14 CLASS ANNELIDA. 



Amphitrite, Cuv., 



Are easily recognized by bristles of a golden colour, arranged 

 like combs, or a crown, in one or more rows, on the anterior 

 part of the head, where they probably serve as a defence, or, 

 perhaps, as a means of crawling, or gathering the materials for 

 their tube. ' Around the mouth are very numerous tentacula, 

 and on the commencement of the back, on each side, gills in 

 the form of combs. 



This genus, such as it is in Muller, Bruguieres, Gmelin, 

 and Lamarck, also comprehends the Terehella and Sahellco. 

 I reduced it, in 1804, to its present limits. (Diet, des Sc. 

 Nat. ii. p. 78.) Since then, M. de Lamarck has changed my 

 divisions into genera, his PectinaricB and Sabellari(B, which 

 M. Savigny calls AmphictenaB and Hermellce.. The name 

 Amphitrite has been transferred by M. de Lamarck, to my 

 Sahell(B. M. Savigny, on the contrary, makes it the name of 

 a family. 



Some of them compose light tubes, in the form of regular 

 cones, which they carry along with them. Their gold- 

 coloured bristles form two combs, whose teeth are directed 

 downwards. Their very ample and multifold intestine is 

 usually filled with sand. 



These are the Pectinarice, Lam.; the Amphictente of 

 Savigny : the Chrysodontes of Aken ; and the Cistena; of 

 Leach. This perpetual changing of names — and in the pre- 

 sent case there was not even the pretext of a change of limits 

 in the group — will end by rendering the study of nomenclature 

 much more difficult than that of facts. 



On our coasts, we have, of this division, Amphitrite auri- 

 coma Belgica, Gm., Pall., Miscell. ix. 3 — 5, whose tube, two 

 inches long, is formed of small round grains of divers colours. 

 It is the same as the Sahella Belgica, Gm., Klein., tab. i. 5. 

 Echinod. xxxiii. A. B., and as Amph. auricoma, Mull., 



