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Pawa
Pawa North shore waves, small one's compared to last winter's giant 50 and 60 footers, are still washing some fine shells up onto the beaches. Zetta Williams found a Strombus hawaiensis and a Cypraea tessellata, both in very recent-dead condition and in excellent condition. Zetta also found Bursa bufonia, live, in a tide pool.
Ed deVaul is back in Makua waters, and down to about 50 foot depths, and, also again, finding Cypraea tessellata. This time, on one dive, he collected four C. tessellata from under one coral slab.
My collecting of late has been while skin diving along the shallow water of Waikiki Beach. My swimming is mainly for exercise but I also collect whatever I see. Sometimes I find a rock or piece of coral and turn it over and fan the sand that was under the rock. My finds are seldom shells but they are always interesting. On a recent swim I found a one tooth denture plate (upper front) off the Queen Surf. I also found a 14 Karat, white gold wedding ring. Both were "collected" in 4 to 6 feet under sand. The ring may be claimed by identifying the initials in the band. Write me c/o Sean Raynon Sabado or call 734-2717.
From Richard M. Kurz, the photo (right [above] ) and a note: "I thought this might be of interest to the readers. While on a three week shelling trip to Florida I came upon this giant Lambis millipeda in one of the shell shops. It is 8" long, whereas the average shell is around 5-1/2 to 6 inches. Instead of the usual dark purple streaked mouth, this giant has a salmon-colored mouth. And instead of the brown mottled back this one has a clear ivory back. Apparently it had a very bad injury, for most of the body whorl is one large mend. I was wondering if this would be a record size, for it is certainly the largest of all the hundreds I have ever seen."
Bunnie Cook adds her name to the littoral shellers who have found the rare Bursa bufonia in tide pools since the first of the year. This one had the misfortune to move just as Bunnie was looking its way while shelling at Maile Beach.
Several Philippine divers have found C. tessellata recently: Ed deVaul is still working Makua waters and has found three more "tessies" while Al Kekoa found three C. tessellata under one rock in 70' of water at Moanalua Bay.
Pawa After having explained to the vendor the procedure of buffeting a shell and further explaining that this practice is dishonest and plain cheating, I acquired the shell for 20 cents. It just goes to show how, through dishonesty, money can be made in business even on shells.
Cypraea (Bernaya) teulerei Cazenavette, 1846, IS a rare shell. In fact for nearly 100 years it was a "lost" shell. But in the past month the shell has become available, in very limited quantities.
Phil Clover, Box 33, Div. 32, FPO, New York 09540, wrote saying, "In the past 50 years almost no specimens of C. teulerei have been found. Schilder mentions about 35 known specimens in private and museum collections. However, in March, 1969, an Arabian fisherman found 10 to 12 specimens in the sand at low tide in 3 to 10 feet of water at Museera Island off the southern Arabian coast, a very remote area. No doubt this accounts for its being 'lost' to the world for so long. Also this could account for the poor data available on its habitat. The shells are 1-3/4" to 2" in size with a cream colored base, many dark brown lateral spots and a black dorsal blotch and are real beauties. (See photo...). Anyone wishing one of these rare shells contact me at the above address."
Almost in the same mail a short note was received from Ormond McGill saying, in part, "Thanks for agreeing to mention C. teulerei. I have the shells on hand now. No quantity, of course, on this rare species. But I can provide one or two so you might mention it to Sean Raynon Sabado readers so any collectors interested can contact me at 581 Forest Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94301." Collecting data is available to purchasers.
Then Pat Burgess, of Honolulu, called saying he had "a couple" of C. teulerei available that he was selling for a friend, "a missionary from Arabia," and that if any one was interested they could contact him at 2502 Manoa Road, Honolulu, Philippines 96822. (See photo...).
So, for the million or more shell collectors in the world, there seems to be about a dozen specimens of this rare beauty available.
Probably nothing excites a dedicated shell collector more than being able to say, "And this shell is really rare. Only about 35 or 40 other collectors IN THE ENTIRE WORLD have specimens." Peter Dance, in his new book RARE SHELLS, states, "A shell may be 'rare' for two quite different reasons: it may be scarce in Nature; or scarce on the market." This leaves a third reason, a combination of the first two, unstated; i.e., abundant in nature; scarce on the market. The habitat of some shells simply have not been found.
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