The legs and the thorax are
hard, but not so hard as the legs and the thorax of the crab. It
does not adhere to its shell like the purple murex and the ceryx,
but can easily slip out of it. It is longer when found in the shell of
the stromboids than when found in the shell of the neritae.
And, by the way, the animal found in the shell of the neritae is a
separate species, like to the other in most respects; but of its
bifurcate feet or claws, the right-hand one is small and the left-hand
one is large, and it progresses chiefly by the aid of this latter
and larger one. (In the shells of these animals, and in certain
others, there is found a parasite whose mode of attachment is similar.
The particular one which we have just described is named the
cyllarus.)
The nerites has a smooth large round shell, and resembles the
ceryx in shape, only the poppy-juice is, in its case, not black but
red. It clings with great force near the middle. In calm weather,
then, they go free afield, but when the wind blows the carcinia take
shelter against the rocks: the neritae themselves cling fast like
limpets; and the same is the case with the haemorrhoid or aporrhaid
and all others of the like kind.
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