Cowries of the world

Cowries of the world by Burgess, C.M.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780620054836.

G. Verhoef Seacomber Publications, [Published 1985]. Hardcover, xiv, 288 pp, 2 unnumbered pages of plates; 31 cm. First edition. Illustrated throughout with color and black-and-white photographs, species range maps, diagrams, and comparison plates. [From back cover] It is a truism that science is a never-ending quest for understanding of the natural world, that no sooner is one question answered than another is posed as new observations are made, as novel techniques are developed which permit us to probe ever deeper into nature, and as fruitful ideas emerge from a synthesis of old thoughts. More than ten years have elapsed since the publication of The Living Cowries, a decade which has seen new species described, familiar species fall into synonymy, and hundreds of observations of living animals and distribution records accumulated. In this second book about the cowries, C. M. Burgess has incorporated not only the new but culled the best from the old for his story of the cowries. As in The Living Cowries he continues the tradition of the great iconographers with superb illustrations, and he excels them with his detailed descriptions of habits and habitats and with his useful maps of distribution. The Cowries of the World is truly a labour of love which can do naught but stimulate the admiration and fascination of all of us interested not only in cowries but in the natural history of tropical oceans. Contents Cowries with restricted ranges; Alphabetical order of cowries; Conchological characters of a cowrie shell; About the cowries / by E. Alison Kay; Distribution and fossil history; Grouping; Cowries of the world; Other cowries proposed since 1970, or not discussed in detail in The Living Cowries; Discussion on anomalies and aberrations; Sinistral cowries; Discussion of dubious species; Species and subspecies I do not accept; Notes; Glossary.