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 Terebellce and Sabellce. 
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 Pectinarice and Sabellarice , which 
M. Savigny calls Amphictence and Ilermellce. The name 
Amphitrite has been transferred by M. de Lamarck, to my 
Sabellce . 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 Amphictence of 
Savigny : the Chrysodontes of Aken ; and the Cistence 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 anri - 
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 Sabella Belgica , Gm., Klein., tab. i. 5. 
Echinod. xxxiii. A. B., and as Amph. auricoma , Mull., 
