve hundred miles over the clouds of North Queensland, I landed on Horn Island, where I met my pen
friend Reg Scott, with whom I was going to stay for three months on Thursday Island, which is the only populated area of this
desert Territory. From Cape York peninsula, one could walk or sail down either East or West coasts for hundreds of miles
without meeting a soul, a house or a boat. That part of the Gulf and Barrier Reef are truly virgin.
We only began to do any shelling a few days later, when all my shelling equipment had finally arrived and when Reg's twin
engine boat was ready for business. Unfortunately, Reg works in the local power plant and could only get away a few days
every three weeks, depending on his shifts. But we made the best of it, and most of our outings are happy memories indeed.
One of our first ventures was for Prince of Wales Island, one of the largest of the group. But, although we had some very
fine days camping on the white sand beaches, diving, and spearing crayfish, the trip did not yield much in the way of shells,
except for a few good Melo, lots of small Turris and heaps of other common shells. Not to speak of the four deer shot by
friend Reg a few hours before we sailed home.
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