f drawn over one of their favourite
spots will be filled with them. I have dredged half a bucketful at one
cast between Karewa and Tauranga in five fathoms of water. The former
name was Rotella zealandica, and Rotella, meaning a little wheel, well
described the appearance of the shell, the waving line representing the
spokes.

~NATICA ZELANDICA~ (Plate VI.).--Fig. 8, a yellowish or reddish-brown
shell, with chestnut-brown bands, the interior being pale brown, the
mouth and its vicinity white. It is a clean, bright little shell,
upwards of an inch across. Those in the ocean are lighter in colour, and
larger and more solid than those found in harbours. As the tide falls in
harbours, they conceal themselves near low water mark, especially in the
vicinity of marine grass banks. When the tide is rising on a warm, sunny
day, they spring out of the sand, dropping sometimes two or three inches
from where they had been concealed. The operculum is horny, with a
shelly outer layer; and the animal is prettily mottled and striped red
and white.

There are two other Natica found in New Zealand, neither of which
exceeds one-third of an inch across, and in shape are very like the N.
zelandica. The Natica australis is a brown or grey shell, and the Natica
vitrea is white.

~NERITA NIGRA~ (Plate VI.).--Fig. 9 (late Nerita saturata) is a heavy,
solid blue-black shell, with a whitish interior. This sombre-looking
member of a handsome tropical family (of which the bleeding tooth Nerita
is the best known) is sometimes over an inch in length, and found in
large numbers clinging to the surf-beaten rocks of the North Island,
quite up to high water mark. The operculum is shelly and prettily
mottled with purple. This shell will stand boiling water, and, in fact,
boiling water is required to kill the animal, which is quite as
tenacious of life as an oyster. The Maori name is Mata ngarahu.

~AMPHIBOLA CRENATA~ (Plate VI.).--Fig. 10 (the New Zealand winkle), lately
known as Amphibola avellana, is an uneven, battered-looking shell of a
mixed brown and purple colour, the interior being purple and the mouth
whitish. It is an inch or more in length. Most mud flats up to high
water mark are strewn with Amphibola. The natives eat this shellfish,
which they call Titiko or Koriakai, in large numbers; but the muddy
flavour, according to our ideas, makes it unpalatable.

~MONODONTA SUBROSTRATA~ (Plate VI.).--Fig. 11 is a yellowish shell, about
half an i