212 NATICID.E. 



Genus NA'TICA* Adanson. PL III. f. 4. 



For generic characters see those of the family. 



I thought of separating one species (N. Islandica) , 

 because it has a thinner shell and scarcely any umbili- 

 cus, and of adopting the genus Globulus of Sowerby, or 

 Bulbus of Brown (not of Humphreys) , for which Morch 

 lately substituted Amauropsis. But in all other charac- 

 ters, both of animal and shell, it agrees with Natica ; and 

 I have therefore considered it best, on the whole, not to 

 increase the number of genera. 



Probably the vtjplttjs of Aristotle, which Casaubon 

 interpreted as natex. The shell was merely enumerated 

 by Aristotle among univalves, and said to be inhabited 

 by a kind of hermit crab. Of Nerites it is fabled that 

 he was the son of Nereus and Doris, and that Venus, 

 indignant at his refusal to accompany her to Heaven, 

 metamorphosed him into a beautiful shell. Pliny would 

 have us share his marvellously facile belief that the 

 nerite swims with the mouth of its shell uppermost, 

 raising the front or outer lip to serve as a sail, and thus 

 catching the breeze. The word natice is therefore sup- 

 posed to be derived from the natatory habit of this 

 shell-fish, according to the Bolognese Professor, Aldro- 

 vandi, the fruit of whose laborious investigations of the 

 natural history known to the ancients was not inferior 

 to the similar compilation of Pliny. Natica seems thus 

 to have acquired the vernacular synonyms of "Schwimm- 

 sclmecke " in the German, and " svomskisel " in the 

 Danish language. The pretty spots with which some 

 species of Natica (e. g. N. millepunctata) are ornamented 

 attracted the attention of Olivi, who, in his ' Zoologia 



* Perhaps an emendation of the word natice, given to this shell by 

 Aldrovandi, and derived from its supposed natatory habit. 



