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Moonshell orange
Although I always have been interested in natural science, I only took up shell collecting seriously about three years ago. I
have seen quite a number of Golden Cowries around here, but when I noticed in R. Tucker Abbott's little book Sea Shells Of
The World that the Cypraea guttata was classified as very rare, I didn't give myself a chance of ever seeing one.
Nevertheless, only a couple of months after I got this useful little book, I came across one, to my great surprise, of
course.
My work here in the Solomons includes occasional visit to native villages and on May 24th, 1963 I made a call at one of the
many artificial little islands in the lagoon at Ataa. A man showed me a shell he had found in a fish...I couldn't believe my
eyes, but it was obvious that he had a Cypraea guttata. The color and pattern of spots were perfect; only there was a tiny
spot at the posterior end, slightly on the side towards the inner lip, where the fish had left a tooth mark, probably trying
to crush the shell before swallowing it. The outer polished surface was damaged, but not pierced right through. As a matter
of fact, it is hardly noticeable. The story I got from the man was as follows.
Some day in the previous month (April 1963) this man, Misikarei, and some other chaps went fishing in one-man canoes outside
the reefs, in deep water. They cast their lines opposite a native village Manu. From what I could make out, Misikarei used a
nylon fishing line of about .95 diameter, with a breaking point of 50 or 60 lbs. and he had a fish-hook of about 2 inches. He
assured me that he had well over 100 fathoms fish-line out, right down, and at appr. 8 p.m. he caught one fish, and that was
all he got, the whole night. In the morning when the fishermen went ashore at Manu to sell their catch, the shell was found.
The animal was still in it, but was dead and easy to remove, an indication that the shell hasn't been for long in the stomach
of the fish. As for the fish itself, I don't know what type it was. It is locally called TABAU and was about 18 inches long
and some 6-7 inches high. Manu, incidentally, is a village just a little north of Cape Arsacides on the north-east coast of
Malaita in the Solomon Islands.
According to the account, Mrs. Alice Mullen and Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, whose husbands work for an oil company on the Island
of Aruba, were vacationing on the northern coast of Venezuela.
While out shelling in shallow water, they found two live brown-speckled Mouse Cowries. They promptly placed the shells in a
jar of alcohol and air-mailed them to Tucker Abbott at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
Dr. Abbott is presently studying the soft parts and has this to say about the history of C. mus: "The Mouse Cowrie was
brought to museums in large quantities via slave traders who visited Venezuelan ports during the 1800's, but none have been
collected alive for over 100 years." Their commercial value amounts to only $15-$20 apiece.
Another lost species has been "zero'd in on."
TALLAHASSEE Florida's King Conch {Representative Bernie Papy, Jr.} used the dying moments of the legislature to throw a
protective legal arm around Florida's Queen Conch.
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