PREFACE
Often have I heard my young friends regret the great difficulty experienced in identifying the things of beauty found on our coast; and some time back it occurred to me that the time had arrived when an attempt should be made to remedy this. New Zealand is a maritime country, most of its inhabitants living near the sea, and there are few indeed who do not enjoy occasionally the pleasure of wandering along the sea-shore, gathering shells, seaweed, echini, and the numerous other relics of the deep. This pleasant hobby is robbed of a great deal of its interest by a lack of knowledge as regards the names, habits, and mode of preserving the various finds, and especially the finds of shells. When properly preserved and carefully classified they are much more attractive than otherwise they would be. In almost every home shells are seen; some highly prized as ornaments, others as mementoes of pleasant hours in foreign lands; but seldom are our really beautiful shells represented in a collection.
In this work marine shells alone are dealt with, our numerous land and fresh water shells being, with six or seven exceptions, small and insignificant. Of land and fresh water shells about two hundred varieties, and of marine shells about four hundred and fifty varieties, have up to the present been discovered in New Zealand. For some inscrutable reason, however, the New Zealand authorities are continually changing the classical names of our shells. The names I have used are taken from the late Professor F. W. Hutton’s last list, published in 1904. It is really time some attempt was made to stop this foolish proceeding. Most of the shells, since I began collecting 20 odd years ago, have had their names changed once, many of them twice, and some even three times. It is more than probable some of the names will be altered while this volume is in the press. These frequent changes in the names cause great confusion, and but for the kindly help and encouragement given me by Mr. T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., of Auckland, I should have hesitated to undertake its publication. What most ennobles science is the willingness to give assistance to beginners shown by really scientific men, and doubly pleasing is that help to the recipient when given spontaneously and without stint.
This is the first attempt to publish a popular work on New Zealand shells, and is written by an amateur for amateurs. Nearly every shell likely to be met with by an ordinary collector (except the minute shells) will be found in the ten plates at the end of this work. I have endeavoured to describe the shells in simple language, as the scientific words may puzzle some of my readers. For instance, Professor Hutton describes a certain shell as “thick, irregular, sharp ribbed, with the margin dentated or lobed, very inequivalve; upper valve opercular, compressed, wrinkled, with thick concentric laminae; lower valve cucullated, purple, white within, edged with purple or black; lateral margins denticulated; hinge generally attenuated, produced, pointed.” When a shell is found that fully answers this description you will know it is an Auckland rock oyster. Errors and omissions will, I trust, be charitably dealt with, as the inevitable mistakes of a man who is blazing a track. I have endeavoured to give the Maori names also, but, unfortunately, in different parts of New Zealand the same name is frequently used for different shells.
My own collection of New Zealand marine shells, made during my residence in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, is, I believe, the best and largest yet made, and among the specimens I can number no less than a dozen new shells which I had the pleasure of adding to the recognised list. Over 90 per cent of the known species of New Zealand marine shells were found there by my friends or myself during the 15 happy years I spent in that delightful, though not very progressive, part of New Zealand.
My thanks are especially due to Mr. Charles Spencer, of Auckland, an ardent conchologist, and for many years my colleague in collecting shells, for the care taken with the photographs, and for valuable suggestions and help.