James,

This should be answered by Wes from Hawaii, but I'll give a go from New
Mexico.  When Captain James Cook "discovered" the Hawaiian Islands
(obviously, the people who lived there had already discovered them much
earlier -- probably Polynesian sea-going explorers) he named them the
Sandwich Islands after the Earl of Sandwich (and for the life of me, I
can't remember who he was).  This was all in the late 1700s.  Anyway,
that name stuck with the islands for many years even after they had
become known as Hawaii.  So when a shell is named sandwichensis or
whatever, check the date and it will reflect the fact that the shell was
probably named prior to about 1850, when the name was still prominent.
Okay, history lesson over and hopefully vague enough to be pretty close
to accurate.

Tom Eichhorst