SECTION X, zij 



Lifter has feyeral Shells he calls Purpu- 

 ras, but thefe rnore eipecially are his Buc- 

 cina Ampullacea, Rumphius and Linnaeus 

 place them among the Murices, Gualtieri 

 calls them uPrpurae. Argenville makes 

 bis thirteenth family Purpurae, but gives 

 iiQ jdefinition for them: and Davila foU 

 lows him, except that it is his eighth fa- 

 mily, and that he forms two genera of 

 them, which I cannot fay are well cha« 

 raScrized. 



The Purpuras have obtained that name 

 from the purple juice or dye the fifli yielded, 



Further, I do not apprehend the Purpura extra£ls its 

 food by this hole. It is done with a view, either to 

 force the animal out of its Shell, or to kill it, that it 

 may devour it at leifure. There feems to be a wife 

 choice in that part fixed upon. It is in fuch a part of 

 the Screw Shell that the animal cannot crowd itfelf be- 

 low the perforation, and efcape the piercer : fo like- 

 wife in the Chamae and other Shells there is not the 

 lead reafon to apprehend a menfcruum. 



which 



