92 



as the animal must sometimes move and must be sometimes turned 

 over, we ought to find some specimens with the flexure partly on 

 one side and partly on the other, but no such specimens have 

 occurred to me. 



I am inclined to believe that it arises from some peculiar predi- 

 lection of the animal itself, by which it probably more easily obtains 

 its food in the peculiar situation in which it resides. 



These shells were sent to England from China by one of Mr. For- 

 tune's collectors. They were accompanied by some specimens of 

 reptiles and insects, on which the Chinese collectors had been exer- 

 cising their ingenuity in hopes of adding to their value. Thus there 

 was a stuffed specimen of a Night Lizard (Gee/co Reevesii) which 

 had a scmare tuft of hair from some mammal stuck on the back of 

 its neck. 



A Snake, which had the claw of a mammal surrounded with fur 

 inserted on each side of its neck just behind the head, so as to make 

 it appear as if it had rudimentary feet armed with large claws. 



Several of the Coleopterous insects, especially the larger Ceram- 

 byces, were painted, so as to give them quite a different appearance 

 from the usual and natural colour of the species. 



I may add that the work was so coarsely executed as to be dis- 

 covered on the most cursory examination of the specimens, and could 

 only have been intended to deceive the most ignorant collectors. 



3. Observations on the Genus Nerita and its Opercu- 

 lum. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., Pres. Ent. 



SOC, ETC. 



The distinction of the species of this genus is rather difficult ; 

 therefore whatever assists in dividing the species into smaller groups 

 is of use, as limiting the number of species between which any doubt 

 can be entertained. 



Considerable confidence has therefore been placed in the form of 

 the surface of the inner lip, which in some species is smooth, in 

 others tubercular or ridged, or both ridged and tubercular ; but 

 in examining a large series of specimens from the same locality, 

 though the character is generally permanent, the tubercles or ridges 

 vary considerably in number and size, and are sometimes almost 

 entirely wanting. It is to be observed that in many of the species 

 which have this part tubercular, the tubercles are more distinct and 

 crowded in the younger, and especially the youngest, than in the 

 older, or what is usually called the more perfectly developed state of 

 the species. In other genera such characters are generally more 

 developed in the shells formed in the most perfect state of the 

 animal. Mr. Adams has formed subgenera on the surface of the 

 inner lip. 



My studies on Mollusca have proved to me that few parts offer 



