tuberculata)
is of small size, about six inches long and is silvery. The shells are
sometimes called in trade aurora shells. After being well beaten to
make them tender the animals are used for food.
The
ormer or auris marina was esteemed by the ancients as a very sweet and
luscious dish. The people of the Channel islands ornament their houses
with the shells and farmers use them to frighten the birds from their
corn-fields. They string several together and suspend them from the end
of a slender pole stuck in the ground. The wind swaying them, makes a
constant clatter. The Haliotis iris of New Zealand is green and
brilliantly iridescent. A Cape of Good Hope species (H. Mida), under
the epidermis is tinged with color, principally orange.
Some
of the more beautiful species were formerly very abundant on the coasts
of China and Japan, but the constant use of the animal for many years
as a food stuff has made them less common there and the Chinese and
Japanese now obtain a large part of their supply from California, where
the haliotis or abalone, as it
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