Notiee of several species of Shells. 1^7 



a flattened callus ; lips joined by a very thin callos- 

 ity ; mouth emarginate by the penultimate whirl ! 



Natica patula. Sowerby Zool. Jour. Vol. 1, p. 60. 

 Vide ejus descriptionem 1. c. et figuram pulcherrimam. 

 PI. 5. Fig. 4. 



Axis *8. Conjugate diameter 1-7. Transverse 2-1 inCh, 

 Inhabits the coast of Peru. Capt. Skiddy. 

 Cabinet of the Lyceum. 



REMARKS. 



The beautiful and rare shell here indicated was described, 

 and the description ready for the press, when my friend, Dr 

 Dekay, put into my hands the London Zoological Journal, 

 of which the first number has been lately received, in which I 

 find an excellent figure and full description of the same. I 

 therefore erase the specific name Helicoides, which I had cho- 

 sen, and insert Sowerby's Patula, though, in my judgment, 

 less expressive of the form of the shell than the other, which 

 describes a conformation of the mouth so peculiar to this shell, 

 so unusual in a Natica, and so much resembling the aperture 

 of the Helices, that the friend above named strongly advised 

 the constitution of a new genus to receive this specimen, as 

 the genus Helix is, by modern naturalists, confined exclusively 

 to land shells. I have a shell, from the East Indies, which 

 bears a strong resemblance to the Nation patula above de- 

 scribed. It is perhaps that species in its full-grown and perfect 

 state ; for the thinness and fragility of the N. patula strongly 

 indicate a youthful and imperfect state ; especially when it is 

 observed that the general habit of the genus Natica, is thick 

 and strong. The shell to which I have alluded is of a mid- 

 dling thickness, between the Natica patula of Sowerby and 

 the Natica duplicata of Say. It has the colors and general 

 aspect of the former, and measures 



Axis 1-5. Conjugate 1-9. Transverse 2*3 inches. 

 18 



