Fig. 295. Strombus gigas (Linnæus), with the animal.
Some species of Strombus attain great size, and are placed as ornaments in halls and dining-rooms. In some of them the opening is brilliantly shaded, and those are chiefly sought after to decorate grottoes in gardens, or for collections of shells, where, from their size, they necessarily occupy a prominent place.
These shells are tun-bellied, terminating at their base by a short canal, notched or truncated; the right edge gets dilated with age; simple on one wing, lobed or cuneated in the upper part, and presenting in its lower part a groove or cavity separated from the canal or from the notch at the base. But these shells are not merely ornamental, for some of the streets of Vera Cruz are said to be paved with Strombus gigas.
Fig. 296. Shell of Strombus gigas. Fig. 297. Strombus gallus (Linn.).
The animal which inhabits this shell presents a distinct head, provided with a trunk or snout, and with two tentacles or horns, each bearing a large and vividly-coloured eye. The foot is compressed and divided into two portions, the posterior one, which is the longest, bearing a horny operculum. In the eagle-winged Strombus, represented in Figs. 296 and 297, these several peculiarities are well developed. This shell is large, turbinate, distended in the middle, with an acutely-pointed spiral studded with conical tubercles, the right edge very broad, rounded off below. The opening is of a vivid rose purple fading into white. It is a native of the Antilles.
Fig. 298. Strombus luhuanus Fig. 299. Strombus Fig. 300. Strombus thersites
(Linnæus). cancellatus (Lamarck). (Gray).