Hawaiian Marine Shells

Hawaiian Marine Shells is part IV of a projected series of six volumes on the marine fauna of the Hawaiian Islands. It stands complete and self-contained for those uninterested in phyla other than mollusca.

The opening list of contents gives the pagination for taxa from class down to sub-family. The introduction of 30 pages gives a concise and interesting outline of the Hawaiian Islands, their shore lines, types ofmolluscan habitats, fossil history, general composition of the marine molluscan fauna, and an historical review of the collecting and recording of this fauna as well as of the people involved. Some 550 pages then cover the species found in Hawaii, giving a good description of each, where usually found, depth range and its geographical range if beyond the island group. The figures, mostly photographs, each are of a number of species. These are generally good, although their black background is not always ideal. The author makes good use of keys and line drawings when helpful. Some 40 pages are devoted to the literature cited, listed alphabeticaly under authors and with dates, and finally there is an index. The book is very well produced and should stand up well to the considerable handling it will undoubtably receive from many of its owners.

Of all the books on the molluscan fauna of a particular area, I have always thought that there is none that deserves to stand even on the same shelf as Myra Keen's 'Sea-Shells of Tropical West America'. Now at last that book can have a companion on that shelf. I cannot give Miss Kay's book higher praise.

Conchologists and collectors, tyros and old-hands alike, will I believe, find this book interesting as well as helpful. Not that, as any 'shell books', it is without its errors or scope for criticism. For example in figure 79 on page 224 items A and B have somehow been mixed up, as also have items E and F. The only criticism I would make, is that I should like to have seen more synonyms given.

Finally it should be pointed out that the book is not inexpensive, though perhaps not perhaps in view of the amount of information it contains. The latter is of course somewhat limited for those interested in a wider orbit than Hawaii, since the molluscan fauna of those islands is, as the publishers acknowledge, 'the most isolated and attenuated' in the Pacific.