130 UNIVALVES NERITA. 



bird sonani€d. 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 

 from 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 be included the Nerita histrio, Nerita pli- 

 cata, Nerita grossa, Nerita pica or the magpie Nerite, 

 and the Nerita chamaeleon or changeable Nerite, which 

 is varied with alternate, undulate, black and white rays, 

 or yellowish, undulate with black and white ; the grooves 

 generally about twenty. 



Amongst the fresh-water species may be reckoned the 

 Nerita turrita, which is an inhabitant of the Antilly Isles ; 

 the Nerita aculeata also frequents the rivers of India; 

 the Nerita clathrata and perversa, are found fossil m 

 Campania. 



The following places produce the different species of 

 Neritse : viz. the African, American, Indian, and Euro- 

 pean seas; the Southern and Northern oceans, the Mau- 

 ritius, the Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand, and the 

 Red Sea. 



