Preface
This book wrote itself in response to the many hundreds of inquiries on seashells and other mollusks that have been sent to such museums as the Smithsonian Institution. Our natural heritage of seashore treasures has always been of keen interest to Americans, and in recent years there has been such an increase in shell collecting and biological investigations of mollusks that the need for a book like this has become apparent.
American Seashells belongs to the amateurs, for it is their enthusiasm in searching beaches and bays and their limitless curiosity into the ways of molluscan life that have dictated the contents of this book. How do shells grow? How do they form their color patterns? How do they breed and what do they eat? are the kind of questions asked. But the greatest demand has been for a reliable and up-to-date identification work. This need has been felt not only by private collectors, but particularly by students of marine biology and those undertaking research in fisheries and ecology. In meeting these requirements, there has been an attempt to strike a balance between the palatable, popular accounts and the more technical material. The illustrations, the standardization of popular names and the natural history accounts will be of particular interest to the beginner, and it is hoped that the monographic reviews, identification keys and the bibliographies will adequately serve the serious student.
There are over 6000 species of mollusks living in North American marine waters, and a thorough treatment of them all would call for a book many times the size of this. The conchologist will find that the 1500 species discussed or illustrated within these pages include every kind of shell likely to be found in shallow waters, whether collecting is done in Labrador, Florida or along the western shores from Alaska to Lower California.
While considerable original research went into many parts of this book, it should be kept in mind that a popular book covering such a vast fauna is merely an expression of the present state of knowledge of our science and that time and research by others will inevitably render sections of it obsolete.
I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Leonard Carmichael, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, for granting permission to publish on and illustrate specimens housed in the United States National Museum. Although the efforts involved in this project did not encroach upon official time, I would
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