100 UNIVALVES NERITA. 



PS are imperforate, yet have their Hps toothed; the prin- 

 cipal of them are the Nerita Pulhgera, Nerita Aterrima* 

 Nerita Undulata, Nerita Larva, and Nerita Virginea; the 

 Jatter of which is an inhabitant of the rivers of South 

 America and India; it has, hke many other species of the 

 Neritge, teeth on the inner lip only : its varieties are infi- 

 nite, and mostly excessively beautiful. They are, by 

 many, called the Guinea-hen or Guinea-fowl Nerites, 

 from some of the varieties resembling the plumage of the 

 bird so named. The Bleeding-teeth Nerite is a well 

 known and beautiful species. 



The Nerita Polita, or Polished Nerite, is most certainly 

 surpassed by none in point of beauty, or extent of its 

 variety; they are smooth shells, and display a brilliant 

 lustre, under which are discoverable the most superb 

 party-colored markings, bandings, and dottings, that can 

 possibly be imagined; they are mostly clouded with 

 green, having intermediate maculate bands of pale pink; 

 but those are considered the rarest, and certainly the most 

 beautiful, which are of a perfect jet black, having three 

 or four bright scarlet bands, which run in a parallel di- 

 rection with the convolutions of the shell. Some are 

 fVom India, but those most valued, are from the South 

 seas ; the aperture or mouth is of a pure white, sometimes 

 having the throat of a beautifully delicate pale yellow. 



Among those Nerites which are strongly ribbed or 

 grooved, may ^*e included the Nerita Histrio, Nerita Pli- 

 cata, Nerita Grossa, Nerita Pica or the Magpie Nerite, 

 and the Nerita Chamaeleonor Changeable Nerite, which 

 i^ varied with alternate, undulate, black and white rays, 

 ©r yellowish undulate with black and white; the grooves, 

 generally about twenty. 



Amongst the fresh-water species may be reckoned the 



