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Title: The Naturalist's Repository, Volume 1 (of 5) - or Monthly Miscellany of Exotic Natural History: etc. etc.
Author: Donovan, E.
Language: English
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Transcriber Notes
● Obvious typos and punctuation errors corrected. Spelling of names
Lamarck and Bruguière standardized, otherwise variations in
spelling, capitalization and hyphenation retained.
● “var” is sometimes italicized, other times not. It has been kept as
printed.
● Corrections printed in the text as a note to THE BINDER have been
made. In addition, plates 19 and 20 were reversed in the original.
These plates have been swapped so that the correct image precedes
the chapter that discusses it.
● Missing title text “PLATE VI” added at the start of its chapter.
● Missing entry for Plate 36 in the Index has been added. “Polita,
Nerita, var; Pink-Banded Variety of the Thick Polished Nerit 36”
● There are entries in the Index that don’t seem to correspond to
specific text in the related plate chapter, but may refer to a
plant that is in the plate background.
● The author uses asterisks in varying numbers in front of some
descriptive text at the beginning of plate chapters. There are also
a couple of asterisks within the text that appear similar to
footnote indicators, but a corresponding footnote does not seem to
exist. These asterisks have been left in the text in their original
location.
● Footnotes have been moved to the end of their respective chapters.
● Italics are indicated by underscores surrounding the _italic text_.
● Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPS.
● Superscript text is represented by a ^ preceding it, e.g. 1.^{st}.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
NATURALIST’S REPOSITORY,
Monthly Miscellany
OF
EXOTIC NATURAL HISTORY:
CONSISTING OF
ELEGANTLY COLOURED PLATES WITH APPROPRIATE SCIENTIFIC
AND GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
OF THE MOST CURIOUS, SCARCE, AND BEAUTIFUL
PRODUCTIONS OF NATURE
THAT HAVE BEEN RECENTLY DISCOVERED
IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD;
AND MORE ESPECIALLY SUCH
NOVELTIES
As from their extreme Rarity remain entirely undescribed, or which have
not been duly noticed by any preceding Naturalists.
THE WHOLE COMPOSED ACCORDING TO
THE LATEST IMPROVEMENTS IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF
The Science,
AND FORMING COLLECTIVELY A TRULY VALUABLE
COMPENDIUM OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES
OF
QUADRUPEDS, BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS, SHELLS,
MARINE PRODUCTIONS,
AND EVERY OTHER INTERESTING OBJECT OF NATURAL HISTORY,
THE PRODUCE OF FOREIGN CLIMATES.
BY E. DONOVAN, F.L.S. W.S. &c.
VOL. I.
London:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR AND W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL,
STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, LUDGATE STREET.
1823.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plummer and Brewis, Printers,
Love Lane, Eastcheap.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVERTISEMENT.
The Twelfth Number of this work is now respectfully submitted to the
attention of the public. This number, accompanied by the Title Page and
Index, renders the first volume complete. The Subscribers, therefore,
are now enabled to form a correct idea of the nature and object of the
undertaking: and from the style in which it has been so far conducted,
to form some conclusion of that in which it is likely for the future to
be continued.
The general approbation that has been bestowed already upon this
publication can be best appreciated from the extent of sale, which, to
say the least, has been respectable from the commencement,
notwithstanding that the undertaking was began under the manifest
disadvantage of being little known, and the very knowledge of its
existence being still in no small degree circumscribed. It is not,
therefore, without a sense of grateful feeling that the author has
observed that besides the incidental sale of the different detached or
monthly parts selected by purchasers desirous of the plates and
descriptions of some particular object of rarity, that the number of
regular subscribers, instead of diminishing, has rapidly advanced with
the publication of each number in succession, and as it seems to appear
in proportion as the public became better acquainted with its merits,
and the more assured of its uninterrupted continuance. While this
testimony of approbation prevails, the author of this undertaking will
be duly stimulated to exert his best means of rendering it deserving of
their consideration. Nor has he any hesitation in believing that it will
be in his power, under the auspices of public favour, to produce a work
of much elegance, and no mean utility, either as a work of taste for the
library of the general reader, or the admirer of nature; the folios of
the amateur, or the professed Study of the experienced Naturalist.
The commencement of this work was necessarily preceded by a few
observations upon the nature and object of the undertaking: those
observations are no less appropriate on the present occasion than the
former, and for this reason we shall again advert to them in restating
the intention the author has in view. The NATURALIST’S REPOSITORY, or
MONTHLY MISCELLANY OF EXOTIC NATURAL HISTORY, is designed to comprehend
in the most commodious form, a miscellaneous assemblage of elegantly
coloured plates, with appropriate scientific and general descriptions of
the most curious, scarce, and beautiful productions of nature that have
been recently discovered in various parts of the world or may hereafter
occur to the notice of the author; and more especially of such novelties
as from their extreme rarity remain entirely undescribed, or which have
not been duly noticed by any preceding Naturalist.
Most readers, it is presumed, will be aware that the labours of the
authors life, during a course of many years have been directed to the
pursuits of natural science: labours not confined to any one particular
branch or department of the varied face of nature, but extending
generally to the whole. The endeavours of the author to elucidate the
Natural History of the British Isles are sufficiently known from the
various extensive works which have been produced by him during the
course of the last thirty years, and the magnitude which those works
have at length acquired in the progressive course of publication that
had been adopted, is the best criterion of the approbation that has
attended them. But it is not within the views of the author in this
place to expatiate upon a subject which might be deemed irrelevant, the
works alluded to being devoted solely to the productions of our native
country, while the avowed object of the present undertaking is to
comprehend a selection of those only which are peculiar to foreign, and
with few exceptions, to extra European climates. The chief motive of the
author in adverting to those works, is to point out a style and mode of
execution for the present undertaking, which, from the very extensive
patronage those former labours of the author have experienced, may be
considered applicable in a very peculiar degree to every purpose of
correct elucidation, and as one most likely to ensure by its elegance
and perfection that same proportion of general approbation which the
other productions of the author have obtained.
With respect to the means within the author’s power of rendering this
work deserving of the public notice, either as to the novelty, variety,
rarity, or beauty of the various objects it is destined to embrace, the
author must rather trust to the favourable opinion which the world may
entertain in its behalf, from the examples now submitted to
consideration, than to any preliminary observations he can offer: he
shall only presume respectfully that they are adequate to the purpose,
and calculated to answer every moderate expectation his preliminary
observations may have excited.
It will be readily conceived that the opportunities of the author’s
life, so assiduously devoted to the Science of Nature, must have enabled
him to enrich his _port feuilles_ with a collection of DRAWINGS,
MANUSCRIPTS, and MEMORANDA of no mean importance in all its branches.
This is perfectly correct. His own Museum confined chiefly, but not
exclusively, to the productions of Great Britain, have afforded many
rarities, the offspring of foreign climates, which could not elsewhere
be procured. But independently of those resources which his own
collection has afforded, his other means have been amply extensive.
Through the kindness of his scientific friends, he has had unlimited
access to many other collections of acknowledged moment, for the purpose
of enriching his Collectanea with drawings and descriptions of the more
interesting rarities which those cabinets respectively contained. Some
of those collections exist no longer and are probably now forgotten, but
the memory of others, even among the number of those which have passed
away, will ever be cherished with regret in the mind of every man of
science by whom their merits were understood. The preservation even of
the memorials of some minor portion of the rarities which those
collections once embodied can scarcely fail to prove of interest at the
present day, while their total loss to the rising generation will be in
some degree appreciated from the memoranda and occasional references
that will appear respecting them in the progress of the present work: to
enumerate the many collections of private individuals, the rarities of
which have contributed to render this collection of the author’s
drawings important, would extend our advertisement far beyond our
intended limits. It may be sufficient to observe that the late Leverian
Museum, rich in every branch of Natural History, has tended in an
eminent degree to this effect; the author having been favoured with
unreserved permission to take drawings and memoranda of whatever he
deemed important, besides having subsequently enriched his own Museum
with a very ample portion of that fine collection, by public purchase,
at the time of its dispersion; particularly in the different tribes of
the Mammiferous animals, in Ornithology, Ichthyology, and various
others; and also with every object materially important among the
extraneous fossils which that splendid museum originally contained. It
will be also seen from many of our pages that through the kindness of
the late worthy President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, the
rich and truly scientific collection of that munificent patron of the
sciences was ever open to us for the furtherance of our pursuits in
Natural History; and of the object of the present work among others. The
collections of Mr. Drury, and also that of Mr. Francillon, in the
particular branches of Entomology, are too considerable to be passed
slightly over: the rarities of both these collections have in an eminent
degree improved our means of rendering this work important. And lastly
we may mention among other scientific acquisitions the Collectanea of
drawings formed by the pencil of the late Mr. Jones of Chelsea, together
with the manuscripts of Fabricius in elucidation, as a treasure which
cannot be too highly appreciated when we recollect the importance of the
Fabrician writings on the continent, and remember also that those
drawings afford the only illustration of the most splendid portion of
the insect race which that author exclusively describes, and by which
very many of the species can alone be now determined.
In conclusion of these remarks it may be observed, however, that while
in our elucidation of those rarities which the collections and museums
above adverted to have so amply afforded, we render a deserved tribute
of record to the liberality of those whose services in the cause of
Natural History have so amply contributed to its advancement in former
days, the author will not remain unmindful of those advantages which the
many valuable collections of the present period offer. It will appear as
this work proceeds that he is in no small degree indebted to the favor
of many eminent scientific characters of our time, as well as those who
have preceded them, for their permission to take drawings and
descriptions of such rarities in their collections as really appear
worthy of distinct consideration. And it may be added finally that he
shall at all times avail himself with pleasure, and acknowledge with
thanks, any further advantages of the same kind which the favours of
others may be induced to allow for the purpose of enriching the present
undertaking.
LAMBETH,
_March 1st, 1823_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
TO
VOL. I.
Plate. Fig.
Acamas, Papilio; Acamas’s Butterfly 18
Agave, Papilio; Agave’s Butterfly 6 2
Ageæa, Papilio; Ageæa’s Butterfly 12
Alliacea, Peteveria, America 24 1
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_ Amboinensis; 1 1
Three-Banded High-Spired Admiral Shell
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_; Six-Banded 1 2
High-Spired Admiral Shell
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_ Cedonulli; 1 3
Olive-Banded Nonpareil Cone
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_ Fulvous 1 4
Nonpareil Cone
Aurantiaea, Jacquinia, Sandwich Isles 25
Aurora, Cypræa; Aurora, Morning Dawn, or 32
Orange Cowry
Belladonna, Papilio; Belladonna’s 35
Butterfly
Bengalus, Fringilla, Blue-Bellied Finch 10
Camara Lantana, West Indies 18
Cayana, Ampelis, Purple-Throated 14
Chatterer
Ciris, Emberiza, Painted Bunting 7
Codomannus, Papilio, Codomannus’s 3 1, 1
Butterfly
Dimas, Papilio, Dimas’s Butterfly 27 2
Foliatus, Murex, Tri-Foliated Murex, or 15
Rock Shell
Galgulus, Psittacus, Sapphire Crowned 17
Parrakeet
Harpa, Buccinum var testudo, 8
Tortoise-Shell Harp
Hippodamia, Papilio; Hippodamia’s 31
Butterfly
Homerus, Papilio; Homer’s Butterfly 19
Imperialis, Trochus var Roseus; Roseate 11
Imperial Sun Trochus
Maculatus Psittacus; Spotted-Breasted 33
Parrakeet
Marcellina, Papilio; Marcellina’s 6 1, 1
Butterfly
Melanopterus, Psittacus; Black-Winged 30
Parrakeet
Ornatus, Trochilus; Tufted-Necked 25
Humming Bird
Ovata, Goodenia; Ovate-Leaved Goodenia 20
Palustre, Sedum, North America 29
Parmentaria, Erica 35
Pella, Trochilus, Topaz Humming Bird 5
Polita, Nerita, var; Pink-Banded Variety 36
of the Thick Polished Nerit
Psamethe, Papilio, Psamethe’s Butterfly 9
Punctata, Pipra, Punctata, or Speckled 20
Manakin
Pylades, Papilio, Pylades’s Butterfly 13
Pyramus, Papilio, Pyramus’s Butterfly 3 2, 2
Pyrum, Voluta, Pear Volute, Front View 21 1
---- Reversed Ditto, or Sacred Chank 21 2
Shell, Front View
Pyrum, Voluta, Pear Volute, Back View 22 1
---- Reversed Ditto, or Sacred Chank 22 2
Shell, Back View
Sanguinea, Terebratulo, Sanguineous Lamp 34
Anomia, or Lamp Cockle
Scalaris, Turbo (Scalaria Pretiosa) 26
Scarce Wentletrap
Scapha, Volute var Nobilis, Noble 4
Chinese Volute
Scorpio, Murex, var Minor; Least Stag’s 16
Horn Murex
Thersites, Papilio, Thersites Butterfly 24
Tricolor, Tanagra β, Tricoloured Tanager 23
Tros, Papilio, Tros’s Butterfly 29
Viridis, Trogon, Yellow-Bellied Green 2
Trogon or Curucui
Vulgaris, Malleus, Hound’s Tongue Hammer 28
Shell
Zacynthus, Papilio, Zacynthus’s 27 1
Butterfly
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
THE BINDER
Is requested to observe that the Numbers have been transposed by
mistake upon the Three following Plates.
For Plate 27 _read_ 25.
Plate 25 _read_ 26.
Plate 26 _read_ 27.
And place the plates with their respective descriptions according to
this correction.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_1_
_London. Published by E. Donovan as the Act
directs April, 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
NATURALIST’S REPOSITORY.
_&c. &c. &c._
CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE I.
FIGURE I.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var AMBOINENSIS.
THREE-BANDED AMBOYNA HIGH-SPIRED
ADMIRAL SHELL.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Animal a limax. Shell univalve, convolute and turbinate. Aperture
effuse, longitudinal, linear, without teeth, entire at the base: pillar
smooth.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell with rough punctures at the base.
CONUS AMMIRALIS: testa basi punctato scabra.
CONUS AMMIRALIS: testa basi punctato. _Linn. Syst. Nat. 10 p. 714. n.
257._—_Mus. Lud. Ulr. 553. n. 157. Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 3378.
10._
CONUS AMMIRALIS _var_ AMBOINENSIS. α. Spire high and tapering; shell
pyriform, glossy, smooth, pale yellowish with two broad bands of
testaceous marked with large subsaggitate oval spots of white, and a
narrow band between composed of white spots and intermediate testaceous
dots.
* * * * *
Were it within the contemplation of our present views to enter into the
ancient history of the science of Conchology, we should be under little
difficulty in demonstrating upon the authority of the best informed
historians as well as ancient classics that it has a claim to very
remote antiquity. The study of Shells prevailed, at least to some
extent, in those early times when the generality of mankind believe the
world to have been buried in the depths of ignorance. At periods, even
when some among those of better information may be inclined to imagine
that the ancients could have had no very accurate conceptions of the
nature of these bodies, or of their classification, natural or
artificial, and even when it might be supposed from the warlike temper
of the age the collecting of shells would have been deemed an unworthy
occupation, we discover sufficient indications to prove that their
leisure hours were so employed. The productions of the sea were
delineated in their manuscripts; Pliny speaks of the delight the artist
took in painting the asterias, or sea stars. The spontaneous offerings
of the ocean were depicted in their natural colours upon the walls of
their dwellings, abundant evidence of which appears among the ancient
paintings of Herculaneum and Pompeii; and that the shells themselves
were sometimes collected by the ancients is placed beyond a doubt from
those remains which have been found, at various times, among the relics
of those celebrated ruins, and also among the ruins of the Roman town,
perhaps no less ancient, denominated La Scava.
It is declared by Pliny, in the ninth book of his Natural History, that
the Romans of his time were better acquainted with the productions of
the sea than the animals of the land, a circumstance he attributes, and
unquestionably with sufficient reason, to the extravagant excess to
which the luxurious taste of those times was carried. This will excite
the less surprise when we recollect the various useful results deduced
from this investigation. Of these we have several very memorable
examples; the exquisite dyes of green, the scarlet, and the imperial
purple, which they possessed and prized so eminently, were all the
produce of testaceous bodies. And so likewise the pearls gathered from
the various perlaceous bivalve shells; and pearls we are assured were in
those days valued at Rome, as in Egypt, at a price infinitely beyond
that of gold and gems, the diamond alone excepted.
Pliny tells us, that, in his time, after the diamonds of India and
Arabia, pearls were esteemed most precious, and that we may be under no
error as to the application of the text to the pearls found in shells,
he further adds, that he had before spoken of these pearls in his book
that treats upon the productions of the sea[1]. The diamonds in those
times were so scarce, and esteemed so highly, as to be little known,
except among princes, the smaller and most inferior kinds alone
excepted. The pearls were the most costly jewels employed in the
ornaments for the ears, the neck, and fingers of the fair sex, and the
shells themselves were converted into various articles of finery for
their wardrobe and furniture.
But it is not, as before observed, within our province in this place, to
enter into any such latitude of explanation as an ample illustration of
these remarks may be conceived to merit. It is our object only to
express ourselves in general terms: it may be sufficient therefore to
observe, that among the luxuries of the great in the times of Pliny,
Oppian, and Juvenal, it is certain they indulged their peculiar taste in
the study of these productions of the deep. They not only amassed
together the more curious among those shells whose beauty attracted
their regard, they entered also to some extent into their history and
manners, and were sufficiently informed as to their natural properties
to render them subservient to the general purposes of luxury and life.
They knew the distinctions between the land, the fresh-water, and the
marine tribes of shells, and they proceeded with minuteness and
sometimes fully into their history. No classic reader of the Halieutics
of Oppian will doubt the general acquaintance of the ancients with those
beings in their native element, nor will any one imagine, who is
conversant with the lives of the philosophers of the infant ages of the
world, that the study of Conchology, even as a science, was unknown. So
many writings of the ancients, even of the classic ages of Greece and
Rome, have disappeared, that it may be now impossible to form any very
accurate conclusions, at the same time that enough remains to justify
our persuasion that it was far from inconsiderable. Among others, the
works of Aristotle, the preceptor of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander,
have survived the ravages of time, and very happily, for the history of
human knowledge unfolds to us the views which the ancients had then
taken of natural science, and among the rest of the science of
Conchology; and there is, moreover, every reason to believe that in the
classification of the testaceous tribes, or shells, which the writings
of this philosopher present us, we, in reality, possess the arrangement
of the shells composing the Conchological collection of that most potent
monarch, the conqueror of the world:—the classical distribution of the
shells of the great Alexander, as they were disposed by the most
celebrated naturalist of his age, and at a period more remote than three
centuries before the commencement of the Christian æra.
The Science of Conchology, like that of all other branches of nature,
has undergone its mutations at various periods. Generally, it has held a
rank of some eminence, a circumstance attributable no doubt to the
peculiar beauty of this interesting tribe. In speaking of the latter
times, the period of the last and preceding centuries, it would be
difficult to determine in which country of civilized Europe the science
of Conchology has been most esteemed; at one time, the virtuosi of
Holland, at another of France, and latterly of Britain, have endeavoured
to produce the most extensive and costly cabinets of Conchology, and
each in consequence may perhaps have excelled alternately; nor were
other countries of Europe in this respect less emulous, or materially
deficient in the number and excellence of their collections in this
department of nature, during the same periods.
We have been unavoidably led into this train of digression and remark
from a due consideration of the very interesting history connected with
the shells which form the subject of the annexed Plate, the particulars
of which, it is presumed, will be found to justify the general tendency
of these observations, and these remarks may be considered also as a
prelude to the introduction of many others among the number of those
rarities which it is within our contemplation to produce progressively
in the course of the present work; shells, to which the prevalence of
general taste has assigned a value and importance scarcely less
considerable than the nonpareil cones, or the eminently celebrated cedo
nulli.
The first shell in the plate before us that invites attention from its
magnitude is that superb cone delineated at figure I. This shell, which
once held a distinguished place in the Leverian Museum, is two inches
and six-eighths in length, its greatest breadth one inch and
three-eighths. The general colour pale yellowish, with two bands of
chesnut, marked with irregular arrow-headed spots of white, and an
intermediate narrow band composed of white spots of the same form, each
connected by means of an intervening dot of chesnut, which, together,
form a catenated band of peculiar elegance. When very closely examined
with the aid of a magnifier, the whole surface of the shell appears
finely reticulated with yellow.
This shell was sold in one of the latter day’s sale of the Leverian
Museum for the sum of five guineas and a half.
FIGURE II.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var AMBOINENSIS β.
SIX-BANDED AMBOYNA HIGH-SPIRED
ADMIRAL SHELL.
Spire high and tapering; shell subpyriform; smooth, pale yellowish,
sprinkled with fulvous; body-wreath with six bands, the three uppermost
linear, and composed of alternate white and chesnut-coloured dots, the
three lower of two broad castaneous bands, marked with subsaggitate oval
spots, and an intermediate narrow belt of alternate brown and white
dots.
* * * * *
This shell, like the former, (fig. I) constituted part of the Leverian
collection of exotic shells. Its length is an inch and half, its
greatest breadth exceeding five-eighths of an inch.
Notwithstanding the inferiority of its size, this very elegant and
curious shell is not less interesting than the preceding. The general
tints in both are nearly the same, but in the present shell are rather
deeper, the dots of fulvous brighter and more thickly sprinkled, and the
bands more numerous. Like the former shell it has two broad bands of
brown, checquered with subovate spots of white, and an intermediate
dotted line, but these are placed rather nearer towards the narrower end
of the shell, and the intervening space between the spire and the larger
band, encompassed or girt round with two other linear bands, composed of
white and brown dots, besides another still more conspicuous, and
composed of larger spots along the base or body-wreath, contiguous to
the spire or turban.
This little shell may be considered as affording an excellent type of
one of the rarer kinds of Conus Ammiralis, the variety denominated the
Six-banded high-spired Admiral Cone. During a period of some years that
have now elapsed since the dispersion of that collection, no other
example of this variety has occurred to our observation more perfect and
characteristic in all its markings.
FIGURE III.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var CEDO NULLI α.
OLIVE-BANDED NONPAREIL CONE.
Spire high and tapering; marbled white, fulvous, and dusky; body-wreath
with three subolivaceous bands, the broadest towards the spire, with
four belts of whitish dots; the two others towards the narrow end each
with a single row of dots.
* * * * *
If in the preceding instances we have produced some novelties worthy of
particular attention, the present shell, in point of value as well as
beauty, must also lay a distinguished claim to our consideration. This
is one of those rare varieties of Conus Ammiralis denominated the CEDO
NULLI, or CEDO NULLI _pretiossissimus_, in allusion to the incomparable
value affixed to the varieties of this peculiar species. The importance
attached to the shells of this kind may indeed be best conceived by
stating that some of its varieties have been valued at twenty, fifty,
and one hundred guineas; one, in almost every respect resembling that
delineated at figure 4, the celebrated Cedo Nulli of Lyonet’s cabinet,
was valued by Lyonet himself, about the year 1732, at three hundred
guineas; and either this shell, or another very similar to it, actually
realized a sum of 1200 florins.
As the shells of this kind may very justly be presumed to be of the
first rarity, every trait of information that may appear calculated to
elucidate their history, it is presumed, will not only be permitted but
be deemed acceptable, and under this impression the ensuing observations
are submitted.
Much about the æra of the first explosion of the French Revolution of
1789, and within the space of a few years after, it is perfectly well
known that many of the choicest cabinets and collections of rarities
that had before been the pride of France and Holland were consigned to
this country for the sake of safety, and being in some instances
afterwards dispersed, had tended, in no small degree, to enrich the
cabinets of our own country. It was at this period that many very rare
shells occurred to our observation which have since disappeared, and
among others, several of those varieties of Cedo nulli which had been
before held in other parts of Europe in considerable estimation. In the
year 1797 we saw no less than five specimens of this rare shell, all
varying a little from each other, in the cabinet of the French Minister
of State, M. de Calonne; in one, the colour was pale, in another deeper,
one was lineated, and another distinguished by having three distinct
bands.
At the dispersion of the Calonnian Museum, which took place by public
sale rather more than twenty years ago, the series of these valuable
shells passed into the fine collection of the present Earl Tankerville,
a collection his lordship was then forming for the pleasure of an
amiable and beloved daughter since deceased, and these shells are still
considered among the more choice rarities of that valuable cabinet.
The shell, however, more immediately under our consideration, the
variety, delineated at figure 3, is from another source; it was among
the spoils of rarities sent over to this country from Holland, at the
time of the insurrection connected with the first inroads of the French
into that country. The shell passed into the hands of a merchant of
curiosities in London, and being afterwards sold, its destination is
uncertain; the price affixed was twenty guineas.
This shell corresponded very nearly with the variety denominated Seba’s
Cedo nulli, having once formed a part of the museum of the celebrated
Seba, but it could not be the same, because the entire collection of
Seba, which at the period of the French invasion constituted part of the
Royal Museum of the Stadtholder, was carried into France and its
contents distributed among the other objects of natural history in the
French Museum[2]. The description which Favanne has left us of the CEDO
NULLI DE SEBA is in the following words, and will be found on a near
comparison to accord pretty accurately with our present shell:—“_Le Cedo
nulli_ de Seba, à large bande citron foncé, chargée de quatre
cordelettes de grains inégaux, blancs, bleus, rouges et orangés. Le
reste de sa robe est fascié et marbré d’orangé-brun, de jaune, de rouge
et bleu-pâle sur un fond blanc avec deux bandes grenues vers le bas.”
FAVANNE, t. ii. p. 422.
FIGURE IV.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var CEDO NULLI β.
FULVOUS NONPAREIL CONE.
Spire high and tapering, fulvous reddish and orange, varied and marbled
with white; two orange bands, each with four belts of white dots, and a
single series near the tip.
* * * * *
The shell from which this drawing is taken fell also into the possession
of the same individual as the last, and much about same period. This
rarity was disposed of, as I have been informed, at a price exceeding
that of the former, and passed shortly after, I believe, into the
Imperial cabinet, at Vienna, or otherwise into one of the continental
cabinets in the north of Europe, a circumstance we have not, at this
distant period, any means whatever of determining.
The accordance between this shell and the celebrated Cedo nulli of
Lyonet’s cabinet, which, as before intimated, was estimated at the value
of three hundred guineas, will not escape the remark those who are
acquainted with the description of Lyonet’s shell. According to Favanne
there were two or more varieties of the Cedo nulli, in his time, in
France, that bore a very near resemblance to the shell of Lyonet; he
speaks of one in the cabinet of Madame La Presidente de Bandeville,
which differed in its marbling of white: in being larger and more
prolonged upon the top of the first whorl, ather larger, and interrupted
with veins of orange, and the last of the two belts of white spots which
follows this zone near the bottom of the first whorl, composed of rather
larger spots; with these exceptions the two shells were precisely the
same.
The Cedo nulli of Lyonet is described as being of a yellowish colour,
divided into bands, the lower one and that in the middle marbled with
white, the other two marked, the one with four little belts with white
dots, the second with only three[3].
I ought not to close these remarks without observing, that these shells
vary so considerably that no two specimens have yet occurred that agree
precisely with each other. Some approach also, but are clouded instead
of banded; these are the French Cedo nulli graphique, Conus mappa of
Solander, and being held in less esteem from having their colours
disposed in clouds instead of bands, have obtained the name of the false
Cedo nulli. The transitions of these shells, it must be confessed are so
various as to render it extremely difficult, if not unsafe, to determine
where one species ends and another commences, the difference in the
colours affords no sufficient data, neither is the form of the shell,
nor the height of the spire so uniformly certain as to constitute a
precise criterion.
Linnæus, in his description of the conchological cabinet of her majesty
_Ludovica Ulrica_, the Queen of Sweden*, speaks of three different
varieties of Conus Ammiralis α _Ammiralis summus_, β _Ammiralis
ordinarius_, γ _Ammiralis occidentalis_, and these are again recited in
his Systema Natura. But it will be seen from the last edition of that
work, by Professor Gmelin, that the varieties discovered subsequently to
the age of that inestimable naturalist are very considerable, amounting
to no less than thirty different kinds, and these do not include the
whole at present known. Gmelin, it should be added, admits only two or
three kinds as the true CEDO NULLI, which he characterizes essentially
as being encompassed with dotted articulated belts, Cedo nulli cingulis
punctato-articulatis; one he describes as being yellow, painted with
red, and marked with eleven distinct belts of milk white; another,
orange with crouded elevated interrupted chesnut lines.
These shells inhabit chiefly the South American Seas; the true Cedo
nulli, as it is called, has been found at Grenada. Some of the varieties
of Conus Ammiralis, are not very uncommon, and are in infinitely less
esteem than others; for, as it has already appeared, it is in proportion
to their rarity in addition to some peculiarity in the colours and
markings, and most especially in their disposition into the form of
bands, that taste and fancy has affixed a value so considerable as that
which these shells are sometimes known to bear.
-----
Footnote 1:
(Adamas.) “Proximum apud nos Indicis Arabicisque margaritis pretium
est, de quibus in nono diximus volumine inter res marinas.” _Plin.
Hist. Nat. lib 37. cap. 4._
Footnote 2:
Vide _Annales du Museum National_. _An._ xi. (1802) _Premier Cahier_.
Footnote 3:
Le Cedo Nulli à bandes, ou dont la robe jaunâtre se partage en quatre
bandes, l’inférieure et celle du milieu sont comparties de marbrures
blanches, les deux autres sont remplies, l’une de quatre cordelettes à
point blancs, la seconde de trois seulement. _Tom._ 1, p. 442.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Published by E. Donovan & Simpkin &
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]
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE II.
TROGON VIRIDIS.
YELLOW-BELLIED GREEN TROGON,
OR
CURUCUI.
ORDER
PICÆ.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill shorter than the head, sharp edged, hooked margin of the mandibles
serrated: feet scansorial or formed for climbing.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Green gold, beneath luteous; chin black; on the breast a green gold
band.
TROGON VIRIDIS: viridi-aureus, subtus luteis, gula nigra, fascia
pectorali viridi-aurea. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 2. 404. n. 3._
TROGON VIRIDIS, _Linn. Syst. Nat. edit. 12. 1. p. 167. 3._
Trogon Cayanensis viridis. _Briss. av. 4. p. 168. n. 2 t. 17._
Couroucou à ventre jaune. _Buff. Ois. 6. p. 291. Pl. Enl. 195._
TROGON VIRIDIS: viridi-aureus subtus luteis, gula nigra, retricibus
utrinque tribus extimis oblique et dentatim albis. _Lath. Ind.
Orn. t. 1. p. 199. 2._
Yellow-bellied Curucui. _Lath. Gen. Syn. 2. p. 488. 2._
* * * * *
This curious and very elegant bird is about twelve inches in length; the
bill an inch long and of a pale cinereous or ashen hue, and, like most
other species of this remarkable genus, serrated along the margin. The
legs are feathered to the toes, and with the toes and claws are of a
pale brown.
The colour of the head and neck of this species is black, very richly
glossed with blue, which appears, in different directions of the light,
highly splendid upon its surface. Upon the crown of the head the blue
verges into violet and purple, and in descending towards the neck
becomes changeable into a fine green, glossed with gold; these brilliant
hues appear also on the sides of the neck, and passing round as a kind
of pectorial band forms in particular a rich zone of golden green upon
the breast.
The pale ashen hue of the bill is singularly contrasted with the deep
black and violet of the head and neck, and the sudden transition of the
colours of the body is no less remarkable, the plumage in this part
becoming abruptly of a fine yellow from the breast down to the thighs;
these latter are black, but the vent feathers beyond are of a fine
yellow, like the colour of the abdomen. The upper parts of the body are
green glossed with yellowish and partaking of a golden lustre. The upper
wing coverts and scapulars are dark fuscous, mottled with greyish; the
quill feathers dark brown, quills from the base to the middle white. The
tail is cuneated or wedge-formed, the middle feathers being longer than
the outer ones. These feathers are most singularly contrasted with the
rest, being of a fine dark green, glossed with gold, and at the tip
black, while the three outer feathers on the contrary are white, and
from the base downwards nearly to the tip very elegantly marked with
oblique indented bars of black, leaving the tip of each feather
immaculate; the inner one of these three exterior feathers are the same
length as the dark ones, but the next outer feather is shorter, and the
extreme exterior feather on each side shorter than the latter.
There is a variety of this bird in which the belly, instead of being
yellow, is white; the whole bird is a trifle smaller than the example
now before us, and may possibly prove hereafter to be the same species,
in a less mature state of plumage. Buffon calls it _Le Couroucou verd_.
All the birds of this tribe at present known are inhabitants of the
warmer climates of South America and India. Our present subject is a
native of Cayenne, where it lives in damp and retired woods, building
upon the lower branches of trees and feeding chiefly upon insects, with
which the trees and herbage in those countries abound.
This truly interesting and very beautiful species is already known in
our language by the epithet of the yellow-bellied Trogon or Curucui.
There is, however, another bird of the same genus, which has the belly
yellow, as in the present bird; we allude to the Rufous Curucui, the
better therefore to define our species we have denominated it the
yellow-bellied Green Trogon, or Curucui, as the least attention to the
difference in the general colour of the plumage will thus enable the
most cursory observer to discriminate the two species with facility and
accuracy.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Published by E. Donovan, as the Act
directs April 1.^{st} 1822._
]
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE III.
FIGURE I, I.
PAPILIO CODOMANNUS.
CODOMANNUS BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire, deep black with sanguineous bands: posterior ones beneath
with annular yellow lines and dots of blue.
* DANAI FESTIVI _Fabr._
PAPILIO CODOMANNUS: alis integerrimis atris sanguineo fasciatis:
posticis subtus lineis annularibus flavis punctisque cœruleis.
_Fabr. Spec. Ins. t. 2. p. 57. n. 253._—_Mant. Ins. 2. p. 28. n.
292._—_Ent. Syst. t. 3. p. 1. p. 53. n. 165._
Alae anticæ supra atrae basi fasciaque, quæ margines haud attingit,
sanguineis. Punctum fulvum transversum versus apicem et margo apicis
albo punctatus. Subtus fere concolores fascia tantum flava et striga
cœrulea apicis. Posticæ supra atræ vitta abbreviata fulva, subtus atræ
lineis annularibus flavis punctisque cœrulescentibus. Pectus albo
punctatum. _Fabr._
PAPILIO CODOMANNUS alis integerrimis atris sanguineo fasciatis:
posterioribus subtus lineis annularibus flavis punctisque
cœruleis. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. t. 1. p. 5. 2280. n. 473._
* * * * *
The delineations of the very beautiful butterfly that appears in the
annexed plate, are copied from a specimen in the cabinet of the late
worthy president of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks.
Fabricius had previously observed and made known throughout Europe the
description of this species with many others of the Banksian Cabinet,
but the figures of it now submitted to the amateur are the first that
have appeared.—When we consider the celebrity which the entomological
writings of Fabricius have acquired it may be satisfactory to learn that
the delineation now before us is copied from the individual specimen
which Fabricius had described, and that no other figure of this very
interesting Papilio is extant.
The upper surface of the butterfly is of a dark brown colour of peculiar
richness, crossed by stripes of deep scarlet. The insect with expanded
wings displayed in a flying position in the lower part of the plate
exemplifies this aspect of the upper surface. The lower surface is much
more beautiful; the marks and colours on the anterior pair possess
nearly the same character as those of the upper surface; the posterior
pair are very different, being marked with large annular bands of bright
yellow upon a fuscous ground, and inclosing a number of distinct spots
of cœrulean blue, which in beauty emulate the brilliancy of the finest
ultra marine: three of these blue spots are placed in the dark ground
upon the disk, the remainder are disposed in a semi-circle upon a band
of black towards the posterior extremity of the wings. This appearance
is best perceived when the insect appears in a resting position as it is
seen on one of the branches of the mimosa in the upper part of the
plate.
This insect is a native of Brazil.
FIGURE II.
PAPILIO PYRAMUS.
PYRAMUS BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob;
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire, fuscous glossed with blue, and marked with a fulvous spot;
lower wings beneath grey.
PLEBEJI RURALES, _Fabr. Sp. Ins._
HESPERIA RURALES, _Fabr. Ent. Syst._
PAPILIO PYRAMUS: alis integerrimis fuscis cœruleo micantibus, macula
fulva, posticis subtus griseis. _Fabr. Spec. Ins. 2 p. 130. n.
590._—_Mant. Ins. 2 p. 83. n. 755._
HESPERIA PYRAMUS: _Fabr. Ent. Syst. t. 3. p. 1. 323. n. 223._ Alæ omnes
fuscæ, cœruleo micantibus: macula magna, in medio fulva. Anticæ,
subtus concolores, posticæ griseæ sive cinereo fuscoque variæ.
_Fabr._
* * * * *
Fabricius describes Papilio Pyramus as a new species of the genus from
the drawings of the late Mr. Jones, of Chelsea, a gentleman of fortune
who had long devoted his attention to this peculiar tribe of insects,
the Papiliones, and whose labours tended in a very eminent degree to aid
those of Fabricius. In return for this assistance, Fabricius affixed to
each of those insects the names under which they were destined
afterwards to appear before the world, a circumstance that may explain
sufficiently the frequent references of the Fabrician writings to those
drawings, first in his _Species Insectorum_, and subsequently in his
_Entomologia Systematica_. It may be further added, that the whole of
these drawings, together with the manuscripts in the hand-writing of
Fabricius were long in our own possession, during the life-time of the
very amiable proprietor, Mr. Jones, for the very liberal purpose of
copying and making known to the public whatever might appear likely to
us to promote the interest and advantage of the Science of Nature; and
that the insect now before us is one of those very rare species copied
for this purpose.
The specimen from which the painting of Mr. Jones was taken formed
originally part of the collection of the lamented Mr. Yates, the
ingenious author of an English translation of the Linnæan Fundamenta
Entomologia, that appeared about forty years ago, and who lost his life
by bathing in the river some short time afterwards.
There was a variety of this insect, pretty nearly but not exactly
according with this in the collection of an old and well-known
entomologist, the late Mr. Drury, a figure of which appeared shortly
after the publication of the Fabrician writings as the true Papilio
Pyramus. It was not precisely the same as it appeared to us from an
inspection of the specimen in the cabinet of Mr. Drury. This insect is
to be found represented in the 23rd plate of the third volume of the
Exotic Insects of that author, published in the year 1782.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
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]
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE IV.
VOLUTA SCAPHA var NOBILIS,
NOBLE CHINESE VOLUTE.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Animal a limax. Shell uniocellar, spiral; aperture without a beak and
sub-effuse: pillar twisted or plaited: generally without lips or
perforation.
* Ventricose, spire papillary at the tip, or terminating in an obtuse
rounded eminence.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
_Var_ NOBLE CHINESE VOLUTE: Shell smooth clouded with zig-zag brown
lines, pillar blueish and four plaited: lip subulate.
VOLUTA SCAPHA (var, NOBILIS) testa lævi nebulosa; lineis angularibus
fuscis columella caerulescente quadruplicata, labro subulato.
VOLUTA SCAPHA: testa rudi nebulosa: lineis angularibus fuscis columella
cærulescente quadruplicata, labro subulato.—_Gmel. Linn. Syst.
Nat. t. 1. p. 6. 3468. 121._ _Hist. Conch. t. 799. f. 6._
_Kircher 3. f. 10._ _Bonanni, c. 3. 113. f. 10._ _Klein Ostr. t.
5. f. 94._
* * * * *
The fine example from which our figure of this rare and interesting
Volute is taken, once held a distinguished place in the Conchological
department of the celebrated museum of Sir Ashton Lever. The length of
this shell is four inches and one eighth, its greatest breadth two
inches and three eighths; the colour a kind of buff with an olivaceous
tint, and the whole surface traversed with a number of irregularly
undulated or zig-zag lines of dark brown, disposed longitudinally
throughout: the peculiar character of which will be conceived more
readily from the delineation than from any explanation that can be
conveyed by words. These longitudinal lines are numerous upon the back
or superior surface of the first wreath of the shell, and extends also
on the lower surface as far as the dilated space of the columella or
pillar lip; which latter is of a pure white and destitute of any
markings. The mouth or aperture with the interior of the shell is also
white, and the plaits of the pillar, which constitutes one of the most
essential characters of the genus Volute, are prominent and well
defined.
This species of Voluta has long retained its reputation as a shell of
distinguished rarity; it was very rare in the time of Kircher and
Bonanni, and it has continued scarce even to the present period. At the
sale of the Leverian collection, the example of which the delineation is
now before us, produced the sum of five guineas and a half: since that
time other specimens of the same species have occurred occasionally to
observation, but which have still maintained an equal price in
proportion to their excellence or perfection. The Leverian shell was a
most select example, and has not been surpassed in point of beauty by
any of the specimens we have since seen. At the dissolution of that
inestimable museum, which happened in the year 1806, this admirable
shell passed into the possession of the worthy secretary of the Linnæan
Society, A. Mc. Leay, Esq. and it still constitutes a part of the fine
Conchological collection of that very eminent naturalist.
The late Dr. Solander, as it appears from his manuscripts preserved in
the library of the late worthy President of the Royal Society, Sir
Joseph Banks, Bart. had designated this kind of Voluta by the name of
Nobilis; it is a fine shell and not unworthy of that distinguished
appellation. It is however certain, that it is no other than a variety
of Voluta Scapha of the Linnæan school[4], and as the changing and
transposition of names that are sufficiently explicit and well
understood can only tend to create confusion instead of aiding the
pursuits of science, we can have no hesitation in retaining it under its
former designation. As a variety, we admit this shell to be distinct and
well defined, and to be so far prominent as to merit a definitive
appellation; and it is under this persuasion the term Nobilis, assigned
but by Dr. Solander, is subjoined to the specific name Voluta Scapha.
This very rare kind of Voluta Scapha is from China, the variety more
coarse in its general appearance that constitutes the type of this
species, is a native of the Cape of Good Hope.
Among the older definitions by which this shell was known among the
early writers, we may mention that of the learned Kircher, whose museum
of curiosities, extant in the beginning of the last century, contained a
shell of this kind, which Bonanni thus describes:—“_Conchylium ea parte
latius qua in turbinem desinit sine aculeis, et tuberculis, foramen non
rotundum, ut in Purpura et Buccina, sed longum._” Musaei Kircheriani.
classis iii. 10. 450. et Bonan. 113.
It may not be amiss to observe, in conclusion, that amidst all the
improvements which modern naturalists have made in the science of
Conchology, Voluta Scapha still remains a Volute among the most approved
writers of the present day, while most of those species considered by
Linnæus as appertaining to the same genus are removed to other
newly-constituted genera.
The character of the true Volute, as it is at present laid down,
consists in the shell being of an oval form, more or less ventricose, or
swollen, the summit obtuse and ending in a kind of papilla, or teat, the
base of the shell cut off or somewhat truncated: without canal, and the
pillar charged with plaits or folds, of which the inferior ones are the
largest and longest. The precise contrary of this is observable in the
new genus MITRA, of which _Voluta Episcopalis_ is considered as the
type. In this last mentioned shell, the body instead of being ventricose
is subfusiform, the spire pointed at the summit, and the lower plaits
upon the pillar smaller instead of larger. The contrast between these
two tribes will, it is conceived, sufficiently illustrate the
characteristic peculiarities of the genus Volute, as it is at present
constituted.
-----
Footnote 4:
This shell, though sufficiently intelligible among the figures of
Kircher’s shells, engraved and published by Bonanni, and also in the
works of Lister and some others, escaped the notice of Linnæus. So
late as the tenth edition of Systema Natura it does not appear. Gmelin
describes this shell with much accuracy in his edition of the last
mentioned work, under the specific name of Scapha.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
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]
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE V.
TROCHILUS PELLA,
TOPAZ HUMMING-BIRD.
PICÆ.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill subulate or awl-shaped; filiform, tubular at the tip and longer
than the head; upper mandible forming a sheath for the lower. Tongue
filiform, the two threads coalescing, and tubular feet formed for
walking; tail composed of ten feathers, in general.
* Bill incurvate.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Red; middle tail feathers very long; body red; head brown; throat golden
green; rump green.
TROCHILUS PELLA: ruber rectricibus intermediis longissimis, capite
fusca, gula aurata uropygioque viridi.—_Linn. Syst. 1. p. 189.
2._ _Gmel. t. 1. p. 1. 485. 2._
TROCHILUS PELLA: curvirostris ruber, rectricibus intermediis
longissimis, corpore rubro, capite fusco, gula aurata
uropygioque viridi. _Lath. Orn. 1. p. 302. 2._
Polytmus Surinamensis longicaudus ruber.—_Briss. 3. p. 690. 15._
Falcinellus gutture viridi.—_Klein, Av. p. 108. 15._
Le Colibri topaze.—_Buff. 6. p. 46._—_Pl. Ent. 599._
TOPAZ HUMMING-BIRD.—_Lath Syn. 2. p. 746. 2._
* * * * *
There is not, throughout the very ample range of the creation which the
feathered tribes present to our consideration, a race of beings more
deservedly admired for their beauty than the Humming-Birds. Natives of
the warmer climates of the globe: of countries where the fervour of a
tropic sun calls forth the spontaneous productions of the earth bedecked
in gaiety unexampled in other regions of the earth, these little beings
seem to participate in all its genial influence. With forms the most
pleasing for symmetry and elegance they combine a brilliancy of colours
the most splendid; their golden hues, their sapphirine tints, the lustre
of the emerald, the ruby, garnet, amethyst, and topaz, with which their
plumage is adorned, is not surpassed in brightness by the valued gems
whose hues they borrow, and whose splendours emulate; as though, in this
much-favoured race we beheld the richest gems of earth inspired with
life, and endowed with powers of activity and will. The flowers whose
nectareous juices afford them sustenance, are moreover the liveliest and
most luxuriant among those that adorn the surface of the teeming
earth:—in a word, the Humming-Birds, poised and fluttering upon the
wing, or flitting from flower to flower, in search of food beneath the
fervid illumination of a cloudless tropic sun, present a spectacle of
the works of nature upon a scale of miniature the most pleasing and most
brilliant.
Owing to the slender structure of the bill, the Humming-Birds have some
difficulty in obtaining their support; the luxuriant fruits of the
tropic world afford them no repast: their bills are much too feeble to
penetrate their rind to derive subsistence from their fluids. It is the
rich juices of the flowers and not the fruits that afford them food; the
fluids which they find secreted in the nectaria of flowers, the nectaria
of those plants in particular which have the flowers long and tubular,
and in which those repositories of mellifluous fluid lie in the bottom
of the corolla are the favourite objects of their resort. About the
flowers of this kind the Humming-Birds are seen hovering like bees, and
like those industrious creatures extracting at the same time those
juices of the flowers by means of their elongated tongue. The
construction of the tongue in this tribe of birds is singular and
deserving of explicit mention; it consists of two tubular filiform
threads, which coalesce throughout their whole length, excepting at the
tips, where they are divided, or bifid; this organ, which is remarkable
for its extreme length, it inserts deeply down into the corolla of the
flowers, and is thus enabled to obtain the nectar nearly in the same
manner as the insects of the sphinx genus. The Humming-Birds, when on
the wing, are observed to emit a humming noise, like that of the bee,
and it is apparently from this circumstance that this class of the
feathered race have derived the appellation of Humming-Birds.
As the different species of the Humming-Bird, though uniformly small,
vary much in magnitude, from the bigness indeed of the wren and others
of our smaller warblers to a size more diminutive than several of the
larger kinds of the bee tribe, the nests of these birds, as may be
conceived, are found to vary materially according to the size of the
species to which they appertain. These little local habitations of the
infant brood are all comparatively small, are usually of a roundish
form, lined with the softest downy leaves, and each in general contains
two little eggs, scarcely exceeding the size of peas, and of a pure
white colour without any spots.
The slenderness of the bill and weakness of the legs in this tribe of
birds sufficiently demonstrate that they are inadequate to any contests
with other kinds of the feathered race; they are nevertheless observed
among themselves to be rather of a pugnaceous disposition. Their usual
contests are for their mates or for the possession of some favourite
flower, and are observed to take place while on the wing. Their mode of
attack is by striking with violence against each other, for they never
attempt to assault each other with their bill and their feet are much
too small and feeble for conflict.
The species of Humming-Bird now before us is one of the larger kinds,
its length being about six inches from the tip of the bill to the
extremity of the tail, exclusive of the two elongated feathers which
extend beyond the true tail about two inches; the bill is long, slender,
and slightly incurvated, and of a whitish colour with the tip black. The
most characteristic peculiarity is the large space of topazine or golden
green immediately beneath the chin, and which expands over the whole
surface of the throat. The head is blackish purple, and the same colour
descending along the sides of the neck passes in a kind of crescent
round the breast, thus constituting an abrupt separation between the
vivid green space of the chin and throat, and the vivid lustre of the
abdomen, which is a fine crimson or ruby colour from the breast nearly
to the vent, where it becomes interspersed with a few white feathers;
the feathers of the thigh are white also. The back and wing coverts are
brown with tints and shades of greenish, and glosses of a golden yellow.
The greater quill feathers are fuscous, the tail coverts are fine green;
the tail orange, except the two remarkable elongated candal feathers,
which are black. The legs pale.
Notwithstanding the very decisive character which this species of
Humming-Bird displays, and which considered individually can leave us
little reason to distrust its identity as a species, we are not to
overlook the very near approximation of this kind with some others that
are described as specifically different, such as the Sapphire
Humming-Bird, and that distinguished by the appellation of the Sapphire
and Emerald Humming-Bird. The near approach of these and some others to
the species now before us appears to be sufficiently obvious to induce a
persuasion that in a less mature state one kind may sometimes have been
mistaken for another, and this becomes the more probable when we
recollect that the Humming-Birds in general, like many of the larger
tribes of the feathered race, do not arrive at their full perfection of
plumage till the second and more commonly till the third year.
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE VI.
FIGURE I, I.
PAPILIO MARCELLINA.
MARCELLINA’S BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* DANAI CAND.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire, rounded, yellow, each of them beneath with a geminous or
double silver spot.
PAPILIO MARCELLINA: alis integris rotundatis flavis: singalis subtus
puncto gemino argenteo.—_Fabr. Spec. Ins. 2. 49. n. 214._—_Ent.
Syst. t. 3. p. 1. 209. 654._—_Cram. 14. t. 165._
* * * * *
Papilio Marcellina is a butterfly of peculiar simplicity and beauty in
its general effect. The upper surface is of a fine yellow with a
singular subocellate spot or stigma of a reddish brown in the centre of
the anterior wings, and a series of double spots of the same colour,
disposed towards the exterior margin both of the anterior and the
posterior pair. The lower surface, as we perceive from the Butterfly at
rest, with the wings erect in the upper part of the plate, is rather
more of an orange or fulvous hue, and instead of having the disk
immaculate like the upper surface, except the stigma in the anterior
wings, are sprinkled with reddish brown. The centre of the wings, as
well the posterior as the anterior pair, are marked with two silver
spots, and which, from their near approximation, may be denominated,
according to the language of Fabricius, a geminous or double spot of
silver.
This elegant insect is figured from a specimen in the collection of the
celebrated Dr. Hunter, the individual example described and referred to
by Fabricius in his _Species Insectorum_ and _Entomologia Systematica_
as expressed among the synonyms above recited.
The Papilio Marcellina has appeared already in the costly work of
Cramer, upon the Papiliones tribe, we are nevertheless induced to
present a figure of the species to our readers, in order to point out
the very close affinity that prevails between this insect and another
much more frequent species named Papilio Sennæ. This latter mentioned
Butterfly is figured by Sloane, Merian, and Seba; Papilio Marcellina by
Cramer only. These insects resemble each other, but are nevertheless
distinct; the specific character of Papilio Sennæ consists chiefly,
according to Linnæus, in having the double spot in the centre of each
wing of a ferruginous colour, while in Papilio Marcellina that
characteristic mark has the exact appearance of two approximating spots
of molten silver. The tips of the wings in Papilio Sennæ are sometimes
spotted as in Marcellina and are sometimes destitute of spots.
Both these analogous species are natives of Surinam; Sloane describes
Papilio Sennæ, in his Natural History of Jamaica, as an inhabitant of
that island.
FIGURE II.
PAPILIO AGAVE.
AGAVE BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob;
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* DANAI CAND.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire rounded yellow; anterior pair at the tip black above,
beneath sanguineous brown.
PAPILIO AGAVE: alis integerrimis rotundatis flavis: anticis apice supra
nigris, subtus brunneis.—_Fabr. Ent. Syst. t. 3. p. 1. 193. n.
599._
* * * * *
This very scarce and pretty species of the Papilio tribe is an
inhabitant of Cayenne, and may possibly occur also in other parts of
South America. It was unknown to Fabricius when he published the work
entitled _Species Insectorum_; he afterwards observed a species of it in
the cabinet of Von Rohr, and inserted a description of it between the
two species P. Hecabe and P. Cardamines in his subsequent production
_Entomologia Systematica_.
The upper surface of this Butterfly is entirely yellow, without any
marks, excepting only the apex of the anterior wings, which are black in
that portion of the tip which appears red on the lower surface, or as
Fabricius terms it, somewhat erroneously brown.
This fly, so uniformly simple in the aspect of its superior surface,
appears to peculiar advantage when in a resting position as it is
depicted in the lower part of the plate.
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE VII.
EMBERIZA CIRIS
PAINTED BUNTING.
ORDER
PASSERES.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill conic: mandibles receding from each other from the base downwards,
the lower with the sides narrowed in; a hard knob within the upper
mandible.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Head blue, abdomen fulvous, back green, feathers green brown.
EMBERIZA CIRIS: capite cæruleo, abdomine fulvo, dorso-viridi, pennis
viridi-fuscis _Act. Stockh. 1750 p. 278 t. 7. f. 1._—_Linn.
Syst. Nat. 1. 179._—_Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 885._
Friagilla Tricolor, _Catesby Car. 1. p. 44. t. 44_. _Klein. Av. p. 97.
7._
Chloris ludoviciana, Papa, _Briss. 3. p. 200. 58. t. 8. f. 3_.
Fringilla Mariposa, _Scop. Ann. 1. No. 222_.
Le Pepe _Buff. 4. p. 176. t. 9_.—_Pl. Enl. 139. f. 1._
China Bulfinch, _Albin. 3. t. 68_.
PAINTED BUNTING, _Lath. Gen. Syn. 3. p. 206. 54_.—_Supp. p. 159. Ind.
Orn. T. 1. p. 416. 61._
* * * * *
The varieties of the very beautiful species now before us are rather
numerous, as may be imagined from its moulting twice in a year, and not
arriving, as it is pretty generally believed, at its full state of
plumage till nearly the third year. These are the progressive changes of
the male bird, and it may be also added, that the female undergoes
several mutations of the same kind, as well as the male bird.
When its plumage has attained its full perfection, there are few birds
of more striking beauty than the male of this species. Its size is
scarcely inferior to that of our common Hedge Sparrow, the length
between five and six inches. The head and neck of a fine blue purple,
with a circle of red round the eyes. The whole of the underside,
including the chin, throat, breast, and abdomen, is a fulvous, or rather
a vivid scarlet; the back green, below which is a space of yellow, and
the rump scarlet, like the abdomen. The wings are greenish, being shaded
with brown, and having the edges of the feathers of a delicate green:
the greater wing coverts in our specimen are of a pale rose colour, and
which in the general conformation of the plumage constitutes a roseate
band across the wings. The tail, like the wings, are brownish, having
the edges of each feather green; the bill and legs dark.
In some of the varieties of this bird, occasioned as before observed,
through the moulting of the feathers, the blue purple of the head and
neck is more generally extended along the back, and sometimes appears in
patches upon other parts of the plumage. Sometimes, also, the dark spots
that appear upon the scarlet space of the chin, throat, breast, and
abdomen, are more diffused, and in other states of moulting the abdomen
becomes yellow or yellowish. The abdomen has also, in some instances,
been known to change white, leaving only a rounded spot of red upon the
breast.
Catesby describes this species as a native of Carolina. It is an
inhabitant of all the warmer parts of America, extending from Mexico and
Peru, as far as Canada, in the milder seasons of the year. It is rather
a hardy bird, insomuch, that some attempts have been made by the Dutch
to naturalize the species in Europe, like the Canary; but not, however,
with the same success, although they may be kept alive for some time
after being brought into the less genial climates of the Continent of
Europe.
The celebrated Marmaduke Tunstall, Esq. a most indefatigable Naturalist,
who lived towards the latter part of the preceding century, has stated,
that two pair of these birds made their nests and laid eggs in the
orange trees of a Menagery at Holderness, in Yorkshire, but observes at
the same time, the eggs were unproductive. Mr. Tunstall, as a Collector,
was the great rival of Sir Ashton Lever, and of authority
unquestionable, and this circumstance tends to shew that it might be yet
possible to rear these very beautiful birds in this country. Some
authors have presumed upon the authority of Albin, that this species
extends to China. There can be very little doubt that the figure in the
third volume of Albin’s plate, denominated the China Bulfinch, is
intended for this bird. Albin assures us that he saw the bird he figured
in the possession of a curious gentlemen, who told him he had received
it from China.
In the warmer parts of America, which these birds, as before observed,
inhabit, they occur sometimes in vast flocks; it does not appear that
they are of a shy or timid disposition, yet it is said they are seldom
seen near habitable places, and never in any considerable numbers
together.
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE VIII.
BUCCINUM HARPA
var TESTUDO
TORTOISESHELL HARP BUCCINUM.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, gibbous: aperture ovate, (generally) terminating in a
short canal, leaning to the right, with a retuse beak or projection:
pillar lip expanded.
* _Detrita_, pillar lip apparently worn flat.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell with equal longitudinal and distinct mucronate ribs: pillar lip
smooth.
BUCCINUM HARPA: testa costis æquilibus longitudinalibus distinctis
mucronatis, columella lævigata. _Linn. Syst. Nat. 10. p. 7. 38.
n. 400._—_Mus. Lud. Ulr. 609. n. 261._
BUCCINUM HARPA: testa varicibus[5] æqualibus longitudinalibus distinctis
mucronatis: columella lævigata. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1. p.
6. 3482. n. 47._
BUCCINUM TESTUDO. _Soland. MSS._
HARPA. _Rumpf. Must. 32. f. K. L. M._
HARPA NOBILIS _Argenv. Conch. t. 17. f. D._
* * * * *
This superb shell, admitted to be the finest example of its kind, at
present known, once constituted part of the Conchological Collection of
Sir Ashton Lever; and continued to be a distinguished ornament of that
Museum after it passed into the hands of Mr. Parkinson. At the
dissolution of that Museum, which took place in the month of May, June,
and the beginning of July, in the year 1806, the specimen became the
property of a very celebrated amateur, the late Mr. Jennings: he
purchased it at the sale for the sum of seven pounds.[6] Mr. Jennings is
since dead, and his collection being, like the former, dispersed by
public sale: we are no longer certain in whose possession this very
beautiful rarity now remains.
Besides that this shell excels in magnitude every other known example of
its kind, the formation of the shell itself is extremely fine, its
perfection exquisite, the colouring of the richest and most decided
hues, and the marks and lines throughout, which so eminently
characterize the shell, definitely distinct; we shall dwell no further
on the peculiar beauty of this shell, from a persuasion that the drawing
will be found so explicit and so satisfactory, as to render a minute
description needless: it was taken with peculiar care, by permission of
its proprietor, while it remained in the Leverian Museum, and will not,
we are convinced, be found defective in point of accuracy, upon the most
attentive comparison with the original, should that ever be produced in
competition with it.
In the Linnæan arrangement of Conchology, the shells of this kind
constitute a species of the Genus Buccinum, the Buccinum Harpa of that
author. Previous to the time of Linnæus, the best Conchologists had
considered those particular shells that possess the essential characters
of the Common Harp Shell, as a distinct genus. Rumpfius so adopts it
under the name of Harpa; and Argenville subsequently regarding that
particular kind called Buccinum Harpa, by Linnæus, as the type of the
genus, denominates it, by way of eminence, Harpa Nobilis. By some
inconceivable error it has been asserted that Lamarck was the first
author who separated the family of Harps from the genus Buccinum; this
is evidently a mistake, as we perceive from Rumpfius and Argenville, and
as we are now proceeding to shew from the “_Catalogue Systématique et
Raisonné_,” of the once celebrated cabinet of M. de Davilla; besides
which, some others might be added, were it material to notice them.
As we have introduced the subject of Davilla’s Cabinet, it will,
perhaps, afford some pleasure to many of our readers if we mention a few
of those very beautiful varieties of this natural family of the Harps,
which were once concentrated in that costly collection. These,
collectively, appear to have presented a series of the most choice and
interesting of the varieties at that time known. The distinctions are
taken from the number of the prominent ridges with which these shells
are longitudinally traversed, and these, it hence appears, varied from
thirteen to fourteen and fifteen in number. One of these, a very fine
shell, and deemed the type of the _Harpe_ tribe, was the Harpa Nobilis
of D’Argenville: it had fifteen ribs, was very regularly marked with
alternate zic-zac lines of brown and white, or rather of brown lines
disposed upon a white ground, with a small intermediate incurvate line
of grey traversing the middle of each of the white lines, in the same,
direction as those of brown; a disposition of marking, very similar to
the zic-zac lineations upon the shell represented in the annexed plate.
There were two other Harps, in which the number of ribs, or ridges,
amounted to no more than fourteen, so that the sides were larger; and
they were also more inclined than in the preceding. These were marbled,
and marked with streaks and dashes of rose colour, yellow, white, and
chesnut, a large intermediate and rather deeper coloured zone, or band,
passed round the middle of the shell, and two large spots of brown
appeared on the under surface of the shell. There were yet two other
Harps, which differed in their colours and markings from the preceding;
one of these had only twelve ribs, or ridges, the other thirteen. The
colours in one of these were paler, in the other the zic-zac lines, were
more contiguous, or placed closer, and the longitudinal striæ less
distinct or prominent. And besides these, there were several others, all
which differed in some peculiarities of inferior moment, principally in
the paleness or intensity of their colours, and variations in the
disposition of the dark and paler spaces with which the shells were
marbled.
The above series of Davila presents us with a pretty ample elucidation
of the presumed varieties of that beautiful species the Linnæan Buccinum
Harpa. We say, only the presumed varieties, because in the present state
of the Conchological Science there appears to be a very strong
propensity among collectors to increase the number of the species, by
considering every trivial variation, or accidental circumstance in the
growth of shells, as so many characteristic indications of new species;
a disposition that the best Conchologists cannot but disapprove.
Experience teaches us that there is no class of beings in the creation,
in which nature is more sportive, than the testaceous tribes; none in
which a greater caution is required in the precise determination of what
are species and what varieties only: and among other local causes the
influence of climates in different regions are not the least powerful in
producing those variations. With the best experience, and the advantage
of many years assiduous application, the Conchologist may be sometimes
in doubt, and hence it is not likely that a slight acquaintance, only,
with the subject will be found sufficient to enable him to pronounce
with definitive satisfaction the exact distinction between approximating
species and the sportive varieties into which they sometimes divaricate.
These remarks cannot be more forcibly exemplified than in the series of
the presumed varieties of the Buccinum Harpa. Some of these are indeed
so very dissimilar as to justify a persuasion that they may be
specifically distinct, and yet again, these are blended so intimately
with others, which are confessedly varieties, that it demands the utmost
caution in pronouncing which are species, and which varieties or
transitions only. This is the impression under which the best informed
Conchologists have ever ventured to define the shells which constitute
the natural family of the Harps, and may serve to afford us a sufficient
explanation of the causes of those differences in opinion which so
manifestly prevail among them.
It may not be very generally known, excepting only among Naturalists,
that the late Dr. Solander had devoted much attention to this intricate
science: his arrangement of shells was designed as an amendment upon
that of Linnæus. This arrangement was never made public; it remained in
manuscript in the library of the late Sir Joseph Banks. From a perusal
of these MSS. it appears that Dr. Solander had conceived the necessity
of a new disposition of the shells comprised in general as varieties of
this species. Some he allows to remain varieties, while others
constitute, in his ideas, species nearly analogous, but nevertheless
distinct. He does not propose the formation of an independant genus of
the Harp family, nor the removal of those shells from the genus
Buccinum, in which Linnæus places the species Harpa: he proposes only to
assemble together the least equivocal varieties of that shell, together
with that which he considers as the type of the Linnæan species, the
true Harpa Nobilis of preceding authors; and to allow the others to
remain as species distinct from the Linnæan shell. It will be hence
perceived that Dr. Solander’s constitutes several distinct species among
the number of those Harps, which other writers, and Gmelin among the
rest, regard as varieties only of the common kind. In the manuscripts of
Dr. Solander the very beautiful Harp shell now before us stands as a
distinct species from Buccinum Harpa, under the name of _Buccinum
testudo_. Some of the French Naturalists have called it _Harpa
testudinaria_: it was placed under that name, and its synonymous
appellation _L’ecaille de Tortue_ in the once celebrated Museum of Mons.
de Colonne, the French Minister of State, under Louis the XVI: the
definitive English name of Tortoiseshell Harp was assigned to it by Mr.
George Humphrey, and from his known authority in the study of shells,
this variety has been since distinguished among collectors in our
country by that appropriate appellation. All these names, it will be
scarcely necessary to add, are devised in allusion to that resemblance
which its peculiarly beautiful variegations of colour are conceived to
bear, to those of tortoiseshell, when transparent and exposed to light.
We have been at some pains in our endeavours to reconcile our mind to
the idea of introducing this Tortoiseshell Harp as a species distinct
from the Buccinum Harpa, in conformity with the opinion of Dr. Solander.
We have compared our shell with the acknowledged type of the Linnæan
species, with every attention, and are compelled, in truth, to allow,
that however distinct it may appear upon the first glance of inspection,
we cannot implicitly accede to the persuasion of its being specifically
distinct. Placing this remarkable variety with that particular shell,
the true Buccinum Harpa, the less informed Conchologist would assume as
certain that the difference existing between the two removed them
sufficiently from each other. Arrange these, however, with those
varieties and transitions of the Common Harp that approach the nearest
in appearance to both kinds, and we shall then perceive such a close
analogy, such an intermediate catenation, as will induce a pause, and
certainly under the impression with which we view them, an idea that
these variations arise only from local causes, and are not specifical
distinctions. As a marked and well distinguished variety we have
retained the term _testudo_, which Dr. Solander had assigned to it; but
as a distinctive appellation of it as a variety, and not as a shell
altogether distinct.
That it may not be imagined we feel any disposition to object against
those changes in the Science of Conchology, which the more advanced
state of our present knowledge may demand, we have no hesitation in
adding that in our own opinion the _Harpa_ family should constitute a
very distinct tribe from the other Buccini; we believe, also, that had
Linnæus lived to reconsider them, he would have comprehended them
together as a genus. The French writers have long since done so. De
Monfort advances that Lamarck was the first who separated the Harps from
the Linnæan Buccinum. This we have already shewn to be an error.
Lamarck’s example in proposing them as a genus in his _Système des
Animaux sans Vertèbres_, published in the year 1801, and his subsequent
observations in other writings, has tended to establish them as a genus;
he was not its first proposer.
It may not be amiss, in conclusion, to observe, that Lamarck has taken
for the type of his genus, the variety figured by Lister, in his
Conchology, _tab._ 992 f. 55, the shell which he denominates Harpa
Ventricosa. The leading character of his genus consists in the shell
being of an oval form, ventricose or swollen, and having the surface
furnished or beset with longitudinal, parallel, and sharp or acutely
edged ribs. The opening or mouth, oblong, ample, abbreviated or cut off
below, and without canal. The pillar, or inner lip, smooth, or without
plaits or tubercles, and terminating in a point at the base. The absence
of a canal is one material character by which the Harpa genus, as thus
laid down, is to be distinguished from the new genus Trophon, to which,
in some respects, at least, it bears a general resemblance. The
definition of the genus by De Montfort is rather different from that of
Lamarck: according to De Montfort the shells of this family are globose;
the first whorl very far surpassing the rest in size, and the spire
obtuse. The mouth is very open. The pillar or inner lip smooth and
rounded. The outer lip bordered by an acutely edged rib or ridge,
running paralled to those with which the shell is traversed externally,
and the base cut off. The spire in the true Harpa, according to this
writer, forms a kind of little domes, one surmounting the other, and the
spire, instead of ending in an acute point, terminates in a small
mammillated knob.
All the known varieties of this natural family are inhabitants of the
deep waters of the sea, and the animal inhabitants appear to have
remained hitherto undescribed. They are confined chiefly to the Indian
Seas. The variety known by the name of Nobilis is a native of Japan;
there is another found in China, distinguished by the name of Chinensis:
both these are considered by Dr. Solander as the Buccinum Harpa of
Linnæus: there is one kind found at Ceylon, and another at Madagascar,
which are to be esteemed distinct species. The sanguineous Harp, from
the Coast of Guinea, is the Buccinum pandura of Solander. The Harp,
distinguished by having a far greater number of elevated ribs than any
of the preceding, is from the seas of the Phillippine Isles, and is
certainly a distinct species. The very fine variety which constitutes
the more immediate object of our present illustration, the Tortoiseshell
Harp, is a native of Madagascar: its length is four inches, and its
greatest breadth two inches and a half.
-----
Footnote 5:
“Testa _varicibus_ æqualibus longitudinalibus, &c.” is an incorrect
reading of Professor Gmelin. If we examine the Linnæan description of
the Museum of the Queen of Sweden, _Mus. Lud. Ulr._ to which Gmelin
refers, we shall find it to be as might be naturally expected, “testa
_costis_ æqualibus;” for it is the ribs, and not for veins that
Linnæus intended. Linnæus refers to the 10th edition of his Systema
Naturæ, which is not mentioned by Gmelin, and here we again meet with
the same reading “testa _costis_ æqualibus, &c.” We have been the more
explicit in pointing out this error, because we observe that one
Conchologist, not long since, in the absence, doubtlessly, of the
moment, has translated literally the Gmelinian text in describing
Buccinum Harpa.
Footnote 6:
Lot 75 of the 60th day. July 2nd, 1806.
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE IX.
PAPILIO PSAMATHE.
PSAMATHE BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ elevated or thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating
in a knob. Wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* Danai Cand.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire, white; tip of the anterior pair black spotted with white,
lower ones beneath greenish with two darker bands, the anterior one
incurvate.
PAPILIO PSAMATHE: alis rotundatis integerrimis albis: anticis apice
nigris albo maculatis; posticis subtus virescentibus; fasciis
duabus obscurioribus; anteriore incurva. _Fabr. Spec. Ins. T. 3.
p. 1. 207._
* * * * *
A native of America and nearly allied to Papilio Phronima, represented
in plate 153 of the work of Cramer. It differs in having only the tip,
and not both the base and tip, black, as in Phronima. Our present
species is also distinguished further by having two white spots on the
black tip of the anterior wings, in the apex of the anterior wings being
destitute of any black spot beneath, and in the anterior band on the
lower wings beneath being incurvate.
This species has not been represented by any author. Fabricius described
it from the drawings of the late Mr. Jones, and it is from that
matchless series of designs and MSS. that the present figures are
copied.
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE X.
FRINGILLA BENGALUS
BLUE BELLIED FINCH.
ORDER
PASSERES.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill conic, straight and pointed.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Pale blue; head and back grey: sides of the head purple.
FRINGILLA BENGALUS: dilute cærulea, capite dorsoque griseis, lateribus
capitis purpureis. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 920._
FRINGILLA BENGHALUS: _Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 323. 32._ (mas.)
FRINGILLA ANGOLENSIS: _Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 323. 31._ (fem.)
FRINGILLA BENGHALUS: dilute cærulea, capite dorsoque griseis, lateribus
capitis purpureis. _Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 461. 91._—_Lath. Syn.
111. p. 310. 81._
Le Bengali. _Briss. Orn. 111. p. 303. 60. pl. 10. f. 1._—_Buff. Ois. iv.
p. 92._—_Pl. Enl. 115. f. 1._
Blue Bellied Finch. _Edw. pl. 131._ (female)
* * * * *
A pretty species of the Fringilla tribe, about the size of our smaller
Linnets. The bill and legs of this bird are of a pale flesh colour: the
body above, together with the wings, of a greyish brown: the lower part
of the back, rump, and whole of the underside, of a delicate azure blue;
the tail blue, of a somewhat deeper tint, and rather cuneated or
wedge-formed. This is the general appearance of the plumage in both
sexes, excepting, only, that the colours are usually somewhat brighter
in the male than the female bird; and that the male bird is
distinguished further by having a dark red spot on each side of the
head, beneath the eyes, a character altogether wanting in the female.
It should be observed that these birds vary occasionally in the colours
of their plumage, particularly in the cærulean tints of the under
surface, which sometimes inclines to a pale rufous grey, or to blue
intermixed with rufous grey; and in some instances when the state of
plumage is less mature, the latter colour predominates so entirely on
the lower surface, that only a transition tint of the azure appears upon
the breast and abdomen.
Linnæus was induced to imagine that the two sexes of this bird were
distinct species, the male he denominated _Fringilla Bengalus_, the
female _Fringilla Angolensis_; the male bird, which he happened to
describe, having been received from Bengal, the female from Angola. The
truth is, that this widely diffused species inhabits both these places
in common, with many others in Asia and Africa: in Angola, in
particular, they appear to be very common.
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XI.
TROCHUS IMPERIALIS
var α ROSEUS
PINK, OR ROSEATE, IMPERIAL SUN TROCHUS.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, more or less conic: aperture sub angular, or rounded, the
upper side transverse and contracted: pillar placed obliquely.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell conic, olive, covered with rows of arched violet scales: whorls
inflated, with a spinous radiate margin: perforation funnel-shaped and
white.
* Variety, pink or rose-coloured.
TROCHUS IMPERIALIS: testa conica olivacea, squamis violaceis seriatis
fornicatis tecta: anfractibus inflatis margine spinoso radiatis,
umbilico infundibuliformi albo. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 3576.
63._—Var OLIVACEUS.
TROCHUS IMPERATOR _Chemn. T. 5. 173. 174._—Var OLIVACEUS α PINK SUN
TROCHUS _Lev. Mus._
* * * * *
We cannot for a moment hesitate to believe that in announcing to our
readers the introduction of the Pink, or Roseate Imperial Sun Trochus:
the significant appellation under which the present rarity has been for
many years distinguished, we shall awaken the attention of every
Conchologist and amateur of the science. The shell so named, formerly
constituted an object, no less conspicuous than beautiful, among the
Conchological productions treasured together in the once celebrated
Leverian Museum. And, as we possessed, through the immediate favour of
the proprietor of that Museum, John Parkinson, Esq. an unreserved access
to every article in the Museum, for the purpose of delineating the
figures, or taking the descriptions of whatever we conceived worthy of
such observation, it will be naturally imagined the Pink, or Roseate
Imperial Sun Trochus, would be esteemed of too much importance to escape
our very particular attention. The dispersion of that once celebrated
Repository of Natural History has long since removed, and probably for
ever, this exquisite rarity from the eye of public curiosity; nor indeed
is its present destination correctly known; a circumstance, it is
presumed, that cannot fail to enhance the value of a drawing, which we
have every reason for believing to be the only memorial of this kind the
pencil of the Arts have consecrated to the commemoration of the shell:
the only figure, we are assured, the proprietor ever permitted to be
taken from it.—Having premised so far, it will not be deemed superfluous
to add, that the outline of the specimen is precisely a fac-simile of
the shell itself, having been traced round its contour while lying upon
the paper, and being afterwards finished in colours upon the outlines so
struck, with every attention an object so estimable was presumed to
merit.
The history of this curious variety of the Imperial Sun Trochus is
altogether interesting, and deserves explicit mention; it is one among
the number of those rare shells which were discovered by that
distinguished navigator, Captain Cook, in his voyage round the world. It
was fished up in the Straits that divide the Island of New Zealand, now
distinguished after him, by the appellation of Cook’s Straits. Upon the
return of Captain Cook to England, he presented Sir Ashton Lever, among
other articles of great curiosity, with this particular shell, the only
one of its kind he had found. The Imperial Sun Trochus, of an olivaceous
violet hue, the shell which constitutes the type of this species, though
very scarce, occurred occasionally, but this Pink variety only in the
solitary instance before adverted to: it was drawn up, adhering to the
cable of the ship, from the depth, as it appeared, of sixty fathoms
water.[7]
In the general computation of the value of the various articles in the
Museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, submitted to government, previous
to the grant of the Lottery which transferred the possession of that
Museum from its original founder to the hands of Mr. Parkinson, this
shell was estimated at the value of _one hundred guineas_: and as this
valuation was arbitrary, that sum was considered as the worth of the
shell while it remained in the Museum. At the final dissolution of this
Museum, which took place in the months of May, June, and July of the
year 1806, this shell, like the rest, was submitted to the chance of
taste or caprice: it was sold on the last day of the sale, for the sum
of twenty three guineas, an amount considerably below its former
valuation, but sufficient, nevertheless, to shew that its attractions
were still great in the mind of the connoisseur.
The purchaser of this shell was at that time unknown, subsequently,
however, the specimen appeared among the property sold at the residence
of the Duke de Bourbon, immediately after the departure of that noblemen
for France, in the beginning of the year 1815.[8] Dr. Leach has since
that time informed us that he had given instructions for the purchase of
this shell for the British Museum: the shell does not, however, appear
in that collection, and the lamented illness of our ingenious friend, is
likely, for the present, to preclude all further inquiry respecting its
final destination.
It does not appear that this very curious variety of the Imperial Sun
Trochus is known in any of the continental cabinets: the olivaceous
kind, which as before observed, is to be regarded as the type of the
species, though esteemed scarce, is to be found in every continental
cabinet of importance. Indeed, the olive kind maintained a very high
reputation and price for many years after the time of Captain Cook, who
brought several of them to England; from whence those continental
cabinets were, in the first instances, supplied. Since that time the
same seas have been attentively explored by Admiral Bligh, in the ships
of his Majesty under his command; and through his researches, this
shell, which was once considered of such unusual rarity, has become
rather more common. The Pink, or Roseate variety, the immediate object
of our present illustration, has hitherto, however, escaped all
research, and it still remains as it was esteemed originally, after a
lapse of nearly fifty years, not merely scarce, but perfectly unique.
An ingenious French writer of the present day, Denys de Montfort, in
describing the olivaceous kind, the type, as before remarked, of the
present species, has paid an appropriate tribute of applause to the
memory of its original discoverers. “It is,” says he, “to the Voyages of
the celebrated Captain Cook, and to the researches of the indefatigable
Naturalists who accompanied him, that we owe the knowledge of this fine
and magnificent shell.” “This shell,” he adds, “appears to be exposed to
such a swarm of aggressors, that his Mollusca (or animal) must lead a
life of activity and war: his shelly covering is ploughed, or furrowed,
and pierced by a host of enemies, and he must necessarily employ almost
the whole of life in repressing their attacks, and in constantly
repairing the breaches and perforations they occasion, by the exudation
of the nacrous molecules, or fluid, with which nature has furnished him,
in order to preserve the inner coating of his shelly habitation entire.”
Such is really the appearance of this shell in general; we have seen it
so completely despoiled of its exterior coating by these attacks, as to
render it impossible to form any tolerable conception of the shell when
perfect; even an approach towards perfection in its outer coating is
very rare. The most complete of its kind in the collection of the late
Admiral Bligh, and probably selected as the best he ever met with, was
perfect in this respect than might be expected. By one of those rare
chances which sometimes happen, the Roseate variety, which forms the
subject of our present illustration, had entirely escaped every accident
of this nature, insomuch, that its figure may be regarded as that of a
very perfect shell.
The earliest figures of the common, or olivaceous kind, occurs in the
work of Chemnitz, and among the plates of Martin. Gmelin quotes the
former, and describes the shell under the name of Trochus Imperialis. It
is truly a Trochus of the Linnæan classification, but not, it appears,
of any later writer, excepting those of the Linnæan school. Sometimes it
has been generically classed as a species of SOLARIUM, a name assigned
by Lamarck to the Trochi possessing the character of the Linnæan
_Trochus Perspectivus_, and which he renders into his own language as a
generical epithet, by the name _Cadran_ (Sun dial). To accord exactly
with the genus Solarium, as laid down by Lamarck himself, the general
figure of the shell should be that of a depressed cone, having at the
base an umblical opening, crenulated upon the inner edge of all the
spires; as may be perceived in looking down the umbilical opening of
Trochus perspectivus; and finally, the opening of the mouth should be
almost quadrangular. This is the character of SOLARIUM, as proposed by
Lamarck, and which does not agree exactly with the shell before us.[9]
Denys de Montfort constitutes another genus of this shell, which he
denominates IMPERATOR (_Conchyliologie Systematique T. 2. p. 199_) in
the French, L’EMPEREUR. The olivaceous kind he calls Imperator
aureolatus, l’Empereur couronné. The character of this new genus,
Imperator, consists in the shell having a regular spire: in being
imbricated, or covered with scales, like tiling upon the roof of a
house: the carina of the whorls armed; the armament, for example, in the
shell before us, consisting of a kind of frieze or curled foliage-like
plates which succeed each other with great regularity: it has an
umbilicus, which, in the present shell is large and deep; the mouth of
the shell angular and entire; pillar lip spreading somewhat like a fan;
and the exterior lip cut off. We have deemed it requisite to advert to
these new genera, but as the shell itself is so clearly a Trochus, we
have not thought it necessary to remove it from the place in the Linnæan
System to which Gmelin had assigned.
-----
Footnote 7:
This article is thus described in the last day’s sale, lot 81, “An
elegant and unique pink variety of the imperial sun, drawn up with the
anchor of a ship, from the depth of sixty fathoms, in Cook’s Straits,
New Zealand.” Sold for £24 3s.
Footnote 8:
In Orchard-street, Portman-square, Thursday, April 13th, 1815. _Vide_
lot 84.
Footnote 9:
_Système des animaux sans vertèbres, p. 86._
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XII.
PAPILIO EGÆA
EGÆA’S BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* NYMPH. GEMM.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented: above black, with a common white band: posterior pair
with two ocellar spots beneath.
PAPILIO EGÆA: alis dentatis supra nigris: fascia communi alba, posticis
subtus ocellis duobus. _Fabr. Syst. Ent. 496. 231._—_Spec. Ins.
T. 2. 79. 351._—_Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. 100. 309._
Parvus. Alæ omnes supra nigræ, basi cyaneo nitentes, in medio fascia
communi anteriorum interrupta, alba. Maculæ duæ parvæ, albæ versus
apicem alæ anterioris; subtus anticæ fuscæ maculis albis lunulaque
media, ferruginea. Posticæ basi fasciis albis fuscisque alternis disco
niveo, macula biloba, fusca, et in hac ocelli duo atri, iride ferruginea
pupillaque magna, cyanea. Margo posticus flavescens. _Fabr. Ent. Syst.
T. 3. p. 1. 309._
* * * * *
We have much pleasure in assuring our readers that the present figures
of this very elegant and rare Papilio, are the first that have appeared
in illustration of the species. This becomes the more incumbent to
observe, because those figures afford an elucidation of some moment at
least, to the writings of an Entomologist of acknowledged eminence, the
late Professor Fabricius: he had described the species in his several
works as above adverted to, under the name of Papilio Egæa, but these
descriptions have remained before the learned world for nearly half a
century without any pictorial illustration. The existence of such a
species is therefore well known, but from description only, and this
circumstance, it is presumed, will tend to confer more real interest
upon the figures now produced, than if it had been entirely undescribed,
because, heretofore, a deficiency has been in this respect perceived;
and that deficiency is now supplied by the figures submitted to our
readers in the annexed plate.
The first description of this species, as already intimated, to be found
among authors, is that given by Fabricius in his _Systematica
Entomologia_: subsequently it appeared in his work entitled _Species
Insectorum_, and lastly in his _Entomologia Systematica_, as inserted
among our synonyms. It is these authorities that have supplied Gmelin
with the description of the species as we find introduced by him, into
the last edition of the Linnæan Systema Naturæ.
The Fabrician description of this insect was taken in the first
instance, _Syst. Ent._ from a specimen in the Hunterian collection: the
same description occurs again in _Spec. Ins._ and lastly, in far more
copious detail in _Ent. Syst._ This latter description given by
Fabricius, though by some oversight of its author, not identified by any
reference with the drawings of Mr. Jones, was certainly derived from
that source of authority; a point we have been enabled to ascertain,
both upon the kind information of our late worthy friend Mr. Jones
himself, and also from the manuscripts in the hand-writing of Fabricius,
which Mr. Jones was pleased to place in our hands, in order to assure
us, there could be no uncertainty in this respect from any lapse of
memory. Fabricius refers for his Papilio Egæa to the Hunterian cabinet.
There was a specimen of this insect in that collection, but it may not
be improper to observe that the specimen from which the drawing of this
species, Papilio Egæa, by Mr. Jones, was taken, as it appeared from
these MSS. was one preserved in the cabinet of Mr. Drury, the venerable
author of a well known work on Exotic insects, published towards the
close of the last century. We may also add, that this insect, with many
others which Mr. Jones had figured, and Fabricius had described, from
that extensive and valuable cabinet, devolved into our hands after the
death of its proprietor, the whole collection having been dispersed by
public sale in the month of May, 1805.
We have been thus minute in the production of authorities, in order to
demonstrate that we have not ventured upon the hazard of conjecture to
submit the present figures as those of the true Papilio Egæa of
Fabricius; and, consequently, of all later writers who have relied upon
his evidence. In stating this, it may not be amiss to add still further
for the information, as well as the gratification of the Naturalist, not
of this country alone, but of Europe generally; and indeed of every
portion of the world to which the light of science may extend, that we
are in possession of the like authorities for the whole series of those
Papiliones which Fabricius has described from the drawings of Mr. Jones,
and which, in most instances, are the only unequivocal authorities now
remaining. Possessing this means, it shall become the great object of
our care to rescue from obscurity and doubt that ample portion of the
scientific writings of Fabricius, by similar illustrations of the more
beautiful and rare species, of which no figures are extant, as often as
we conceive the requisite variety of our a miscellany will permit[10]
their introduction.
Papilio Egæa is a native of America; it is a species of that family
which is distinguished by the name of _Nymphales Gemmati_, having eyes,
or ocellated spots upon all the wings; it is represented in the annexed
plate in a flying posture, as well as in its resting position.
-----
Footnote 10:
We have lately understood that the editors of _Encyclopædie
Methodique_, now publishing in Paris, intend giving figures of the
Papiliones of the Equites family, which Fabricius has described. This
endeavour to illustrate Fabricius is under the direction of Mons.
Latreille, a Member of the National Institute, an Entomologist
himself, of acknowledged talent, and one to whose great ability, as
well as personal urbanity, we are happy to bear our testimony of
praise. In the absence of more conclusive authority, the conjectures
of Mons. Latreille would be, unquestionably, useful; but we shall,
ourselves, tread the same path, and as we trust, may assist also, in
no small degree to dispel the darkness which at present overshadows
this fair portion of the science. As we are, ourselves, possessed of
the authentic evidences, by means of which, the species of Fabricius
can be immediately identified, we have no occasion to wander into the
labyrinths of conjecture: we at once arrive at the certainty of truth.
The annunciation of this design, on the part of the French editors,
leads to a conclusion of the importance attached to this endeavour: it
need be only stated on our part, that the illustrations we shall
subjoin to such of the Fabrician species as may pass under our own
observations, will be precisely taken from the individual objects
which Fabricius has described.
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XIII.
PAPILIO PYLADES
PYLADES BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* EQUITES ACHIVI.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented, snowy: border black with white dots: ocellar spot in the
anal angle of the posterior wings rufous.
PAPILIO PYLADES: alis dentatis niveis: limbo atro albo punctato, ocello
anguli ani rufo. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. 100. 34._
_Jon. pict. T. 1._
Alæ omnes supra atræ, albo punctatæ disco omni albo, immaculato. Angulus
ani ocello rufo. Subtus pallide flavescentes, albo punctatæ discoque
albo. Linea rubra a basi ad medium costæ. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p.
34._
* * * * *
The Entomologist of the present day must naturally remain under some
uncertainty as to the identity of the Fabrician Papilio Pylades, since
no figure whatever has hitherto appeared in elucidation of this rare
Papilio; and in this instance, as in almost every other, whatever
advantage we may be able to derive from the very accurate and elaborate
descriptions of our author, it would be absurd to deny that a faithful
delineation of the insect described, is not essentially requisite, in
order to determine with perfect satisfaction, the precise species
Fabricius had intended.
But, besides the want of a correct delineation, there is yet another
circumstance, not, perhaps, at present known, which might have tended
also to perpetuate this ambiguity, had it not been in our power to
explain it: the intimation of which, it is presumed, will be considered
useful by the scientific Entomologist. Previous to the time of Fabricius
this elegant species had been unnoticed by any author. Fabricius
describes it in his Entomologia Systematica, and refers for the specimen
so described to the Cabinet of Mr. Francillon. That the insect, to which
he adverts, was included in that celebrated cabinet, we are well assured
from our own inspection, but it stood there unaccompanied by any
indication of its being a specimen described by Fabricius, or even a
Fabrician species. The truth is, that Professor Fabricius, upon this
occasion, as in some others, took his description, not from the specimen
itself, but from the drawings of Mr. Jones, of Chelsea, which had been
copied from the specimen in the cabinet of Mr. Francillon, and it was to
the drawing therefore of Mr. Jones, and not to the specimen of Mr.
Francillon’s cabinet that Fabricius annexed the name of Pylades. Those
drawings must for this reason be now considered as the only positive
memorial of the identity of the Fabrician species, Papilio Pylades, that
remains extant at this time. The figures, it may be added, which are
submitted in the annexed plate, are faithful copies from the original
drawings of Mr. Jones, so inscribed in the hand writing of Fabricius, a
circumstance that must remove every shade of doubt as to the individual
object to which Fabricius had assigned that appellation.
Papilio Pylades is a species of the Butterfly tribe, of moderate size,
in comparison with the generality of those which appertain to the same
family, the _Equites Achivi_ of Fabricius. The upper surface exhibits an
appearance of much simplicity and elegance: the disk is white, and the
broad black limb, or border, by which it is surrounded, is marked with a
number of spots and semilunar marks of white disposed with much
regularity. The disk of the lower surface is also white, but surrounded
with a pale brown, or fulvous limb, and marked with white spots in the
same manner as the broad black border on the upper surface. A few of the
white spots on this fulvous border are surrounded by black lines and
spaces. There is also a red band marked with black and blueish spots,
that extends along the main or anterior rib of the upper wings, from the
base, as far as the middle of the wing, and a spot of red at the base of
the posterior pair.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Pub^d. as the Act directs by E. Donovan
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE XIV.
AMPELIS CAYANA
PURPLE-THROATED CHATTERER.
PASSERES.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill straight, convex, slightly incurvate: mandibles notched: nostrils
covered with bristles: tongue acute, cartilaginous, bifid: middle toe
connected at the base to the outer one.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Cærulean blue: neck beneath violet: quill and tail feathers black, edged
with blue.
AMPELIS CAYANA: nitida cærulea, collo subtus violaceo. _Linn. Syst. 1.
p. 298. 6._—_Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 840._
AMPELIS CAYANA: nitida cærulea, collo subtus violaceo remigibus
rectricibusque nigris cæruleo marginatis. _Lath. Ind. Orn. 1.
365. 3._
Cotinga Cayanensis. _Briss. 2. p. 344. 32. t. 34. f. 3._
Lanius Ococolin. _Klein. av. p. 54. 6._—_Seba. ii. p. 102. t. 96. f. 3._
Cotinga de Cayenne, Quereiva. _Buff. 4. p. 444._—_Pl. Enl. 624._
Purple-Throated Chatterer. _Lath. Syn. 3. p. 95. 3._
* * * * *
The Purple-Throated Chatterer is assuredly one of the most beautiful of
the feathered race, at present known; the general colour of the plumage,
a blue of most transcendant brightness, and highly changeable, varying
from a fine cærulean, or azure, to a green of equal delicacy and beauty.
There is an intermixture of black disposed in spots throughout; one half
of each feather, from the base, being black, and only the tips blue, so
that the plumage appears more or less spotted with black, as the
feathers are ruffled or misplaced from their natural position. The
region of the chin and throat is of a beautiful crimson purple, whence
its name of Purple-Throated Chatterer. The greater wing coverts are
black, varied and spotted with blue: the quills and tail black with blue
margins: the bill black with the lower mandible rather paler: the legs
black.
This brilliant species of the Ampelis tribe has been sometimes
denominated the Ultramarine Thrush, and not unfrequently the Ultramarine
Starling: its size resembles that of the Starling, and there is also a
general similitude in its form and manners, but it is, nevertheless
generically distinct.
Inhabits Cayenne, and probably some other parts of South America.
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XV.
MUREX FOLIATUS
FOLIATED MUREX
OR, FOLIATED ROCK SHELL.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, rough with membranaceous sutures: aperture oval, ending in
an entire straight or slightly ascending canal.
* Sutures expanding into crisped foliations: beak abbreviated PURPURA
_Gmel._
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Three rows of foliations: aperture one-toothed.
MUREX FOLIATUS: testa trifariam frondosa: apertura unidentata. _Gmel.
Linn. Syst. T. 1. p. 6. 3529. 174._—_Martyn Conch. 2. t. 66._
MUREX Purpura alata, testa triangulari, transversim costata trifariam
frondosa, frondibus alatis membranaceis instructa cauda recta clausa,
labro latissimo, labio adnato, apertura subovata, fauce alba. _Chemn.
Conch. 10. f. 1538._
* * * * *
This is a shell far more remarkable for the singularity of its growth,
than for any elegance or beauty of its colouring. The peculiarity of its
character consists in the large, erect, and longitudinal foliations,
which are disposed in three distinct, and nearly equi-distant series
throughout the whole length of the shell: for they appear in continuity
upon every whorl, from the base to the apex. It is from this peculiarity
that the species has obtained the very appropriate appellation of
foliatus, or Foliated Rock Shell.
In point of colour, as before observed, the Murex foliatus is not
particularly conspicuous, and they are of a texture so delicate that it
almost constantly occurs in a bleached or depauperated state; it is also
a very fragile shell, and from this cause very liable to be broken. When
in fine condition, as in the example selected, for the representation
now before us, the general hue is a lacteal white; the body of the
shell, externally, a deep tawny, with the foliations whitish, and the
opening, or mouth of the shell, very delicately tinted with a violaceous
hue. Sometimes the foliations have the appearance of fine white
porcelain.
This is esteemed a scarce shell, and very rarely occurs perfect, or in a
living state. Found on the sea coast of North America.
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XVI.
MUREX SCORPIO
var MINOR
LEAST STAG’S HORN MUREX.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, rough with membranaceous sutures: aperture oval, ending in
an entire straight, or slightly ascending canal.
* _Sutures expanding into crisped foliations: beak abbreviated._ PURPURA
_Gmel._
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell with four rows of foliations: spire capitate: beak truncated.
MUREX SCORPIO: testa quadrifariam frondosa: spira capitata, cauda
truncata. _Mus. Lud. Ulr. 628. n. 296._—_Gmel. Linn. Syst. T. 1.
p. 6. 3529. 14._—_Rumpf. Mus. t. 26. f. D._—_Seba. Mus. 3. tab.
77. fig. 13. 16._
Cochlis volutata muricata parva sex duplici laciniarum serie horrida,
spiris quatuor capitatis faucibus, quasi Scorpionum forficulis armatis.
_Purpura_ quæ SCORPIO Auctorum. _Chemn._
* * * * *
The extraordinary form of this very rare and singular kind of Murex
cannot fail to interest the curious observer. The shell is of the spiral
kind, with an oval aperture; the head of the spire large or tumid, and
the first or body whorl beset with four distinct longitudinal rows or
series of elongated foliations or processes. These last mentioned
appendages are flat and somewhat cylindrical from the base nearly to
their summits, where they become cleft or furcate, expanding most
commonly into two, sometimes three, or rarely four distinct little
lobes, and the radiation of these process by which the exterior margin
of the aperture is encircled, have a groove or canal extending from the
margin of the lip to the cleft or lobate summits.
The learned Seba, to whom this very remarkable shell, it appears, was
known, has well observed in speaking of the Murices, which he describes,
that this kind is more particularly distinguished by the greater
disproportion of those advanced processes in comparison with the size of
the body of the shell than any other of his species; so that their
superior length in this respect was, in his opinion, to be considered
truly characteristic of the species.* It is from these processes it may
be also added, that this curious shell has been variously and not
unfrequently fantastically designated by appellations that cannot very
readily be reconciled in our ideas with any object they have been
supposed to resemble, even admitting that latitude of fancy which may be
tolerated when we are entirely aware that the assimilation is remote.
Thus this shell has obtained in various languages names according with
those of the Ragged Spike Whelk, the Stag’s Horn Whelk, the Skeleton,
Water Trough, and others of no less vague import. The Least Ragged Whelk
is a name assigned to it by our countryman Petiver: the Scorpion Shell
is a very old name for it among the early collectors, it is the Murex
Scorpio of Rumpfius. In France it was distinguished formerly by the name
of _Patte de Crapaud_, (the Toad’s Foot) because, says the author of
Davila’s Catalogue, besides the spires on the body, the exterior edge of
the lip is bordered with others that are very large and flat at the
extremity, and no doubt, for the same reason it is called by Seba
_Bufonis Pedes_. It was known at that time also among the collectors in
Holland by the name of the Stag’s Horn,[11] from a remote similitude
which these processes are supposed to bear to the horns of that
quadruped. And lastly, in conclusion it may be added, that for nearly
half a century past it has been distinguished among the collectors of
this country by a title not less whimsical, namely, the “Water Wheel,”
from a fancied similitude the contour of the shell and its
verticillation of processes bear to the circle and lamellar appendages
or sweeps of a water wheel.
Not one of any of those various appellations, it must be confessed,
appear so applicable and well chosen as to supersede the propriety of
introducing any other that might be deemed tolerably appropriate, but
upon the whole the species and varieties which it embraces have been so
long known by the name of the Scorpion Shell, that there can be no great
impropriety in allowing it to remain under that name: we have for our
example the authority of Rumpfius, and the sanction of Linnæus
throughout all his works; and in the Gmelinian System it also stands
under the name of Murex Scorpio. The appellation of the Stag’s Horn
Murex, in conformity with the epithet assigned to it by the old French
writers “_bois de cerf_,” is not altogether inappropriate, the elongated
processes have much the appearance of the antlers of the stag, in the
first stages of their growth; or considered in the aggregate, the shell
presents a number of ramose processes like the horns of the Stag or the
Rein Deer, and some other quadrupeds of the Cervine tribe; a
characteristic feature that may perhaps justify the appellation.
There are several varieties of this remarkable shell, some of which
might at the first view be considered as distinct species, and in
reality have been occasionally arranged as such by collectors. These
upon the most attentive comparison do not, however, appear to differ
specifically, notwithstanding the differences in point of colour are
very striking. One variety rather exceeds the rest in size, and is of a
deep testaceous or tawny brown colour, or rather inclining to a chesnut
hue: we have seen it of a tawny tint with darker splashes upon the
transverse ribs, particularly on the body and the tumid whorl of the
spire. Occasionally this shell also occurs of a deep or Ethiopian
blackness; this kind is extremely rare. The white variety occurs more
frequently, but is, nevertheless, uncommon in comparison with the brown
or testaceous kind: two examples of the white variety, clouded with
yellow, appears to have occurred in the celebrated cabinet of the French
collector Davilla, about the year 1776. He distinguishes them by the
title of “deux petites _epineuses_,” and tells us they have six
longitudinal sides like the “_rameuses_,” which are also named “Pattes
de crapaud,” an epithet by which we are well aware the Linnæan Murex
Scorpio was discriminated, and which therefore leads to a conclusion
that the “epineuses” of a white colour, clouded with yellow, which that
cabinet contained, were not specifically distinct from the shell at
present under our consideration. When extremely fine the white variety
of this shell is usually very delicately tinged with violet in all its
shades and transitions of light.
All these varieties, as before observed, are very easily reconciled to
the same species; nor is it ourselves alone that are inclined to this
opinion. Seba, to whom the larger brown and white variety, were known,
admits them as the same without any hesitation.[12] The expression
“_Testa alba aut fusca_,” the Linnæan description of this shell in the
cabinet of the Queen of Sweden, implies the like persuasion, and the
authority of Chemnitz may be adduced still further in support of this
opinion: Some modern writers have thought differently, but we must
confess the distinctions they assign are by no means satisfactory to us.
The larger shell is usually of a brown colour, but we have seen one of
the white variety rather larger than any of the brown colour that have
occurred to our notice.
The shell we have selected for the figures in the annexed plate is
chosen rather for its extreme perfection than the superiority of size;
we have observed it larger by nearly one half, but have not in any
instance met with one more entirely perfect: it is delineated from the
example of this very curious species in the late Leverian Museum.
This species which for a century past or more has maintained its
reputation as a rare production is still held in much esteem, and bears
a price proportionately considerable: it inhabits the shores of Southern
Asia. Gmelin has the expression “_Habitat pretiosus et rarus in_ mari,
Asiam australem _alluente_, _&c._” and describes the species as being
either white, brown, or black.
-----
Footnote 11:
“Cornua cervina—_bois de cerf_.”—Seba.
Footnote 12:
“Horum processus admodum producti sunt; ut ideo Cornua cervina
appellentur ob qualemcunque similitudinem. Corpus tamen Cochleæ
semper pro ratione ramorum minus est, quam in Muricibus
superioribus.”[12a]—_Seba T. 3. tab. 77. p. 172._
Footnote 12a:
As _Murex ramosus_, of which several varieties are given in the plates
Seba, _Murex Saxatilis_, &c.
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ORNITHOLOGY
PLATE XVII.
PSITTACUS GALGULUS
SAPPHIRE CROWNED PARRAKEET.
PICÆ.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill falcated; upper mandible moveable, and in general covered with a
cere: nostrils rounded, placed in the base of the bill: tongue fleshy,
obtuse, entire: feet formed for climbing.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Green: rump and breast scarlet: crown of the male blue.
PSITTACUS GALGULUS: viridis, uropygio pectoreque coccineis, vertice
(maris) cæruleo.—_Linn. Amoen. ac. 4. p. 286._—_Mus. Ad. Fr. ii.
p. 16._—_Osbeck. it. 101._
PSITTACUS GALGULUS: viridis, uropygio pectoreque coccineis, vertice
cæruleo, lunula cervicis lutea, tectricibus caudæ rubris.—_Lath.
Ind. Orn. T. 1. 148. p. 131._
Perruche à tête bleue. _Buff. hist. nat. des. ois. 6. p. 163._
Petite perruche de Pérou. _Buff. pl. enlum. n. 190. f. 2._
Petite perruche de l’isle de Luçon. _Sonner, it. p. 76. t. 33._
Sapphire-Crowned Parrakeet. _Edw. glean. t. 293. f. 2._
* * * * *
This gay little creature is one of the smaller kind of the Psittacus or
Parrot tribe, and of that family which is distinguished by having the
tail short and equal at the end. Its size is rather less than that of
our common house sparrow. The prevailing colour of the plumage a rich
vernal green, deepest in its hues on the back and wings, and rather
paler or more delicate in its tint beneath; the breast and rump scarlet;
the feathers of the latter elongated and extending far over the tail,
which is green; the crown of the head a beautiful Sapphirine blue. This
appears to be the male bird. That which is considered as the female has
a yellow spot upon the throat: it is destitute of any scarlet spot upon
the breast, and the Sapphirine colour on the crown of the head is also
wanting.
These are the characteristic distinctions observable generally in the
species; besides which there are other less material particulars in
which these birds are known to differ.
In some birds we find a yellow transverse stripe on the hind part of the
neck, varying in colour from luteous to orange, and which is more or
less conspicuous in different individuals. Others have a somewhat
similar band of yellow, but which is situated at the back of the head
instead of the neck. The first of these is distinguished by the name of
the Sapphire Crowned Parrakeet, the other by that of the Phillippine
Parrakeet. Dr. Latham has endeavoured to establish the characteristic
distinctions of these two kinds in his _Index Ornithologicus_: he
considers them as permanent varieties, but we must confess we regard
them rather as accidental than permanent. The characteristic band of
yellow by which they are to be discriminated chiefly, appears to be more
or less developed in different birds at different periods of their
growth; and in the absence of this character from the back of the head
in the Phillippine Parrakeet, or the hind part of the neck in the
Sapphire Crowned Parrakeet, the resemblance is so very near as to afford
no certain means of distinguishing one from the other.
This bird has been long known in Europe. It appeared in the work of
Edwards, the ingenious English Ornithologist, who lived about the middle
of the last century. Linnæus describes the species with much critical
minuteness in the fourth volume of his _Amoenitates Academicæ_, as
PSITTACUS GALGULUS, _brachiurus viridis pectore uropygioque coccineis,
vertice cæruleo_; and this description accords so exactly with the bird
before us, that no doubt whatever can remain of its being exactly the
variety which that eminent Naturalist has described.
Edwards informs us that this bird is a native of Sumatra; Osbeck met
with it in Java, where he tells us it is known by the name of Parkicki.
The title of Perruche de Pérou which it bears in _Pdl. Enl._ might
induce a persuasion of its being an inhabitant of South America, which,
however, is not believed among Ornithologists. We have already mentioned
that it occurs in the Phillippine Islands, and that from this locality,
the particular variety found there has obtained the appellation of the
Phillippine Parrakeet.
We are indebted to Osbeck for a concise description of the manners of
this interesting species when in a state of captivity, “if put into a
cage,” observes this traveller, “it whistles very seldom and commonly
grows quite sullen: it hangs itself with its feet so that the back is
turned towards the earth, and seldom changes this situation: it is fed
with boiled rice; in which manner, in the year 1752, one was brought to
Gottenburgh.” It is probably this information to which Linnæus alludes
in his Academic paper, delivered in 1760, where in speaking of the
manners of this bird, he tells us it sleeps on trees, suspended by one
foot with its head downwards, in order to escape the observation of the
rapacious birds of night. The nest of these birds are described by
Toreen. “We observed,” says this writer, “that their nests were
remarkable for their exceeding fine texture, but we did not see the
birds. If these nests were differently constructed, the monkies would be
very mischievous to them; but now, before they can get to the opening,
the lowest part, as the weakest, breaks into pieces, and the visitor
falls to the ground without danger to the young birds.”
This bird is observed to be very partial to the fresh juice of the cocoa
tree, which flows from the ends of the branches when the fruit has been
fresh cut off; and which before it undergoes fermentation is said in
taste to resemble new-made cyder.
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XVIII.
PAPILIO ACAMAS
ACAMAS BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* EQUITES TROJANI.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented, caudated, or ending in a tail; brown, above and beneath
the same colour; anterior wings with a yellow band, posterior wings with
red, blue and yellow lunules.
PAPILIO ACAMAS: alis dentato caudatis concoloribus fuscis: anticis
fascia flava, posticis lunulis rubris cæruleis flavisque.—_Fabr.
Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. 8. 22._—_Jon. fig. pict. 1. tab. 72._
* * * * *
Papilio Acamas is one among the number of those Papiliones, which, from
their magnitude, as well as beauty, constitute the more attractive
species of the first family of this interesting tribe, the _Equites
Trojani_ of the Fabrician system. Papilio Acamas is scarcely surpassed
in size by any other of the Papilio genus, and when it is added, as it
may be with confidence, that the figure now presented to the reader is
the first that has appeared in elucidation of such a noble species, we
cannot doubt that its introduction will be received with pleasure by
every Naturalist in this country and throughout Europe.
This fine and very striking species has been long since known by repute
to Entomologists; but from the description only which Fabricius had left
us in his _Entomologia Systematica_. Those conversant with this work of
our author, will be aware, that Papilio Acamas constitutes one of those
many species for which Fabricius refers only to the drawings of the late
Mr. Jones: the present figure is a faithful copy of that original
drawing referred to and described by Fabricius, and as such cannot fail
to prove acceptable to every Entomologist. It is certainly the only
figure extant by means of which the Fabrician species P. Acamas can be
ascertained.
The identity of this species, it will hence appear, does not rest upon
opinion or conjecture, and this circumstance must be deemed of no small
importance in an enquiry of this nature. In the present instance it may
be also added that this identity is essentially material to be
considered, because there is another insect of the same tribe, the
Papilio Laodocus of the same author, which assimilates so closely with
it, that without due attention, the one might readily be confounded with
the other. These two butterflies, however, although they appear so
nearly allied, present characters which considered accurately,
demonstrate very clearly that Fabricius was right in separating them.
Fabricius adverting to this close affinity, observes, that in size and
appearance Papilio Acamas agrees with Papilio Laodocus. The predominant
colour of P. Acamas, he observes, is a dark or fuscous brown, much less
inclining to black than P. Laodocus. The anterior wings in both species
have a yellow transverse band: this band in P. Acamas extends from the
anterior margin almost close to the posterior margin, and touches the
posterior rib; in P. Laodocus this yellow band is abbreviated or
shorter, of greater breadth, and placed more immediately towards the
middle of the wing, the band in P. Acamas being situated rather nearer
towards the exterior end of the wing. There is also a marginal series of
yellow spots at the extremity of the anterior wings, the form of which
is very singular, and affords a striking distinctive character of P.
Acamas. There is also a characteristic difference observable in the
markings of the posterior wings: in both species, on the upper as well
as lower surface, those wings are elegantly marked with a distinct arch
of red lunules, posterior to which is another of blue; beyond these in
P. Acamas is a third series of lunules, rather larger than either of the
former, the colour of which is bright yellow. There is a final or
posterior arch of lunules in P. Laodocus, behind the two series of red
and blue lunules, similar to those of P. Acamas, but they are smaller,
and instead of yellow are white. And lastly, the body in P. Acamas is
dark brown above and pale beneath: in P. Laodocus, on the contrary, the
body beneath as well as above is black, with a longitudinal line each
side the body.
We have been thus minute in pointing out precisely the differences that
prevail between these two Papiliones, from a persuasion that they might
perhaps be otherwise confounded together, either as the same species, or
as varieties of each other. There is assuredly a general approximation
in the appearance of those two insects, although they prove so very
distinct upon a close and attentive comparison.
Papilio Acamas is a native of Jamaica: Papilio Laodocus of South
America. A figure of P. Laodocus occurs in the work of Cramer, under the
name of Papilio Glaucus.
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XIX.
PAPILIO HOMERUS
HOMER’S BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* EQUITES ACHIVI.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings caudated or terminating in tails, black with a yellow band; lower
ones yellowish beneath, with seven ocellar spots:
PAPILIO HOMERUS: alis caudatis nigris: fascia flava posticis subtus
flavescentibus: maculis ocellaribus septem.—_Fabr. Ent. Syst. T.
3, p. 1. 29. 85._
PAPILIO HOMERUS: _Jon. fig. pict. 1. tab. 8._
Corpus magnum nigrum. Alæ anticæ supra nigræ fascia maculari maculisque
apicis flavis. Subtus anticæ concolores, at macula apicis tantum unica,
marginalis, albida posticæ fuscæ, fascia media pallida maculis septem
ocellaribus, atris iride rufa.
* * * * *
In the present instance, as in many others that will occur during the
progress of this undertaking, we have the pleasure of introducing to the
attention of the Naturalist, a species of the Papilio tribe, no less
distinguished for its beauty than its rarity; and one, moreover, that
has never been before depicted in the work of any author.
This magnificent Papilio, for to this appellation it is entitled truly,
was one among the number of those rarities of the insect race which
Fabricius met with in the Entomological Cabinets of the English
Naturalists, when he paid a visit to this country about the year 1792,
and the descriptions of which constitute a most invaluable and extensive
portion of the work which he published subsequently upon the continent,
under the title of _Entomologia Systematica_. Fabricius saw the drawing
of this insect in the Collectanea of Paintings formed by the ingenious
hand of that indefatigable and liberal Naturalist the late William
Jones, Esq. of Chelsea, and was so delighted with its grandeur, as an
insect altogether undescribed, that he determined upon assigning to it
some name of pre-eminent distinction. The tribe of insects to which it
naturally appertains in systematic classification, is that of the
_Equites Achivi_; all the species of which are named after the Greeks,
and more especially of those commemorated in the Iliad and the Odyssey:
the heroes of the Trojan war. This rule determined his choice, and we
may readily conceive his admiration of the species from the name
selected upon this occasion, _Papilio Homerus_. If Homer had no claim to
be considered as a Greek, he had sang the achievements of the Grecian
heroes, and had mourned the fall of Troy; and Fabricius disposed alike
to compliment the immortal bard, and define the species by an
appellation more than usually superlative, has consecrated it to the
memory of that ancient poet.
If we advert to the writings of Fabricius, it will be found that this
author refers for a figure of this fine Papilio solely to the Paintings
of Mr. Jones. The reference is to the eighth drawing of the first volume
of his collectanea. This is perfectly correct, the figure occurs in that
collection of paintings as Fabricius states, and in the part described.
We have not only seen it there with the name assigned to it in
_Entomologia Systematica_ PAPILIO HOMERUS inscribed in the hand-writing
of Fabricius, but are at this time in possession of an exact copy of
that drawing, taken by the express permission of its former very worthy
proprietor; and it is from this copy of the original drawing so
inscribed by Fabricius himself, that the very beautiful figure is taken
which accompanies the present description.
Notwithstanding the general accuracy with which Fabricius has related
the local circumstances connected with the history of the insects which
he describes, there are occasionally errors in this respect it must be
satisfactory to many of our readers to have corrected: errors, which,
owing to the lapse of time and death of those distinguished Naturalists
which Fabricius had the happiness of meeting with in England, we may
venture to presume, without vanity, can be now corrected only through
the medium of our assistance. The celebrity of Fabricius throughout
Europe as one of the best informed Entomologists of the last century,
renders it even of no small importance to correct the most trivial
oversights he has committed; and this consideration will, we trust,
afford us some apology for that minuteness, if not prolixity with which
it may be requisite occasionally to relate particulars of a local
nature, in order to correct such errors. An instance of this kind occurs
in the note annexed to the Fabrician description of the Papilio now
before us; in stating the local circumstances connected with its
history, Fabricius says _Habitat in America_. _Dom Latham._ There is
obviously an oversight in this passage, for we well know that the
Fabrician description of this species was taken from the figure in the
series of drawings painted by Mr. Jones, which has been already
mentioned; the original of the figure now presented by us to the
attention of our readers; and that the specimen of the insect itself
from which that painting was taken was preserved at the time Fabricius
described it in the celebrated collection of the late Mr. Dru Drury. As
we had the pleasure of Mr. Drury’s acquaintance, as well as that of Mr.
Jones, and had an unreserved access to the information and cabinets of
both, we are enabled to speak upon this circumstance with confidence.
The example of Papilio Homerus in the cabinet of Mr. Drury was perfectly
familiar to us, it was ourselves who wrote the name _Homerus_, annexed
to this insect in that cabinet; and so far as our recollection serves at
the distant period of five and twenty years, Mr. Drury stated to us that
he had received this individual specimen from the Island of Jamaica. We
are in possession of the Entomological manuscripts of this venerable
author, but among those we have in vain sought for any positive
confirmation of this distant recollection. It appears certain that Mr.
Drury had not entered it under the name of _Homerus_ in his catalogue
after we had communicated that name to him; and which we did upon the
authority of the Fabrician manuscripts annexed to the drawings of Mr.
Jones. At the time Mr. Drury received this insect from his correspondent
it was assuredly a nameless species, and was probably entered as such,
with a number only; such omissions in the nomenclature being, of course,
usual when the species proved to be undescribed, till proper names could
be assigned to them. A gentleman of the name of Keuchan, and another of
the name of Whiting, appear from these entries to be the only
correspondents who furnished Mr. Drury with Papiliones of Jamaica; it
was probably from the former that he obtained this majestic species; and
that Mr. Drury obtained it about the year 1777. This _habitat_ would
justify Fabricius in describing the insect as a native of America,
although if the conclusion be correct, it might have been stated more
distinctly as a native of that island.
At the dissolution of the fine collection of that indefatigable
Entomologist, Mr. Drury, which took place by public sale in the month of
May, 1805, this beautiful insect was purchased by another very eminent
collector, Mr. John Francillon, at the price of _four pounds
sterling_,[13] and subsequently at the death of this last mentioned
individual, which happened in the year 1817, it passed with many others
of the more costly rarities into the cabinet of Alexander Mc’Leay, Esq.
S.L.S. &c.
With respect to the Fabrician reference to the cabinet of Dr. Latham,
for it is to the cabinet of the venerable Ornithologist of that name the
reference applies, we believe it is also in our power to explain its
origin, having occasionally, through the kindness of its proprietor,
consulted that cabinet, and finally, in conformity with his permission,
written a catalogue of its contents. In that cabinet we certainly
observed a Papilio allied to P. Homerus, but yet so far remote from it,
that we could not venture to pronounce it the same; it may be a variety
of the species, but is assuredly not the insect painted by Mr. Jones to
which the synonyms of Fabricius allude.
Papilio Homerus is represented in its natural size in the annexed plate.
Its colours are various and very beautifully disposed: the ground or
prevailing colour is a deep or dark brown with a broad stripe of a
yellowish hue across the middle of each wing, forming very nearly a band
of that peculiar kind distinguished among Naturalists by the appellation
of a common band. There is also a large and somewhat quadrangular spot
of the same flavous colour upon the disk within and contiguous to the
band, and beyond, towards the apex, a small sub-angular band composed of
smaller flavous spots. Behind the yellow band, across the disk of the
posterior wings, are a series of blue spots composed of many little
shining points, which in the aggregate form a distinct spot of an ovate
form, most brilliant towards the centre and paler towards the edge. And
finally, there are three distinct sublunate spots of red on each
posterior wing, one at the anal angle, and the other two at the
posterior margin, one of which is situated on each side near the base of
the tail. Beneath, the anterior wings are uniformly dark with a single
pale or whitish marginal spot at the tip; the lower wings of a fuscous
colour with seven ocellar spots of black, the iris of which are rufous.
-----
Footnote 13:
Lot 305, third day, Saturday, May 25th, 1805.
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE XX.
PIPRA PUNCTATA
DOTTED OR SPECKLED MANAKIN.
PASSERES.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill shorter than the head, strong, hard, nearly triangular at the base
and slightly incurvate at the tip: nostrils naked. Feet gressorial: tail
short.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Cinereous brown, beneath yellow: head, wings, and tail black with white
dots: tail coverts red.
PIPRA PUNCTATA: griseo fusca, subtus flava, capite alis caudaque nigris
albo punctatis, tectricibus caudæ rubris.
PIPRA PUNCTATA. Greyish brown, waved with dusky: top of the head and
wings black speckled with white; tail coverts red. SPECKLED
MANAKIN, _Nat. Miscell. 111._
PARDALOTUS (punctatus) _Vieillot. Ornith. Elem. p. 31._
* * * * *
This pretty little species of Manakin is one among the number of those
numerous acquisitions in the science of Natural History, for which the
Naturalist is indebted to the prolific regions of Australasia. The very
close affinity which it bears to the Gmelinian Pipra Nævia, a species
described originally by Buffon under the title of _Fourmilier tacheté de
Cayenne_, may possibly have occasioned some confusion among authors
respecting this individual species, but there are still, if we mistake
not, sufficient indications of the two birds being specifically
distinct. This was the opinion of the late Dr. Shaw: he constituted a
new species of the bird before us under the name of PIPRA PUNCTATA, and
the english trivial of SPECKLED MANAKIN, and we are induced to follow
that example from a persuasion that his conclusion was correct. Pipra
Nævia, to which it is so nearly allied, has the throat and chin black,
and the breast spotted with black: Pipra Punctata, on the contrary, has
the throat and breast yellow, without any black spots. These differences
afford a conspicuous distinction of the two birds, besides which, there
are some others of less consideration that will appear upon an attentive
comparison.
As a new species, it appears, therefore, pretty certain that we have to
acknowledge the late Dr. Shaw as the first author by whom this
interesting bird was introduced to the knowledge of the learned world:
he describes it, as before observed, under the name of Pipra punctata.
M. Vieillot is consequently in an error when he refers to authority of
Dr. Latham for this name. The bird was so designated in the first
instance, in the work entitled the _Naturalist’s Miscellany_, written by
Dr. Shaw; nor was the species mentioned by Dr. Latham either in his
Synopsis or his Index Ornithologicus. In a final or second supplement
published by Dr. Latham long after the Synopsis, we find the bird
mentioned under the name of the _Speckled Manakin_, but only upon the
authority of the Naturalist’s Miscellany of Shaw, and a drawing of the
bird by General Davies, for at that late period even, the bird appears
to be unknown to Dr. Latham, except upon those two authorities. This
observation is the more material since the Ornithologist M. Vieillot in
dividing the Linnæan Genus Pipra into two Genera, Pardalotus and Pipra,
assigns for the type of his genus PARDALOTUS the “_Pipra punctata_” of
Latham, at the same time, as we have already shewn, the works of Dr.
Latham affords us no such name. The present species was described under
the appellation of _Pipra punctata_ only by Dr. Shaw. Dr. Latham does
not adopt this name, he records the species only under the trivial
english name of the Speckled Manakin, which name had also been assigned
before by Dr. Shaw. If, therefore, the name of Pipra punctata had
occurred to M. Vieillot, it must have been in the work of Dr. Shaw, and
not of Dr. Latham. Perhaps Vieillot had inadvertently imagined this
Speckled Manakin to be the same as the Spotted Manakin of Dr. Latham’s
Synopsis. If this be really the source of error, it may be added, that
this latter bird appears to have been described by Dr. Latham upon the
authority only of Planches Enluminées, and is no other than Pipra Nævia
of Gmelin, as Dr. Latham has himself pointed out in his Index
Ornithologicus.
The description of this bird, as it occurs in the first instance, in the
works of Dr. Shaw, is to this effect. PIPRA PUNCTATA (SPECKLED MANAKIN)
_grisea_, _fusco undulata_, _vertice alisque nigris_, _albo punctatis
tectricibus caudæ rubris_. The notice of the species as before-mentioned
in Dr. Latham’s second Supplement is subsequent to this, and appears
only under the trivial name of the Speckled Manakin.
In adverting to the separation of the Pipra genus as it occurs in the
work of M. Vieillot, it will not be amiss to point out precisely those
distinctions, which, according to his mode of classification, constitute
the characters of those two genera into which he has divided them. The
first of these genera denominated PARDALOTUS comprehends those species
of the Pipra genus in which the form of the bill is very short in
proportion to its length, a little robust or stout, the base dilated
upon the edges, entire, conoid, thick at the point, the upper mandible a
little bent, and the lower one convex beneath. Those birds which are
allowed to remain in the Pipra genus have the bill conoid, trigonal at
the base, compressed at the sides near the end, cut off and curved at
the point, the lower mandible turning up at the extremity; and the
exterior toes connected rather beyond the middle. It may be added,
finally, that Cuvier, on the contrary, in his _Règne Animal_, allows the
Manakins (Pipra of Linnæus) to remain united as before. He does not
adopt the genus Pardalotus, and this circumstance is the more worthy of
note since we have seen the species arranged in our Museums with the
synonymous appellation of “PARDALOTUS PUNCTATUS _Cuvier_,” and have
observed it designated as the type of Cuvier’s New Genus Pardalotus.
This interesting little creature being represented in its natural size
in the plate annexed, it will be perceived to be one of the smaller
tribes of the feathered race: we have even few birds in England more
diminutive, for in point of magnitude it does not exceed that of our
common willow-wren, its length being only about four inches. The
elegance of its plumage, is, however, in a peculiar degree attractive,
and more than amply compensates for this inferiority in size. The
general colour above is cinereous brown, varying to a cinereous purple;
the throat and breast a delicate fulvous yellow; the crown of the head
black spotted with white; the wings, except the coverts, which are the
same colour as the back, are black, and the tip of each of these black
feathers are marked with a spot of white. The rump coverts are
testaceous, becoming gradually redder towards the end: the tail itself
is black, having the base of a fine crimson with some intermixture of
yellow; and in general, though not invariably, there is a white dot at
the tip of each of the tail feathers; sometimes it is only the outer
feather on each side the tail that is marked with a white dot. Beneath,
the throat and breast is of a delicate yellow colour; the bill black,
and legs brown.
In the plate that accompanies this description, this elegant little bird
appears perched upon a sprig of the _ovate leaved Goodenia_, GOODENIA
OVATA, a vegetable production of the Australasian regions, that flowered
in the month of July, during the present year, in the Royal Gardens,
Kew.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_21_
_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
Donovan & Mess.^{rs} Simpkin & Marshall, Oct.^r 1, 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XXI.
VOLUTA PYRUM
PEAR VOLUTE.
_Front View._
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Spiral; aperture without a beak, and somewhat effuse; pillar twisted or
plaited, generally without lips or perforation.
**** FUSIFORM.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell obovate and slightly tailed with striated whorls on the spire: tip
produced and glabrous: pillar with three plaits.
VOLUTA PYRUM: testa obovata subcaudati; spiræ anfractibus striatis;
apice producto glaberrimo, columella triplicata.—_Gmel. Linn.
Syst. Nat. T. 1. p. 6. 3463. 102._—_List. Conch, t. 815. f.
25._—_Bonann. recr et Mus. Kircher. 3. f. 194._—_Knorr. Vergn.
6. f. 39. f. 1._—_Gualt. test. t. 46. f. C._—_Martini. Conch. 3.
t. 95. f. 916. 917._—(B.) _List. Conch. t. 816. f.
26._—_Martini. Conch. 3. t. 95. f. 918. 919._—_Knorr. Vergn. 6.
t. 27. f. 2._—(D.) _Chemn. Conch. 9. t. 104. f. 884. 885._—(8.)
_Chemn. Conch. 9. t. 104. f. 886. 887._
* * * * *
The animal inhabitant of this shell, according to the generical
definition of Linnæus, is a kind of Limax; the Limax is one of the
Mollusca Tribe, or animals furnished with limbs; the mouth is placed
before, it has a lateral perforation, the feelers are four in number,
and the vent common with the lateral pore. This is the Linnæan character
of the animal inhabitant of the Voluta Genus, and consequently of the
species now before us.
It is not to be disputed that the discoveries which have taken place
among the vermes of those testaceous bodies since the time of Linnæus,
have introduced us to a far more extensive acquaintance with the beings
of this nature than Linnæus could have possessed. The term Limax, which
Linnæus applied not only to the animal inhabitants of the Voluta family,
but also to the Buccinum, the Strombus, the Murex, the Trochus, the
Turbo, in short to almost every genus of the Univalves, and some even of
the Bivalves could not fail to excite remark. It could scarcely be
conceived that in the very ample range of the creation which those
genera embraced, such uniformity could prevail, and the subsequent
observations of various Naturalists have tended fully to assure us that
the Linnæan character of the animal inhabitants of the testaceous tribes
was much too vague and comprehensive. There are indeed, it must be
confessed, a considerable number of those testaceous bodies, the animals
of which are still unknown, and may possibly so remain, but forming our
conclusions, from the great multitude that has been recently discovered,
and the number of those which have been examined with anatomical
attention, we may presume, with safety, that the Linnæan Limaces ought
properly to be divided into several distinct genera. How far a
methodical distribution of the shells themselves, founded upon the
zoological distinctions of the animal inhabitants, may be admissible in
our cabinets appears less certain. The greater number of those shells,
of which the animals are totally unknown, present insuperable
objections; and the attention of collectors in the formation of the
Conchological Cabinet, so rarely extend beyond the more obvious
characters which the structure of the shells present, that we can
scarcely deem it practicable.
The animal of the shell before us, Voluta pyrum, has been ascertained
and well described by Lamarck, De Montfort, and other writers; it has
the head armed with two obtuse feelers of a club-like form; the eyes
advanced and placed at the base, at the outerside of those feelers; the
mantle or fleshy covering terminating in an elongation folded into a
kind of tube above the head; the foot, or disk, strong and muscular, and
armed with a small round horny operculum.
According to the Linnæan classification, the shelly covering of this
animal is a Voluta; and so far as the most prominent criterion of the
Voluta genus, the folds or plaits upon the pillar lip be considered,
this character is unequivocal. Linnæus regarding this as one of its most
essential definitions, has overlooked the differences that prevail in
the structure of the spire and beaks, or includes them only as
distinctions of the different families into which his Volutæ are
divided. Later writers differ upon this subject; these differences are
considered by many as generical, and thus the Linnæan Volutæ have become
separated into several distinct genera. In the shell before us, the beak
is lengthened or produced, and canaliculated; and thus constitutes in
the classification of Lamarck, a species of his TURBINELLA; and is the
shell in particular which he adopts as the type of that genus. The
character of that genus, as proposed by this Conchologist, in his work
entitled _Animaux sans vertèbres_, is thus expressed, Turbinelle
(Turbinella) a shell turbinated or subfusiform, canaliculated to the
base, and having upon the column from three to five plaits or folds of a
compressed form and placed transversely. Murex scolymus of Martini,
Voluta ceramica of Lister, and Voluta capitellum of the same author, are
comprehended with the Linnæan Voluta pyrum in this genus Turbinellus.
It has been observed by De Montfort that Lamarck has made a group of
those shells which accord with the above character, and which he himself
adopts with some small variations: according to this writer, the genus
Turbinelle, of which our Voluta Pyrum is considered as the type, has the
shell heavy, univalve, with an obtuse spire ending in a nipple; the
mouth sloping and lengthened; the pillar denticulated with large equal
folds or plaits, the outer lip strait and cut off, and the base
lengthened.
After all the pains, however, which Lamarck and other Continental
Naturalists have taken to establish the genus Turbinella, Cuvier in his
Règne Animal observes that the shells of this genus differ in no other
respect from the Conic Volutes than in the prolongation of their
opening, forming a kind of canal, and adding that it is not easy to
trace the limits between the one and the other.
We have experienced some surprise in observing that while so much
attention has been bestowed by writers upon the generical distinctions
of Voluta Pyrum, the differences that prevail in its presumed varieties
have almost entirely escaped attention. It should be remarked that in
the Gmelinian constitution of this species there are no less than four
distinct varieties, all which, according to Gmelin, and subsequently to
other writers, appertain to the Linnæan species Pyrum. From the
synonymous references which Lamarck has brought together in one view, it
is obvious that his opinion is the same; his TURBINELLA PYRUM, which is
the same as the Linnæan Voluta Pyrum, will be observed to comprehend the
several presumed varieties of the species to be found in the works of
Martini and Chemnitz, and the same is again observable in the works of
Denys de Montfort. There are, however, some Conchologists in England who
do not agree in this particular, for they constitute at least three
distinct species of the presumed varieties of Voluta Pyrum. This
division of the species was first proposed by Dr. Solander, and has been
subsequently adopted in several of our English Cabinets. As the
particulars of this arrangement may not prove unacceptable, we shall
proceed to describe them.
To the _first_ of these new species Dr. Solander retains the Linnæan
name of VOLUTA PYRUM, it is that kind which has the beak elongated, and
is known by the familiar name of the LONG BEAKED TURNIP SHELL. This is
the Voluta rostrata of some Conchologists; Rapum rostratum of the
Colonnian Museum; and inhabits the seas of Tranquebar.
As the preceding shell is distinguished by the name of the Long beaked
Turnip Shell, in allusion to the elongated structure of the beak, there
is another known by the appellation of the High Spired Turnip Shell, in
reference to the greater elevation of its spire; this is a _second_
species of Solander, and is called by him VOLUTA PONDEROSA; in the
Calonnian Museum it stood under the name of Rapum productum. This shell
inhabits the seas of Madagascar, and is the kind which becomes the more
immediate object of our consideration as the subject of our present
plate.
The _third_ kind of Turnip Shell is from the straits of Malacca, a shell
more ponderous than the preceding; of a broader form and having the
spire more depressed. This is the common Heavy Turnip Shell of our
English Cabinet, Voluta gravis of Solander.
These distinctions proposed by the late Dr. Solander are found
conformable, in a particular degree, with the classification observable
in the cabinet of M. de Colonne. The shells of M. de Colonne, it
appears, were thus arranged by the celebrated Conchologist M. Favanne.
They have, nevertheless, we believe, passed unnoticed by any of the
modern writers upon this subject. The distinctions are certainly
obvious, and might probably fully authorize their separation into
species: it must be at least admitted that as varieties of the same
species they are strikingly distinct.
Having so far treated upon the generical distinctions of Voluta Pyrum,
and pointed out the differences that exist among its principal supposed
varieties, we arrive at another point of view in which the history of
this shell becomes no less important, or less worthy of our
consideration: the sacred character which from some superstitious
causes, remote beyond all research of the present race of men, this
shell has acquired in the Mythology of the Indian Nations: in the rites
and worship of the Indian Brahma. Among these people this shell is
called the CHANK, or SACRED CHANK, the emblem of an attribute of the
divine power, and is constantly seen in one of the hands of the Indian
Deity Vishnu, as a type of the renovation of the earth from the waters
of the deluge.—The cause of this catastrophe of the earth, the deluge,
they attribute to the wickedness of mankind in remote ages, which
incensing the divine Brahma, he caused a flood of the waters to overflow
the earth and destroy every vestige of the creation, animate and
inanimate, that existed upon its surface. After awhile the supreme
Brahma disposed to restore creation, commanded Vishnu to deliver the
earth from the flood of waters, and in testimony of its deliverance
Vishnu bears in his hand the Chank Shell, the symbol of its
renovation.[14]
Without proceding at any considerable length into the history of those
mythological persuasions, it may be permitted to observe that as a type
of the divine power in relieving the earth from the flood of waters with
which it was overwhelmed at the time of the deluge, this shell is held
among the Indians of the Brahma persuasion as one of the most sacred
emblems of that figurative divinity; and this religion, it will be
remembered, extends over no small portion of India and China, and even
to part of Russia and Tartary. Vishnu, as one of the three attributes or
triad of Brahma, almost invariably appears with this symbol in his hand.
Whether in their paintings, sculptures, or carvings, or in the sacred
paraphernalia of their temples, the Chank-shell is the customary type of
their deity Vishnu, and sometimes it occurs in the hands of the inferior
deities,[15] to whom Vishnu is imagined to have confided a portion of
his power. If the Chank be the object of their devotion in health, so
also it is the object of their superstitions in sickness and in death.
The medicine administered by the Priest to his patient in the time of
illness, from the spout of one of these shells, is considered of greater
efficacy than if taken from any other drinking vessel; that from the
spout of a reversed shell has a reputation inestimable. These reversed
shells occur so rarely, that if at any time some happy fortunate of the
fishing tribe of Hindoos should be so lucky as to find one, he is indeed
considered as a mortal favoured by their divinity Vishnu; this treasure
of the deep is immediately deposited in one of their pagodas, to the
great honour and happiness of the discoverer. A dose of medicine from
such a shell is deemed infallible, if the malady of the patient be
within the art of medicine to cure; for if this should fail, they rest
persuaded nothing else can save the patient from the death awaiting him.
As these reversed shells are of very rare occurrence, the price they
bear is of course of considerable. Very few of the Pagodas possess such
an inestimable treasure as a _Chank reversed_, they will command a price
in Asia surpassing infinitely any idea that might probably be formed
upon the subject. Four or five hundred dollars have been given in China,
among the worshippers of Brahma, for a shell of this kind. In India they
have been known to produce from one hundred to two hundred rupees,
sometimes, three, four, or five hundred rupees, or perhaps a larger sum.
The shells of this kind, which are purchased from the natives and
brought to Europe, it may be imagined, for this reason, can have been
obtained only at a considerable cost. It was principally through the
unrivalled liberality of the Conchologists of the low countries, about
the beginning of the last century, that the cabinets of Europe became
possessed of these rarities, and they still remain extremely scarce.
Only two examples of those reversed shells have occurred to our
observation: both were of that kind in which the spire is elongated; the
high spired Turnip Shell of the English cabinets. One of these reversed
shells we saw in the year 1797, in the celebrated collection of Mon de
Calonne, ci-devant Minister of France, and which passed, at a
considerable price, into the collection of the Earl of Tankerville. The
other occurred in the late Leverian Museum, which was distributed by
public auction, in the year 1806. This last-mentioned shell was in a
less perfect condition than might be wished; it was worn and mutilated,
and for this reason did not obtain by any means such a price as was
expected from its rarity: it produced only _seven guineas_, a sum
considered much beneath its real value, even in its injured state.[16]
In the month of April, in the year 1815, the same shell appeared in the
sale of certain effects, the property of the Duke de Bourbon, at his
residence in Great Ormond Street, Portman Square, where it was sold, we
believe, at an advanced price. It is the figure of this last-mentioned
shell that appears in the present plate. We have delineated the specimen
with all faults for the sake of greater accuracy, and from a persuasion
that the Naturalist would prefer a correct representation from an
undoubted original, to any figure in which its actual defects might have
been amended by the pencil of the artist. The shell is depicted in its
natural size, and it will hence appear, is little inferior in point of
magnitude to the generality of those shells of the same species which
are not of the reversed kind. The species is sometimes known to grow to
the length of seven or eight inches, but such examples are not common.
Of the reversed kinds the Leverian specimen, as it has been emphatically
denominated, is probably one of the largest known.
The smaller figure in the lower part of our plate is a representation of
the same species in its usual form, and appears clothed or covered with
the thick filmy epidermis, of a brown colour, with which the shell is
naturally covered when in a living state. From this figure it will be
perceived that the direction of the spiral wreath or whorls in the
larger shell is exactly reversed, and that the mouth or aperture of the
shell, which in the smaller figure appears on the right side, is seen in
the reversed shell on the left. Thus upon the least comparison of the
two figures, the true character of the reversed shell will be distinctly
perceived.
We should not omit to mention that the smaller figure which represents
the unreversed shell would appear of the same pallid hue as the reversed
shell, upon the removal of the epidermis with which it is enveloped.
Sometimes, however, when this common kind is particularly fine, the
exterior surface is delicately tinged with a less pallid hue, and the
pillar lip and opening yellowish, inclined to flesh colour. That
particular kind or variety which in England is denominated the low
spired or heavy Turnip Shell, is sometimes pleasingly diversified with
more vivid tints, and the younger shells occasionally spotted with
brown, upon a ground tinged with yellowish or buff colour. We have no
knowledge of any reversed shell of this latter kind, excepting one which
is in the Museum at Copenhagen.
-----
Footnote 14:
The Hindoos entertain the belief of a general deluge, not very
dissimilar to that of the Mosaic records. They admit, however, many
such catastrophes of the earth, and subsequent renovations through the
creative power of this attribute of Brahma, which they denominate
Vishnu. The Chank Shell refers to a deluge of the earth, anterior to
that which seems to accord with the sacred writ. The deliverance of
the earth from the Mosaic deluge they term the lotos creation, the
type of which is the expanded flower of the lotos, the indian _pedma_
emerging above the surface of the waters with Vishnu seated in its
centre.
Footnote 15:
Were it requisite to treat more amply upon this subject, it would be
in our power to produce abundant evidence of the prevalence of this
symbol of the sacred Volute, wherever Vishnu or his delegated power
appears. The rich repository of the India House, the British Museum,
and many private collections afford us some examples of the most
interesting kind. Some few of these are so immediately connected with
the object of our enquiry, that we feel persuaded no apology will be
necessary for their introduction.
In the collection of Lord Valentia is a four-sided cast in brass,
resembling a kind of pyramid, consisting of three low platforms, each
bearing idols, and surmounted at the summit by a tortoise. In several
Indian paintings mythologically adverting to the subject of the
creation, the tortoise is represented raising the new-born earth upon
its back above the waters, and it is usually seen in other
mythological paintings of the same subject bearing the throne upon
which Vishnu is seated, while the attendants, personified by various
beings, are lifting the earth from the deep. Such a painting was once
in the celebrated collection of Colonel Stuart: and we need no other
evidence to shew that the bronze of Lord Valentia’s collection is of
the same mythological nature, and referable to the deluge, than to
observe the Chank Shell placed at each of the four corners of the
ornament. We may comprehend the allusion of the tortoise raising the
earth from the waters of the deluge, from a trait of the ancient
Chinese astronomy; by the tortoise bearing the earth, they intended
the north pole of the ecliptic, which, at the time of the deluge, they
maintained had not materially changed its position, and that by this
means the world was sustained and saved from utter annihilation.
An Indian painting, mentioned by Mr. Edward Moor, the author of the
Hindoo Pantheon, presents us with another deity, Sivi, who holds the
Chank Shell in one of his four hands, and the antelope (moon) in
another.
There is also an Indian painting of Devi, who appears holding a Chank
Shell, furnished on each side with a lateral lappit or wing: this
symbol he holds in one hand, and the wheel, the emblem of the
universe, in the other; and in a bronze of Vishnu, in the India House,
we find the Chank Shell ornamented in a similar manner.
We have seen another indian painting, in which, not only the Chank
Shell is furnished on each side with alæ, or wings, but an expanded
flower of six petals is placed upon its pinnacle. This shell, if we
may judge from its outline, is of that kind which has the spire
depressed. Lord Valentia is in possession of a bronze cast, in which
Vishnu appears reclined upon his couch of serpents, attended by
_Lakshmi_ and _Satyavama_, (eternity) in which the shell is also
winged, and appears to be of that kind in which the beak is elongated
or produced; and if this conjecture be correct, it will appear that
the Hindoos venerate indiscriminately, and probably as the same shell,
each of those three varieties of Voluta Pyrum, which we have mentioned
in another part of this description. Our limits will only permit us to
observe that we believe we may add with some degree of certainty, that
the reversed shell, the more immediate object of our present
dissertation, may sometimes appear also: there is in the temple of
_Visweswara_, at Benares, a sculpture of Surya, the Indian
personification of the sun, seated in his chariot driven by Aruna, in
which the _Chank Shell_ held in his right hand appears to have the
aperture on the left side instead of the right, as in the usual growth
of the shell. If this be not an oversight of the copyist (_Mr. Moor_)
the circumstance deserves peculiar notice.
Footnote 16:
Vide Catalogue _Lev. Mus._ “Last day, July 12th, 1806, lot 77. _The
reversed variety of the High Spired Turnip, from Madagascar_,
extremely rare. £7. 7s.” p. 15.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_22_
_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
Donovan & Mess.^{rs} Simpkin & Marshall, Nov.^r 1. 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XXII.
VOLUTA PYRUM
PEAR VOLUTE.
_Back View._
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Spiral; aperture without a beak, and somewhat effuse: pillar twisted or
plaited, generally without lips or perforation.
**** FUSIFORM.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell obovate and slightly tailed with striated whorls on the spire: tip
produced and glabrous: pillar with three plaits.
VOLUTA PYRUM: testa obovata subcaudata spiræ anfractibus striatis; apice
producto glaberrimo, columella triplicata.—_Gmel. Syst. Nat. T.
1. p. 6. 3463. 102._
* * * * *
In the preceding plate (plate 21) we have introduced to the attention of
our readers a figure of that truly interesting rarity the reversed
Voluta Pyrum, or Pear Volute, or as it is better known in the familiar
language of the English collectors by the appellation of the High spired
Turnip Shell. The figure there delineated exhibits a frontal view of
this shell, in which the characteristic aperture of the mouth is
displayed to advantage. And in order that nothing on our part may be
wanting to complete our observations on this very valuable curiosity, we
have been induced to insert in the present instance, a back or posterior
view of the same shell.
We have already entered so fully into the history of this shell in the
description of the former plate, as to render it, we may presume,
superfluous to dwell upon this subject further in the present instance.
Our figure of the reversed shell, as in the former plate, is accompanied
by a posterior view of a shell of the usual growth, (covered with its
natural epidermis) and by the assistance of this figure, the contrary
direction of the spiral wreath in the reversed shell becomes at once too
obviously striking to escape attention.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_23_
_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
Donovan & Mess.^{rs} Simpkin & Marshall Nov.^r 1, 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE XXIII.
TANAGRA TRICOLOR
TRICOLOURED TANAGER var β.
PASSERES.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill conic, pointed, notched, nearly triangular at the base, a little
inclining at the tip.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shining green, beneath yellowish green; wing coverts violet: frontlet
and upper part of the back black.
_Var_ β. Crown and chin violet: neck, and sometimes rump, orange.
TANAGRA TRICOLOR: viridis splendens, subtus viridi-flavescens,
tectricibus alarum violaceis, capirostro dorsoque superiore
nigris uropygio fulvo. _Lath. Ind. Orn. 428. 29._
TANAGRA TRICOLOR β. Tangara cayanensis varia cyanocephalos. _Briss. Sup.
p. 62. t. 4. f. 2._
TANAGRA TRICOLOR: viridis, capite, mento, jugulo et pectore pallide
thalassinis capistro nigro, cervice collique lateribus
viridi-aureis, gulæ macula magna dorsoque nigris, pectoris
fascia cærulea, abdomine crissoque ex flavicante viridibus.
_Gmel. T. 1. p. 2. 891._
TANGARA varié à tête verte de Cayenne.—_Buff. Pl. Enl. n. 33. f. 1._
β TANGARA varié à tête bleue de Cayenne.—_Buff. Pl. Enl. n. 33. f. 2._
* * * * *
The history of this splendid species of Tanager is unknown to
Naturalists: we are aware only, that independently of the varieties
arising from its different states of plumage, there are two pretty
distinct and accurately defined varieties, one of which has the head of
a fine green, the other of a rich blue. Some authors consider these two
birds as specifically different, while others are as well assured they
are the same. Dr. Latham observes that these birds are, without doubt,
the same, differing only in sex, but which of them is the male is not
ascertained. Some of the French writers, among whom is Vieillot, express
a different opinion, for they assure us neither the female or the young
are known, and they further add, that in the Brazils this bird is
common, while in Guiana it is rare. Vieillot once regarded them as
distinct species, but has subsequently described them as the same. Both
birds, according to Dr. Latham, are from Cayenne; we have seen both
kinds from the Brazils.
The size of this bird is that of the house sparrow: the rump is usually
green, but in the blue headed variety, is sometimes flavous, more or
less inclined to orange.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_24_
_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
Donovan & Mess.^{rs} Simpkin & Marshall, Nov.^r 1 1822._
]
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XXIV.
PAPILIO THERSITES
THERSITES BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings tailed and yellow: border black: lower ones with yellow lunules.
PAPILIO THERSITES: alis caudatis flavis: limbo nigro, posticis lunulis
flavis. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. 88._
We may venture to affirm, with every degree of certainty, that there is
no figure of this very beautiful species, extant, in the work of any
previous author. Fabricius described it as a new species, under the name
of Papilio Thersites; his description refers to a specimen in the
cabinet of Dr. Hunter, but he has omitted to insert his usual reference
to the drawings of Mr. Jones, among which that specimen was delineated,
and from which we are well aware the Fabrician description of the
species is derived. It is from those drawings, also, that we have been
enabled to determine the species with perfect accuracy.
The magnitude of this Papilio renders it an object of peculiar interest;
it is one of the most conspicuous insects of its tribe, and in point of
elegance cannot assuredly be considered inferior to any of its numerous
species. In the plate accompanying this description, the Papilio is
represented in its natural size: the whole disk is of a fine yellow
colour, with a deep black border: the posterior wings are marked with a
series of yellow lunules, and another of brilliant blue spots, composed
of little shining dots, of which the brightest are in the centre.
Beneath, the breast, abdomen, and wings, are yellow: margin of the
anterior pair black with a yellow streak, and a black streak of spots on
the lower pair.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
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]
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE XXV.
TROCHILUS ORNATUS
TUFTED-NECK HUMMING BIRD.
ORDER
PICÆ.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill subulate or awl-shaped; filiform, tubular at the tip, longer than
the head: upper mandible forming a sheath for the lower. Tongue
filiform, the two threads coalescing and tubular: feet formed for
walking: tail composed of ten feathers in general.
** Bill straight.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Golden green, beneath glossy brown, crest rufous; and on each side,
below the ears, a tuft of elongated rufous feathers with a green spot at
the tip of each.
TROCHILUS ORNATUS: viridi aureus, subtus-nitente fuscus crista rufo:
infra aures utrinque pennis elongatis rufis apice macula viridi.
TROCHILUS ORNATUS: viridi-aureus, subtus nitente-fuscus, fascia uropygio
alba, crista (in mare) verticis et fasciculo pennarum infra
aures utrinque rufo.—_Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1. p. 497. n.
58._
TROCHILUS ORNATUS: viridi-aureus subtus fusco-aureus, crista rufa
abdomine infimo vittaque transversa uropygii albis, infra aures
utrinque pennis 6 s. 7 elongatis rufis apice macula
viridi.—_Lath. Ind. Orn. 318. 58._
Hupecol _Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois. 6. p. 18._
Oiseau Mouche, dit Hupecol de Cayenne.—_Buff. Pl. enl. n. 640. f. 3._
TUFTED-NECKED HUMMING BIRD.—_Lath. Gen. Syn. 2 p. 784. 55._
* * * * *
The Tufted-Neck Humming Bird described by Buffon under the name of
_l’Oiseau-Mouche de Cayenne_, _Le Hupecol de Cayenne_, differs in no
respect that we perceive from the bird before us; and for this reason we
can have no hesitation in considering it as an individual of the same
species. Our specimen is not from Cayenne, it was brought from New
Zealand, and was one among the number of those rarieties collected in
that island by the celebrated Navigator Captain Cook, in his first
voyage round the world: that in which he was accompanied by Sir Joseph
Banks, and Dr. Solander. The New Zealand specimen, though it nearly
accords with the bird described by Buffon under the name of Hupecol de
Cayenne, does not entirely agree with the description given of that
species by Dr. Latham: it differs in wanting the white band on the rump,
and the patch or space of the same colour on the lower region of the
belly. Buffon speaks of such a characteristic mark of white on the rump,
but not the abdomen of the Cayenne kind.[17] And it is not unlikely that
these appearances may be indications only of a change in plumage, as the
same circumstance is not unfrequently observed in many other birds at
particular seasons, or in certain states of moulting. Dr. Latham himself
observes that in the female these marks, instead of being white, incline
to rufous, and this, no doubt, in the adult bird. There is certainly no
appearance of white either upon the rump or region of the belly in the
bird before us; and this example bears every appearance of having
arrived at its full maturity of plumage. Perhaps the bird from Cayenne
having a white band on the rump and abdomen, may be, however, if not a
distinct variety, the more mature bird of the same species as that met
with by our circumnavigators at New Zealand.
There are species of this tribe more brilliant in colour and more richly
varied in the disposition of those colours, but assuredly none more
singular or pleasing in general aspect than the bird before us. In point
of size the Tufted Humming Bird is one of the smallest species of its
family, scarcely exceeding in that respect the figure delineated in the
plate, for its total length is not above three inches, and its bulk
proportionate. The head and upper part of the body, and also the wings
above, are green with a golden lustre; the tail greenish, changeable to
testaceous golden brown, and having the inner webs rufous. The throat is
of a fine green colour, variable in different lights to a golden hue
with a yellow or a brown metallic lustre, and below that the whole of
the belly is a rich brown glossed with green and golden. On the head of
the male bird is a crest of pointed feathers of an orange or testaceous
brown colour, and on each side of the neck a tuft composed of elongated
feathers, differing in length, and having the tips of a dark but
brilliant green. These feathers the little creature has the power of
raising or depressing at pleasure: when these are displayed in full
array on each side of the green patch on the front of the neck, and the
crest stands erect, which is invariably the case when the bird is
offended or surprised, the appearance of this bird is altogether
remarkable. The female has neither the ruff on the neck nor the crest,
and its colours are in general more obscure than in the male. The bill
is of a moderate length and straight, the legs very short and the feet
diminutive.[18]
In the annexed plate this elegant little bird is seen perched upon a
tuft of the
JACQUINIA AURANTIA, THE AUSTRALASIAN
ORANGE JACQUINIA,
in blossom; a plant that inhabits the New Holland and New Zealand, and
which flowered in the month of July in the present year, at Kew.
-----
Footnote 17:
“Le dessus du corps est d’un vert-sombre, qui jette quelques reflets
dorés: les parties inférieures ne présentent que des couleurs
rembrunies.” _Buffon_
Footnote 18:
A New Zealand specimen of this rare bird, lot 6286, sold for the sum
of £2 10s. in the Leverian sale.
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[Illustration:
_26_
_London. Published as the Act directs by E.
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]
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XXVI.
TURBO SCALARIS
WENTLETRAP.
ORDER
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, solid: aperture contracted, obicular, entire.
* _Umbilicate, or Perforated._
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell conic, pale fulvous with white ribs, whorls distant.
TURBO SCALARIS: testa conica, pallide fulva costis albis anfractibus
distantibus.
TURBO SCALARIS: testa cancellata conica: anfractibus distantibus.—Linn.
_Syst. Nat. 10 p. 764. n. 548._—_Mus. Lud. Ulr. 658. n.
351._—_Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1. p. 6. 3603. n. 62._
SCALARIA PRETIOSA: testâ conicâ, umbilicatâ inspiram laxam contortâ,
pallidè fulva; costis albis; anfractibus disjunctis, lævibus:
ultimo ventricoso.—_Lamarck Anim. sans. vertebr. 6. p. 2. 226.
1._
Wentletrap (scalaris).—_Rumpf. mus. t. 49. fig. A._—_Argenville Conch.
pl. 11. fig. V._—_Gualt. tab. 10. fig. 2. 7._
* * * * *
The Wentletrap is one of those extraordinary productions of the shell
tribe that has been regarded with unabated admiration among
Conchologists from the days of Petiver and Rumpfius, the earliest of the
more recent race of Naturalists, down to the period in which we live.
And, although it does not at this time bear a price so very great as
that which it bore some years ago, it is yet considered as a shell of no
mean value when it is large and in fine perfection: even those of a
smaller size, when in good condition, are esteemed of value, at least in
some proportion to those more estimable for their perfection.
The rarity of this choice and very curious shell arises from various
causes. In the Chinese seas, which it chiefly inhabits, the species is
very rare; it sometimes occurs upon the coasts of Coromandel, but
sparingly, and in the other seas upon the coasts of India it is believed
to be still more uncommon. These shells are, moreover, so very brittle
that they seldom occur perfect, and more especially the larger ones,
which in almost every instance is abbreviated or imperfect at the point
or apex. And, it may be also added that like _Voluta Pyrum_, the _Sacred
Chank Shell_, of which an explanation was given in a former plate, the
Wentletrap is one of the sacred shells of the worshippers of Brahma, and
consequently when found in fine condition, is sure to obtain a
considerable price among the opulent devotees of that doctrine, the
prevailing worship of the many millions of inhabitants that people
India, China, and other vast regions of the continent of Asia. In China,
shells of this kind, of a moderate size, are valued at from four to
five, or even ten dollars a piece, those are shells of about an inch and
a quarter in length, and such as exceed that size are considered in
proportion valuable. In England a fine specimen about the same size last
mentioned would be estimated in worth at little less than five guineas.
The celebrated Wentletrap of the Leverian Museum was about two inches
long, but as it exhibited little freshness of colour, it produced only
eleven pounds. Since that period another specimen, a trifle larger, and
with the same bleached or depauperated appearance in its tints of
colour, was sold at the public hammer for twenty seven pounds. This is
the highest price we have seen paid for a specimen of this curious
shell: we have heard of fifty guineas being given by one collector for a
shell of this kind. Considerable as this price may be deemed, it appears
to have been exceeded in one, if not more instances, upon the continent.
Denys de Montfort, speaking, as it may be presumed, of the low countries
and France, informs us, that he has seen it sell, when the height or
length has exceeded two inches, at two thousand four hundred livres, or
one hundred Louis. It will be observed that he is alluding to shells
about the same size as that delineated in the annexed plate, the outline
of which is from the Leverian specimen; the colouring amended from a
smaller but more recent shell.
These shells are of such a tender nature, and their colours so
evanescent or so feebly fixed, that they almost constantly present a
mutilated and bleached appearance. This is not, however, uniformly the
case; we have very recently had an opportunity of inspecting several
specimens of a moderate size, that were brought from China, and from
these we perceive that the Wentletrap, when in fine order, is of a pale
testaceous or rather fulvous hue; and inclining sometimes to yellowish.
In some few specimens the ground colour of the shell, instead of being
uniform, appears sprinkled with pallid spots and dots of a rounded form.
Sometimes we are assured the colour inclines to rufous, or a reddish
tint. Lamarck has this shell of a pale fulvous colour, with the ribs as
usual, white, for he adopts this as part of the leading character of the
species; his expression is “_pallide fulva_; _costis albis_.”
The animal inhabitant of this shell has the head armed with two feelers,
each ending in a setaceous thread or hair: the eye is placed upon the
tentacula at the base of this thread or hair, and it has also a kind of
trunk at the mouth, by means of which it searches for its food amongst
the sand and weeds. It is supposed to be of a carnivorous nature,
subsisting on other marine worms. It is considered rather as a littoral
species, frequenting the little sandy bays and creeks among the breakers
upon the lower parts of the sea shore, and is to be sought for with the
most probability of success among the sea weeds or fuci that grow in the
pools of water lying in these sunken rocks, because in such situations
it is most likely to find protection against the intrusion of the
boisterous element. Occasionally it is seen, though rarely, crawling on
the sands at low water.
In a natural classification of the shell tribe, should we ever arrive at
an arrangement of Conchology, so perfect as to deserve that epithet, it
would be a task of some difficulty to fix the precise station of the
Wentletrap; for in the order of nature it presents anomalies which
cannot easily be reconciled, and few authors are agreed upon this
subject even in the artificial arrangements which they have been induced
to adopt. Thus Rumpfius makes it a _Buccinum_, Davila a _Tuyau_,
Argenville places it as a _Terebra_ (vis) and De Montfort Scalarus. In
the Encyclopædia it is denominated Scalaria Pretiosa, and this name
Lamarck retains.
The name of Wentletrap, by which this shell is now so well known, is
derived from the Dutch Language, and signifies according to the
technical phraseology of the Dutch architects in building, a winding
stair case, or flight of stairs turning spirally round a central column,
into which one end of every step is mortised as they ascend from the
base upwards. The term Wentletrap, Wenteltrap, or as the Dutch sometimes
call it, Wendeltrap,[19] is the name given by Rumpfius the Hollander to
this shell, as a synonymous name with his latin term _Scalare_. It is an
allusion, somewhat fanciful we must allow, to the disposition of the
costal ridges upon this shell, and which when viewed laterally as they
traverse or pass over the upper convexity of the whorls on each side,
have the appearance of a flight of steps turning spirally round the body
of the shell, just as a winding staircase would be carried spirally
round a cone or sub-cylindrical body. The singularity of this species
(for it is not a peculiarity or character even of the new genus Scalaria
as established by Lamarck and Cuvier) consists in having the whole whorl
of the shell, from the mouth to the summit, entirely unconnected, while
in spiral shells the suture of the whorls is united throughout. The tube
is perfectly detached from the mouth to the apex, and the whorls linked
together only by means of the longitudinal ribs which traverse the tube
at regular intervals, so that the only connexion of the whorls is at the
junction of those ribs, which touching each other unite at that part
which in regular spiral shells that have the whorls united, would be
denominated the suture of the whorls.
Considering the very zealous propensity of some French Naturalists of
the present day, and of their admirers in England, to create new genera
upon every slight occasion, it becomes a matter of some astonishment
that a character so very obvious as the disjunction of the tube from the
aperture to the very summit should not have laid the foundation of a new
genus, for the reception of this shell. Lamarck, however, places it at
the head of his _Scalaires_, and one of the next species in succession
is his _Scalaria Communis_, a shell perfectly well known by every
Naturalist throughout Europe for nearly a century past under the name of
_Turbo Clathratus_.[20] Nor is Lamarck singular in this very anomalous
consolidation of shells so distant in this respect from each other; for
Cuvier in his _Règne Animal_, after describing our present shell, the
Linnæan Turbo Scalaris, as one of his _Scalaires_, and informing us it
is distinguished by the whorls not touching each other, adds
particularly that there is another species which has not that
peculiarity, and that is the _Turbo Clathratus_. Nothing, however, can
be more certain than that from this very circumstance these two shells
are generically distinct from each other; Clathratus may be retained
with the Linnæan Turbines, but Scalaris has nearly, if not entirely as
much claim to the _Serpula_[21] as _Turbo_ genus; which cannot be said
of T. Clathratus. We shall for this reason allow the Wentletrap to
remain where Linnæus has placed it, namely, among the Turbines; not
perhaps without some hesitation, but if we did remove it, we should
certainly prefer the institution of new genus for its reception, instead
of wandering from one anomaly to another, as we must perceive would be
the case in the present instance by following the example of Lamarck and
Cuvier.
It may be lastly observed that the progressive growth of this
extraordinary rarity may be determined by the greater number of the
longitudinal ribs that pass over and surround the tube of the whorls,
for at each increase the animal forms a new mouth to its shell: the new
mouth as it is protruded and formed, appears like the former ones,
entirely surrounded by a rim or ring, and it is these rings of the
mouths as they are formed in succession, that constitute the ribs which
appear to traverse the shell as it is increased in length, and
consequently in the number of its rings. Shells of a large size exhibit
sometimes as many as fifty or sixty of such rings surrounding the tube
or spire at regular intervals.
-----
Footnote 19:
_Wenteltrap_, _Wendeltrap_, Rondom gaande trap, met een spil daar al
de trappen in schroeven. _Marin._
Footnote 20:
_Vide_ Donovan’s British Shells, Vol. I. plate 28.
Footnote 21:
_Serpula_ Linn. _Vermicularus De Montf. Vermet_ Adanson. The animal of
the Serpulæ, it may be added further, does not differ, according to
Cuvier, from those of the Linnæan Genus Turbo, and consequently not
from Scalaria of Lamarck and Cuvier, as must be concluded from their
admission of Turbo Clathratus among the number of its species, in an
arrangement founded on the organization of the animal, as well as its
testaceous habitation. Cuvier himself observes that the animal of the
Vermet, and also the opening (of the shell) resemble those of the
Turbo, but that the whorls do not touch, and are in part irregularly
curved like the tubes of the Serpulas.—_Règne Animal T. 2. 419._ And
his classification further shews the analogy of these tribes of
shells, since the animal of the Linnæan _Turbo_, the _Vermets_ of
Adanson, and _Scalaria_ of Lamarck, are all of the same family, the
_Gastéropodas Pectinibranches_ of Cuvier.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Published as the Act directs by E.
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]
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XXVII.
FIGURE I.
PAPILIO ZACYNTHUS
ZACYNTHUS’S BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* EQUITES TROJANI.—_Fabr._
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented, black: a spot on the anterior pair green and white: and
one on the posterior wings palmated and sanguineous.
PAPILIO ZACYNTHUS: alis dentatis nigris: anticis macula viridi alba,
posticis palmata sanguinea.—_Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. p. 15.
n. 46._
PAPILIO ZACYNTHUS.—_Jon. fig. pict. 1 tab. 22._
* * * * *
It cannot fail to prove satisfactory to the Naturalist to be informed
that we have the same sanction for presenting the annexed figure as that
of the true PAPILIO ZACYNTHUS of _Fabricius_, as that to which we have
several times adverted upon other similar occasions in the progress of
the present publication, namely the hand-writing of that celebrated
Entomologist, inscribed upon the original drawings of Mr. Jones. This is
indeed a circumstance to which we cannot advert too frequently in our
references, since it is upon that authority alone that we are now
enabled to determine with any degree of precision nearly the whole of
those new species of Papiliones, the existence of which has been made
known throughout Europe by the classic writings of that author, but of
which no other evidence is now extant; for most of the collections
existing at the time Fabricius was in England, and to which he refers,
have been long since dispersed, and but for the care of the late Mr.
Jones of Chelsea, who had preserved these invaluable authorities to the
scientific world, the labours even of Fabricius in this department had
become comparatively of very little value.
Papilio Zacynthus is a species of the first family of Papiliones, the
Equites Trojani. It has much the habit of Papilio Æneas, a well known
insect, described by Linnæus, and which is figured by Roesel, Seba,
Jablonsky, and some other authors; but upon an attentive comparison it
will be found to be very different. Its great similarity renders it of
more importance to point out precisely the difference that prevails
between them, and this the present figure it is presumed will render
distinctly obvious.
In the species P. Zacanthus the wings are black: in the middle of the
first pair is a large spot composed of two distinct colours, the
anterior part being white, the posterior green, but on the underside the
spot appears entirely white. Papilio Æneas has also a spot of green upon
the anterior wings but without any portion of white. Papilio Æneas is a
native of India, Papilio Zacynthus is from the Brasils.
FIGURE II.
PAPILIO DIMAS
DIMAS’S BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* EQUITES TROJANI.—_Fabr._
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented: above and beneath black: on the anterior pair, a white
spot divided by veins: on the posterior pair a palmate sanguineous spot.
PAPILIO DIMAS: alis dentatis concoloribus nigris anticis macula alba
venis divisa, posticis sanguinea palmata.—_Fabr. Ent. Syst. T.
3. p. 1. p. 16. n. 47._
PAPILIO DIMAS—_Jon. fig. pict. 1. tab. 23._
* * * * *
This, like the preceding, is a species we have been enabled to determine
from the Fabrician MS. and the drawings of Mr. Jones. Fabricius, it
appears, was not entirely decided in his mind whether the two Papiliones
figured by Cramer, plate 29 fig. E, under the name of Hyppason, and that
in the same plate, fig. F, named Euristeus, ought in reality to be
considered as appertaining to this species; and preferring the name of
Dimas which had been previously given to it by Mr. Jones, he has
described it under that name, allowing the references to Cramer, above
quoted, to remain as synonyms. The Naturalist may rely with implicit
confidence upon its being the Papilio Dimas of Jones and Fabricius.
This is rather larger than the former, the general colour black: on the
anterior wings, in the middle, is a large white spot, so situated upon
the junction of the ribs that they pass distinctly through it and give
the appearance of a spot cleft at the sutures. The sanguineous palmate
spot on the posterior wings is six cleft: and besides this there is a
small spot of red upon the scollops, between the dentations at the
margin of the posterior wings. The colours and spots appear beneath as
above, but only paler.
Papilio Dimas is a native of Brazil, and bears a near affinity to
Papilio Anchises.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_28_
_London. Published by E. Donovan, & Mess.^{rs}
Simpkin & Marshall, Jan. 1, 1823._
]
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XXVIII.
MALLEUS MACULATUS
SPOTTED HAMMER SHELL, OR HOUND’S TONGUE.
* BIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell subquivalve, rough, deformed, generally lengthened and lobed or
hammer-shaped: beaks small and divergent. Hinge without teeth, a
lengthened conic hollow situated under the beaks and traversing
obliquely the facet of the ligament. A lateral slope or groove at the
side of the ligament for the passage of the byssus or beard with which
the animal is furnished.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Shell curved, with a single somewhat straight abbreviated lobe at the
base: reddish yellow, clouded, spotted and dotted with fuscous.
MALLEUS MACULATUS: testa arcuata, lobo basis unico sub-recta abbreviato
flavo-rufescente fusco nebulosa maculata punctisque.
* * * * *
The singular object now before us, a shell no less remarkable for the
peculiarity of its form than rarity of occurrence, is one of the most
choice productions of the seas surrounding the Friendly Isles. The
discovery of this shell, like that of many others, resulted from the
assiduities of that eminent Naturalist and promoter of scientific
knowledge, the late Sir Joseph Banks, and of Dr. Solander, who
accompanied him in that memorable voyage of Captain Cook to the Southern
Hemisphere, in which the Friendly Isles were discovered. The fine
example of this shell, in particular, from which the drawing in our
plate is taken, it may be also added, was one of those which were
brought to this country by Captain Cook upon the return of the
expedition, and which being shortly after presented to Sir Ashton Lever,
remained in the Museum of that distinguished amateur from that period to
the time of its dissolution in the year 1806.
When we consider the very remote situation of those islands, so distant
from the usual track of all navigators, we cannot be surprised,
admitting the species to be local in those seas, to find it has remained
a very rare shell from the period of its discovery to the present time.
In the course of many years only a few specimens have occurred to our
observation, and while it has remained scarce with us, it appears to
have been still more uncommon in the continental cabinets: very few of
which, if we are informed correctly, were lately in possession of it.
The first difficulty that arises in the mind of the naturalist upon the
inspection of this shell results from the ambiguity of its generical
peculiarities: we pause to consider where it should be placed. Linnæus,
to whom, as it will be observed, the present shell was totally unknown,
arranged the Hammer Shell, its nearest approximation, among the Ostreæ.
The Hammer Shell, or as it is more usually denominated the Hammer Oyster
Shell, had been discovered before the time of Linnæus; it had appeared
in the work of Rumpfius, Seba, Gualtieri and Argenville, and the shell
had been examined and described by him in the Museum of Ulrica, Queen of
Sweden, under the name of Ostrea Malleus. That the hinge accords in some
degree with that of the Ostreæ generally must be admitted, at the same
time that it possesses other characters less easily reconciled to that
genus, unless we embrace the Linnæan genus in all its latitude, and to
this the conchologist of the present day cannot accede, at least without
some little difficulties.
The conformation of this shell is very striking, and yet we perceive
that its essential characteristics are less definitive than could be
wished; there are several approximations in the general figure to be
found among shells which nevertheless possess characters generically
distinct. For many years this shell was known in this country under the
name of “_Margaritifera maculata_,” and the trivial English appellation
of the “_Spotted Hound’s Tongue_:” it appeared under those names in the
Conchological Museum of M. de Calonne, while it remained in England, and
in the catalogue of that museum, which is still extant, it will be found
under those names. The epithet of Hound’s Tongue is not inaptly applied
to this shell, in allusion to the elongated form. The term Margaritifera
does not refer to the form, but to the pearly gloss that appears upon
the surface of the dark blue space lying within the shell, immediately
below the hinge, and extending from thence about one fourth part of its
whole length. This is the region in which the animal is attached by its
ligament to the valves of the shell; besides which, a gloss of pearly
hue is observed to pervade the whole of the inner surface, only that it
is most conspicuous in the darker disk of the shell. As a secondary
character this pearliness is very remarkable in the shell before us, at
the same time that as a generical denomination the term Margaritifera
assigned to it from this circumstance alone is liable to objection;
because, the same pearliness prevails in many shells which have no
relation whatever with the present, either in the form or structure of
the hinge, and it is to these we must resort for its true essential
character.
Lamarck constitutes many genera of the shells included in the Ostrea
genus of Linnæus. His Malléacées comprehend five genera, Crenatula,
Perna, Malleus, Avicula, and Meleagrina, all which are allied more or
less remotely to the shell before us. To that particular family which is
known among collectors by the designation of Hammer Oysters, he gives
the name of Malleus, in the French Marteau, both alike implying the
hammer like form of the species Malleus, which Lamarck assumes as the
type of this genus. But even there after all the renovation that has
been attempted, the result is not satisfactory, because this figure is
by no means constant, even in the few species included by its author in
that genus; it contains but six species, and these are entirely at
variance with each other. Thus for example, in Malleus Vulgaris, the
common Hammer Shell, we have a species with three lobes, a lateral one
of considerable size being advanced on each side the beaks: and another
shell of the same species with only short lateral lobes instead of large
ones. Admitting the hammer form to be still preserved in these, in the
next species, Malleus Normalis, instead of two lobes, the hammer head,
if it may be so expressed, has but a single lobe: in Malleus Anatinus
there is only one lobe, and that very small; and in Malleus Vulsellatus,
although characterised as “_lobo oblique porrecto_,” the appearance of
the shell implies rather the total absence of any lobe, for the lobe, if
so it may be termed, is so indefinite, that it cannot be referred
without violence to the genus Marteau, while we consider its hammer like
form as a leading character of the genus. With exception to this
inconstant character which may be qualified with the expression
“deformed and generally hammer shaped,” we have no objection to the
Malleus genus, because the byssus of the animal by means of which it can
affix itself to other bodies, and the peculiar sinus or sulcation of the
hinge through which the byssus passes from the animal to those
extraneous bodies, are sufficient to remove it from the Ostrea genus, in
which case if we still adhere to the Linnæan method we can place it only
among his Mytili or Pinnæ, and it has certainly less affinity with
either of those than with Ostrea. Perhaps the name of Perna under which
this shell has been mentioned a few years ago might have been as well
preserved, but that name Lamarck assigns to an extensive genus of which
Ostrea Isognomum is the type, and it is therefore better to retain the
name Malleus than to alter it to another which could not fail at this
time to create confusion. The same consequence would as unquestionably
result were we to sub-divide the Malléacées into different genera
according to the configuration of the shell or number of its lateral
lobes.
The definition of Malleus in the _Règne Animal_ of Cuvier appears to
intimate the same objection; it does not consider the hammer like form
of the shell as any criterion, it is only stated that the Marteaux are
inequivalve and irregular, that they have a simple hollow for the
ligament as in the oysters, but that they are distinguished by a slope
at the side of the ligament for the passage of the byssus.
It is assuredly true that the presence of a byssus in this tribe of
shells displaces them from any immediate analogy with the Ostrea, where
as Cuvier remarks “Linnæus left them.” But, if however, we attentively
examine the hinge of the common oyster, the two valves, and the oyster
as it lies within the valves, we shall perceive with this exception a
pretty near approximation. The great objection is, that the animal of
the tribe of shells now before us protrudes a byssus from its body
through a lateral opening on one side or slope of the ligament of the
hinge; if we closely inspect the valves of the oyster, we also find a
slight depression or hollow upon each side of the cartilage of the
hinge; these are small, and usually somewhat lamellar. The oyster,
moreover, as it lies in the shell, seems capable of expanding or
spreading that part of the body which lies under the hinge laterally
upon and into these depressions, a circumstance very easily observed in
the half famished oyster, because these lateral expansions of the animal
are then more visibly elongated along the passage of these lateral
grooves of the hinge, and give the pointed end of the animal a somewhat
cornuted appearance. Under the same circumstance these processes adhere
as they lie in the hollow of these grooves, and thus suggests the idea
of the animal having exerted itself by such extension to obtain
refreshment through these lateral hollows. Those hollows are also so far
pervious as to admit the ingress of moisture while the shells are
closed, in the same manner as it is possible the Malleus genus may
receive moisture under the same circumstance through the sinus, whence
the byssus is protruded. These peculiarities considered, may perhaps
afford some further justification of Linnæus in placing the hammer
shells with the Ostreæ. It has been indeed advanced that Linnæus was not
aware of these hammer shells being furnished with a byssus, or that he
would have referred them to the Mytili, but this observation cannot be
correct, because in the figure given of these shells by Seba, to which
Linnæus refers, the byssus, which is very conspicuous, is represented
pendent or hanging to a considerable length out of the shell.
From an attentive examination of the different Conchological authors, it
does not appear to us that the shell before us has hitherto been
figured, and we have reason also to believe that it has never been
described. These circumstances are the more probable since, as we have
before observed, the shell is at this time very little known among the
Continental Cabinets. The nearest approach, so far as we can judge from
the description, unassisted by any figure, is the Marteau Normal
(Malleus Normalis) of Lamarck, a species defined by him as _testa
biloba_; _lobo basis unico anticali ad normam_, our shell is certainly
bilobate, for it has only one lateral lobe at the beak, and that
moreover advances from the beak, pretty nearly, though not exactly, in a
right line; but its general description does not sufficiently accord
with our shell to authorise as a conclusion that they are the same.
Lamarck informs us that there are two varieties of his Malleus Normalis,
one of which is a native of the ocean of the Great Indies, the other of
the seas of New Holland. The first, or Indian kind, he describes as
being on the inside as well as outside of a black colour, with a longish
lobe at the base of the shell.[22] The New Holland kind is described of
a whitish colour, with the lobe at the base abbreviated.[23]
The two last-mentioned shells which Lamarck concludes to be varieties of
the same species, may perhaps prove hereafter to be species distinct
from each other, as Lamarck has himself shewn to be the case with
respect to the common black and the white hammer shells. The black
supposed variety of Malleus Normalis we apprehend to be distinct from
the shell before us, but it is possible that the New Holland shell which
he describes as being whitish, with the lobe at the base abbreviated,
may be a worn or much depauperated specimen of our present shell; it
certainly does not accord with our shell in any tolerable state of
preservation.
Lamarck says nothing of any ruddiness or testaceous hues in his New
Holland variety of _Normalis_, and admitting these colours to indicate
that the shell had been found with its animal in a living state, we can
scarcely conceive the dark fuscous spotting which is so conspicuous in
the species could by any ordinary accident be so entirely obliterated as
appears to be the case in Lamarck’s specimen, if his New Holland variety
of Malleus Normalis be really of this species; and it may be further
added that if our present shell was actually intended by his Malleus
Normalis, the defects of his shell has necessarily influenced his
specific character and rendered it imperfect.
We have not adverted to Malleus Anatinus of Chemnitz, because the figure
of that shell is ambiguous. There is a remote resemblance in the lateral
appendages of the beaks, but in other particulars the resemblance is
less obvious, the body is sometimes curved as in the shell before us and
sometimes straight, but the edges of the valves are parallel, and the
shell itself pellucid: the figure in Chemnitz is less than half the size
of our shell. This inhabits the seas of Timor and the Nicobar Islands.
It should be observed in conclusion that there is a specimen of our
species among the Hammer Shells in the British Museum, the _habitat_ of
which is indicated by the word “Amboina:” it is much smaller than our
shell. Besides this we have lately seen another example from New
Holland, of a growth still larger than the shell we have delineated.
We have entered thus minutely into the analogies of this shell from an
apprehension we might otherwise in this instance submit as a new species
an object that had been previously described. The result of our enquiry
will tend to shew that if the species has not remained entirely
unnoticed, it has never been described with much precision.
-----
Footnote 22:
Testa extus intusque nigra: lobo basis longiusculo. _Animaux sans
vertèbres. T. 6. p. 145._
Footnote 23:
Var. testâ albidâ; lobo basis abbreviato. _Ibid._
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[Illustration:
_29_
_London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.^{rs}
Simpkin & Marshall, Jan.^y 1, 1823._
]
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XXIX.
PAPILIO TROS
TROS’S BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* EQUITES TROJANI.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented, tailed, above and beneath black; on the anterior wings
an abbreviated white band: posterior ones with sanguineous spots.
PAPILIO TROS: alis dentato caudatis concoloribus nigris: anticis fascia
abbreviata alba, posticis sanguinea maculari. _Fabr. Ent. Syst.
T. 3. p. 1. 10. 30._
_Jon. fig. pict. 1. tab. 23._
* * * * *
The tribe of Butterflies to which the Papilio now before us appertains,
includes many of the larger and more interesting species of the
Papiliones known. This tribe, as its designation implies, has been
dedicated by Entomologists to the memory of the more distinguished
worthies of the Trojan race, and above others to preserve the memory of
those heroes whose exploits in the defence of that rich and potent
station of the ancient world, the town of Troy, has been commemorated in
the Iliad by the immortal Homer. Our present species refers indeed to a
Trojan of an earlier period; it is named after Tros, the founder of the
Trojan name. Tros was the fifth king of the Trojan dynasty, from its
first establishment in the person of Scamander, and the last but three;
the destruction of Troy being accomplished under the reign of Priam. The
country before the time of Tros was called Dardania, from Dardanus, who
is usually stiled the first of the Trojan kings, though in Phrygia he
was preceded by Scamander and Teucer. Tros lived about fourteen hundred
years before the Christian Era, and reigned king of Troy for the space
of sixty years. It is in honour of this Trojan Monarch that Fabricius
has given the present insect the name of Papilio Tros.
There are several Papiliones which bear a nearer or more distant
resemblance to this Papilio, a circumstance that will impose some
caution upon the Entomologist before he can venture to pronounce upon
the species with decision: its characters are nevertheless sufficiently
conspicuous, and when examined with due attention, enables us to
determine the species from its nearest approximations, in a clear and
satisfactory manner. The wings are dark above as well as beneath, the
deeper colouring prevailing, however, on the upper surface as well as
beneath; the anterior wings are marked with a broad abbreviated whitish
band, and the lower wings with a large sanguineous or blood red spot of
considerable magnitude. This sanguineous spot from lying in the disk of
the wing is traversed and divided by the black nerves of the wing in
such a manner as to appear in the form of six distinct oblong spots,
placed laterally to each other: these spots appear also on the lower
surface, in the same form as above, but the colour is rather paler.
As there is no figure extant of this large and fine Papilio in the work
of any author, the delineation which we have the pleasure on this
occasion to submit before our readers will doubtlessly be viewed with
peculiar satisfaction. It need be only added that the species has been
definitively determined upon the authority of Mr. Jones’s collection of
original drawings, to which Fabricius so constantly refers, and that for
this reason its specific appellation may be implicitly upon by the
scientific Entomologist.
This interesting Papilio is a native of Brazil.
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[Illustration:
_30_
_London. Published by E. Donovan, & Mess.^{rs}
Simpkin & Marshall. Jan.^y 1, 1823._
]
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE XXX.
PSITTACUS MELANOPTERUS
BLACK WINGED PARRAKEET.
ORDER
PICÆ.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill falcated; upper mandible moveable and in general covered with a
cere: nostrils rounded, placed in the base of the bill: tongue fleshy,
obtuse, entire: feet formed for climbing.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Pale green, back and wings black: secondary wing feathers yellow, at the
tip blue: tail purple with a black band.
PSITTACUS MELANOPTERUS: pallide viridis, dorso alisque nigris, remigibus
secundariis luteis apice cæruleis, rectricibus purpureis fascia
nigra.—_Lath. Ind. Orn. T. 1. p. 132. n. 152._
PSITTACUS MELANOPTERUS: pallide viridis, dorso, tectricibus alarum,
caudæ fascia remigibusque primariis nigris, secundariis
flavescentibus cæruleo punctatis.—_Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1.
p. 350. n. 132._
Perruche aux ailes variées.—_Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois. 6. p. 172._
Petite perruche de Batavia.—_Buff. Pl. enlum. n. 791. f. 1._
Petite perruche de l’isle de Luçon.—_Sonner. it. p. 78. t. 41._
BLACK WINGED PARRAKEET.—_Brown Illus. t. 3._
* * * * *
There are few beings of the feathered race more peculiarly distinguished
for the splendid gaiety and rich variety of colours with which their
plumage is adorned than the parrot race; for however they may differ in
size from the magnitude of a kite or hawk, to that of the comparative
diminutive thrush or sparrow, they are almost uniformly beautiful in
this particular, and exhibit a diversity that is scarcely found in any
other tribe. The species we have selected for our present representation
is one of the smaller kinds of the family distinguished by the name of
Parrakeets. Its total length is about six inches, its form robust or
bulky in proportion.
The bill and legs of this bird are usually described as being dusky, in
our specimen the bill is rather pale, tinged with brown and greenish,
and the legs inclining to flesh colour. The general colour of the head
and neck is green, and the same colour prevails on the breast, belly,
and thighs. Upon the crown of the head the green assumes a blueish tint,
and on the neck appears enlivened with yellowish, the disk of a number
of the feathers being of a yellow colour, with the edges brown, so as to
present a kind of scolloped appearance. The back and wing coverts are
deep black, with a somewhat velvet aspect; the greater quill feathers
black. But one of the characters by which it is distinguished chiefly is
the remarkable band of yellow, and its contiguous parallel band of blue
by which the wings are traversed. This conspicuous band is formed by the
secondary quill feathers, which being of a fine yellow, with the ends a
lively blue, appear like two distinct bands, and from their gaiety of
colouring are admirably relieved by the deep sable hues of the wings and
back. In the bird before us the black colour of the back extends nearly
to the tail, the ends of the tail coverts only being green. The most
singular contrast in the appearance of its plumage arises from the very
different colour of the tail: this is of a pale carnation, glossed or
changeable to a delicate violet. The tail, with the exception of the two
middle feathers, is traversed near the tip with a single broad band of
black; the two middle feathers are of the same pale carnation colour as
the rest, but rather more inclined to blueish.
The black winged Parrot is described as a native of Batavia and Luzonia.
Our specimen we are assured is from the Brazils. We have also very
lately had an opportunity of consulting an extensive series of drawings,
representing the principal Natural productions of Surinam, made by an
Englishman resident upon the spot, for his own amusement, and among
those drawings have met with one of the black winged Parrakeet. Upon
this authority we have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be a native of
Surinam; and indeed it seems to be so well known in that part of the
world that it is distinguished among the inhabitants by a peculiar name,
it is called by them _Ajàlàlero_.
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[Illustration:
_31_
_London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.^{rs}
Simpkin & Marshall, Feb. 1, 1823._
]
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XXXI.
PAPILIO HIPPODAMIA
HIPPODAMIA’S BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
**** P. HELICONII.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings oblong and entire; anterior pair black, with three hyaline bands:
lower ones hyaline.
PAPILIO HIPPODAMIA: alis oblongis integerrimis: anticis nigris: fasciis
tribus hyalinis, posticis hyalinis. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p.
1. 165. 509._
_Jon. pict. n. 149._
* * * * *
The Papiliones of the _Heliconii_ tribe are named by Linnæus after the
nymphs of the fabulous and mythological history of the ancient classics;
an example that has been followed by Fabricius, and subsequently by
other writers. Thus the present interesting insect is dedicated to
commemorate among the votaries of science, the name of Hippodamia, a
nymph feigned by the poets to be the daughter of Oenomaiis, and who
according to the legends of classic lore, besides being much celebrated
for her beauty, was distinguished for her swiftness in the race; and at
length bestowed her fair hand in marriage upon Pelops, because in speed
he excelled her.
This insect, which is of a moderate size, is of a light and elegant
structure. The wings are black, but the transparent spots occupy so much
space that the sable colouring does not appear predominant; it is less
prevalent in the posterior than the anterior wings, and yet less upon
the under surface than the upper. The form and disposition of these
transparent spots with which the dark colour of this fly is variegated,
are altogether characteristic, and deserve particular attention, because
there are other insects of the same tribe which pretty nearly resemble
it. From the middle of the anterior wing extends a transparent spot of a
very elongated heart shaped form, having the point directed to the
thorax, and a bar of black crossing it at the broader end, so as to give
it the appearance of two distinct spots; and beyond this is another
hyaline spot about the same size as the larger one of the two
transparent spaces of which the first-mentioned spot consists. The
posterior part of the wing is further marked with two bands of the same
transparent texture as the others, each consisting of three distinct
spots. The lower wings present a larger transparent space than the upper
wings, the whole disk being hyaline with only the posterior limb or
border opake, and of a black colour. The thorax and body is black.
The hyaline spots as seen on the under side are of the same size and
form as they appear above, but the opake spaces instead of being
uniformly black as on the upper surface, are agreeably diversified with
rufous and geminous dots of white: these double white dots are situated
on the black border at the tips of the wings, three on that of the
anterior pair, and three on that of the posterior ones.
From the very close analogy that prevails between this and several other
species of the same tribe, it would, no doubt, have been a matter of
considerable difficulty at this time to determine the Fabrician species
Papilio Hippodamia with precision, if we had not possessed the means of
reference to the Fabrician manuscripts, and the drawings in which it is
delineated; for it has remained to this period unfigured by any author.
It will be observed that Fabricius does not refer for this species to
the Collectanea of Mr. Jones, as in many other instances. The cause of
this omission will admit of a very easy explanation; Fabricius had seen
the insect in the first instance in the cabinet of M. Mauduit, at Paris,
to which he has referred. But subsequently when in England he found a
drawing of the insect in the collection of Mr. Jones, and inscribed the
name and character of the species upon the drawing, as it afterwards
appeared in his Entomologia Systematica; and it is upon this authority
that we are enabled to speak with certainty upon a species which, but
for this circumstance, would be now involved in ambiguity. The figures
in our plate are copied from the drawings of Mr. Jones, inscribed with
the hand-writing of Fabricius.
At the time Fabricius described this species its _habitat_ was unknown:
we have lately met with it in a collection of Brasilian insects, and
entertain no doubt of its having been brought with the rest from that
part of the globe.
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[Illustration:
_32_
_London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.^{rs}
Simpkin & Marshall, Feb.^y 1, 1823._
]
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XXXII.
CYPRÆA AURORA
AURORA, MORNING-DAWN,
OR,
ORANGE COWRY.
* UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell univalve, involute, subovate, smooth, obtuse at each end: aperture
effuse at each end, linear, extending the whole length of the shell and
denticulated each side.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell ovate ventricose, and somewhat globose, orange without spots:
margin white: throat orange or sometimes rosy.
CYPRÆA AURORA: ovato-ventricosa, subglobosa, aurantiâ immaculatâ:
margine alba, fauce aurantia vel incarnata.
CYPRÆA AURANTIUM: testa subturbinata aurantia margine alba immaculata
fauce rutila. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1. p. 6. 3403. 121._
CYPRÆA AURORA: testa ovato-ventricosâ, turgidâ subglobosâ, aurantiâ,
immaculatâ; lateribus albis; fauce aurantiâ. _Lamarck T. 7. 382.
14._
* * * * *
Every Conchologist is aware of the existence of this superb shell: its
magnitude is considerable, and its colour too conspicuously distinct
from that of all other species of its genus to be passed over without
immediate observation.
The Cypræa generally are a tribe of shells peculiarly striking: the most
common species possess an elegance of fervid colouring and politure that
never fail to recommend them to attention. But a few years only have
passed away, since the mantle decorations of the fire place in the
apartments of fashion, besides images and jars of china porcellain,
consisted of shells, among which the various kinds of Cowries were not
esteemed the least ornamental. And they are sometimes still seen in such
situations; while the grotesque statuary, the josses, and the dragons,
of China and Japan, in conformity with a better taste, have wholly
disappeared.
The shells of the Cypræa, genus which are most familiar to the
generality of observers, are the spotted Cowries, and some others of
usual occurrence. There are others which from their rarity are less
extensively known, and among the number we may truly rank the species
which we have now before us, the Orange Cowry, or as it is sometimes
called, the “Morning Dawn.” The beauty of this shell, as well as
scarcity, has established its celebrity; the species is well known, but
few collections, excepting those of the more costly kind, possess the
shell. Its magnitude is considerable, for its size is nothing inferior
to that of the Spotted Cowry, which ranks in this respect the chief
species of its family, while the distinction of its colour from that of
all other shells of the Cypræa tribe at once attracts particular
attention.
The colour of the back in this species is of a very fine orange, simple,
and unadorned with any marks or spots whatever. The tint of orange
varies in different shells from pale to darker, but whatever may be its
deviations in this respect, the tint of colour is constantly deepest
upon the back, and the transition as constantly becoming gradually paler
or more diluted as the colour descends upon the sides towards the
margin. This margin is rounded, projecting, and of a pure white, except
at the throat, as it is termed, where a tint of red or reddish prevails
to a small extent. The under surface of the shell is white, except at
the sides where the orange colour of the back descends, spreads, and
fades away into the white. The aperture of the shell is a longitudinal
opening down the middle as usual in the other kinds of Cowry; the
surrounding region of the shell is a pure white, but the edges of the
opening, both which are beset with numerous linear teeth, are of a fine
orange.
For the discovery of this extremely beautiful shell, like many other
acquisitions of importance in the cabinet of the Conchologist, we stand
indebted to the assiduities of that eminent Naturalist Sir Joseph Banks,
and those who accompanied him in the celebrated voyage of Captain Cook
round the world. They observed it among the ornaments with which the
natives of Otaheite had decorated their dresses, which were composed of
feathers, and the barks of trees. To these garments they were attached
by means of a string passing through a hole perforated for the purpose
on one side of the shell. The natives were not so easily induced to part
with these shells as the other decorations of their clothing,
appreciating them at a much higher value. Our navigators were at first
led to imagine these shells to be inhabitants of the seas surrounding
Otaheite, in which particular they were at length undeceived by the
natives who informed them to the contrary: they said the shells were
found near an island at a great distance from Otaheite, and from the
direction of the spot toward which they pointed, it was conjectured they
meant the Fegee or Fidgi Islands, which are inhabited by the most
ferocious cannibals throughout those seas.[24] Our navigators were
therefore able only to procure such specimens as were attached to the
dresses of the natives, and these being almost constantly perforated for
the better convenience of fastening them on safely, at once explains the
reason of the Orange Cowry being so rarely met with undisfigured by such
perforation.
The mention of this circumstance, which at this distant period can be
little known, is moreover of some importance, because as the shells were
really brought from Otaheite, it has been generally supposed to be a
native of that island, and has even sometimes been called the Otaheitan
Cowry. Gmelin, who records this shell under the name of Cypræa
Aurantium, speaks of it as a native of the Friendly Isles, “habitat ad
insulas amicas,” resting his authority, we apprehend, upon the
Conchology of Martyn, and which though published shortly after the
return of Captain Cook, could not be so well informed upon the subject
as the venerable friend who assured us it is neither a native of
Otaheite, nor the Friendly Islands. Lamarck has subsequently observed
that the species inhabits the seas of the Friendly Islands as well as
those of Otaheite, and also of New Zealand. Upon what authority the
_localities_ have been increased to this extent is not stated. We have
understood from very good authority that researches have been made
repeatedly of late years by our navigators to discover the shells in
those seas, and without effect; and this fact appears to be confirmed
from the increasing value and importance attached to the species. We are
indeed not entirely certain that any of these shells have ever been
procured, except as before observed from among the natives of Otaheite,
and the value of the shell has progressively advanced in consequence
from four, or five, to ten pounds. A specimen in the collection of Mrs.
Angus sold about three years ago in London for twenty guineas; thirty
guineas have been in vain offered for another specimen within the last
two or three years, and a collector at this period in London is in
possession of another which it is understood cost him very lately fifty
guineas. These circumstances, if we mistake not, conspire to prove, that
the Orange Cowry is a far more local species than might be inferred from
the observation of Lamarck.
Besides the name of Otaheitan Cowry, this shell has been also called the
“Orange Cowry,” and the “Morning Dawn,” in reference to the latin
“Cypræa Aurantium,” and “Aurora,” by both which it had been at different
times distinguished. That of Aurantium alludes only to the prevailing
orange colour of the shell, and has been given to it by Gmelin after
Martyn. There is something more poetically elegant, and perhaps no less
appropriate in the trivial name Aurora, which Lamarck adopts: we may in
truth compare its beauteous fulvous hues fading into white with
inexpressive softness, to the warm glowing tints and fainter blushes of
an opening morning sky in summer. We have also adopted this name as well
as Lamarck, for its peculiar elegance, in preference to that of
Aurantium.
The origin of the epithet “Aurora,” bestowed upon this shell has
probably long since been forgotten; it arose from one of those fugitive
events not likely to be recorded excepting only in the recollection of
collectors; and those in whose immediate knowledge the circumstance
occurred have long since passed this transitory scene and are perhaps
ere this themselves forgotten. The relation though in some respects
trivial, may afford amusement to the amateur: it serves to shew the
origin of its name “Aurora” at the same time that it presents a striking
illustration of that ardent zeal with which the science of Conchology
was cultivated in this country nearly half a century ago; its
authenticity may be relied upon. The circumstance as related to us by an
old collector some years ago was briefly this; a specimen of the shell
had very shortly after the return of the discovery ships been presented
by one of the officers to a lady, which coming to the knowledge of a
most zealous collector of that period, he solicited the indulgence of
seeing it; and waited upon the lady for the purpose, upon an intimation
that the favour would be readily granted. Madam, said the enraptured
visitor, gazing in admiration upon the Cowry, which he now beheld for
the first time, has this shell a price? will twenty guineas purchase
this lovely gem? it will not answered the lady. Allow me then said its
enthusiastic admirer to clasp it for a moment in my hands, and bending
on one knee, at the same time pressing the shell to his lips, pronounced
with an emphasis of poetic fervour, “thus do I salute the ‘Morning Dawn’
of the new discovered world!” Let poets reverence Venus the beauty of
the Grecian seas: my idol is “Aurora,” this sea-born nymph of surpassing
beauty, that rose upon the waves of the Southern deep!
Tu quoque cum Dea sis, Divâ formosior illâ
Concha per æquoreum quam vasa ducit iter.[25]
_Sec. 6. Basium._
Abating somewhat of the romantic warmth with which the ideas of the
venerable collector alluded to was expressed, it must be admitted that
in point of beautiful simplicity this shell has never been surpassed by
any subsequent discoveries in the southern hemisphere; and it is no less
singular than certain that the price of twenty guineas, which that
collector named upon an imaginary valuation, has become the average
standard value of a fine shell of this kind for some years past. At
present they are more highly prized, because it is now pretty clearly
ascertained that they are no longer to be procured among the natives of
Otaheite; and for this reason it is much more likely they will reach a
still higher price than that the value of them should diminish. The
shell we have represented is to be considered as a very fine specimen in
respect to size as well as colour.
-----
Footnote 24:
We learn from Labillardière, one of the Naturalists attached to the
expedition of Admiral Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, who went in search of La
Perouse in 1791, 1792, 1793, that this report is true. When the French
ships _Recherche_ and _Espérance_ touched at Tongataboo, there
happened to be peace between them and Fidgi, and as usual when they
are not at war, a considerable commerce was at that time carried on
between them. This brought Vouacecee, one of the chiefs of Fidgi, to
Tongataboo soon after the French had cast anchor, and as he paid them
frequently a visit, they were able to collect from him some useful
information. Vouacecee represented Fidgi to be very high land, of
great fertility and lying distant in the north west direction about
seventy-two _myriametres_. The myriametre reduced to our standard is
six miles, one furlong, one hundred and fifty-six yards, and six
inches, giving in total value about one hundred and forty-nine
leagues, or four hundred and forty-seven miles. In the most favourable
weather with the large double canoe the voyage to Fidgi from thence
could not be less than three days, and when they had to struggle
against the south winds they must ply to windward upwards of a month.
The people of Tongataboo told them the people of Fidgi were cannibals:
Vouacecee strove to exculpate himself by answering that it was only
the _touas_, or people of the lowest class, who eat human flesh. But
the assurances of the natives of Tongataboo were fully confirmed in
other quarters, and Labillardière who observes they devour their
enemies to satiate their fury, is entirely satisfied the chiefs as
well as touas are _Anthrophagi_. These people, notwithstanding this
atrocity, are represented as being far more advanced in arts and
industry than the people of other islands, who receive from them in
time of peace many articles of ingenious workmanship and produce of
their island, and it is, no doubt, by this means that the _Orange
Cowry_ has been introduced among the natives of Otaheite and other
islands in those seas.
Besides its being satisfactory to ascertain beyond any doubt the
habitat of the Orange Cowry, the Conchologist is assured that other
shells of the most choice and valuable kinds inhabit the seas of this
island, for which reason it is presumed the above information may not
prove altogether unimportant.
Footnote 25:
We should not omit to mention that this shell was called _Aurora_ by
Dr. Solander about the same time, _Vide_ his MS. Whether he was
indebted to this circumstance for the hint of so naming it, or on the
contrary that the gentleman was aware of the name which Dr. Solander
intended for it, is now beyond our means of ascertaining. It is more
obvious that Chemnitz, and after him Lamarck, have received the name
Aurora from one or both of these sources, although the anecdote may be
itself forgotten.
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[Illustration:
_33_
_London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.^{rs}
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]
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE XXXIII.
PSITTACUS MACULATUS
SPOTTED BREASTED PARRAKEET.
PICÆ.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill falcated; upper mandible moveable and in general covered with a
cere: nostrils rounded, placed in the base of the bill: tongue fleshy,
obtuse, entire: feet formed for climbing.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Green: crown, hind, head and nape black: temples cinereous: throat,
neck, and breast fuscous with the margins of the feather sulphureous:
shoulder scarlet: rump and middle of the abdomen sanguineous.
PSITTACUS MACULATUS: viridis: vertice, occipite, nuchaque nigris:
temporibus cinereis: gula, collo, pectoreque fuscis marginibus
pennarum sulphureis: humeris coccineis: uropygio abdomineque
medio sanguineis.
* * * * *
A very rare species of the Parrakeet tribe, and which is presumed to be
a native of South America.
The length of this bird is nine inches and a half; the bill and legs
blackish. The prevailing colour of the plumage green, front and crown of
the head blueish green, the rest of the head and neck black: the
feathers upon the face glossed with blue: a large ovate cinereous spot
on the cheeks: throat and breast black varied with pale yellowish
scollops, the margin of the feathers being a pale sulphureous yellow,
the disk black: the black disk usually forming a kind of triangular spot
with the point tending downwards. The wings are green, except the quill
feathers, which are blue, and the butt of the wing or shoulder the
colour of which is scarlet. The body beneath green with a large spot of
sanguineous-purple on the abdomen. The lower part of the back and rump
the same sanguineous purple colour as the abdominal spot: tail above
green, the feathers purplish towards the end; beneath rufous brown.
This curious bird is nearly allied to _Psittacus Squammosus_, the _Scaly
Breasted Parrakeet_, and in no very remote degree with another kind of
Parrakeet, the _Wavy Breasted Parrot_, _Psittacus Lineatus_. The first
of these our bird exceeds by at least an inch in length, the other by an
inch and a quarter. Instead of the dark colours of the head, as in our
bird, the head and neck of P. Squammosus are dull orange. The darker
colouring of our bird assimilates more nearly with _Psittacus Lineatus_,
but in other respects is entirely different. We have considered it as a
new species, at the same time that it must be observed from the very
close analogy that prevails between this bird and the Scaly Breasted
Parrakeet, it may possibly prove hereafter to be the adult bird of that
kind rather than a distinct species.
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[Illustration:
_34_
_London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.^{rs}
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]
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XXXIV.
TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA
SANGUINEOUS LAMP-ANOMIA,
TEREBRATULA,
OR,
LAMP COCKLE.
BIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell inequivalve regular, somewhat triagonal: upper valve imperforate,
lower valve beaked above the hinge, the beak usually incurvate,
perforated at the tip, or grooved, for the passage of a short tendinous
pedicle, by means of which it adheres to other bodies: Hinge with two
teeth, and furnished with two osseous elevated and furcated processes
arising from the disk of the upper or smaller valve, destined to support
the animal.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell red, ventricose, suborbicular, longitudinally ribbed: upper valve
depressed in the middle; the lower with the back elevated.
TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA: testa rubrâ ventricosa, suborbiculata,
longitudinaliter costata: valva superiore in medio excavato:
inferiore dorso elevato, apice incurvato perforato.
ANOMIA SANGUINEA. Obovata longitudinaliter sulcata, triloba; sinu
profundo, nate producta latere angulata foramen ambiente.
_Solanders MSS.—Hab. in O. Pacifico. G. R. Forster._
ANOMIA SANGUINEA. _Portland Catalogue._
ANOMIA SANGUINEA. _Leverian Cat. sec. part. p. 15._
ANOMIA SANGUINEA. _Dillwyn’s Conch. 1. 293. 21._
TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA. _Leach. Zool. Misc. t. 76._
TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA. _Lamarck Anim. sans. Vert. T. 6. p. 1. p. 243._
Lampas Sanguineus, La Sanguinolente (Anomia Sanguinea S.) _Calonne Cat.
Humph. MS._
* * * * *
This is one among the number of those very choice accessions to the
Conchological knowledge of the last century, that was derived from the
scientific labours of our first circumnavigators in the Southern Ocean:
it occurred to them upon the coast of New Zealand, not in any abundance,
but so far plentifully that after the Banksian Cabinet was supplied
there were several specimens to spare for distribution among the friends
of Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, and Captain Cook. From this little
store the species passed in the first instance into several collections,
and among others into that of the late Duchess of Portland, Dr.
Chauncey, Mr. Cracherode, Mr. G. Humphrey, and some others. It has since
occurred, but not in any abundance to later voyagers in those seas. And
it is reputed also to have been met with in the Straits of Magellan.
The specimen of this rare shell which we have delineated, and which
always was considered as one of the largest of its species known, once
constituted part of the Testaceological collection of Sir Ashton Lever,
having been presented to that eminent collector by Captain Cook, at the
time of his return to England after his first voyage. There is a small
hole pierced through the upper valve of this shell, and which, in the
absence of all other information, induces the persuasion of its having
been originally suspended like several other shells we have already
mentioned, as an ornament or appendage to the dress of some New
Zealander; the aperture being so designed that the two valves could
easily have been kept together by means of a string passing through this
hole of the upper valve, and the opening in the beak of the lower one.
The animal inhabitant is probably eaten by the New Zealanders, who
besides being cannibals, subsist chiefly upon the marine productions of
their shores, which their wives and female children obtain daily for
them by swimming and diving into the sea. There is a rare species found
in the Mediterranean Sea, Anomia Vitrea of Gmelin, which nearly
approaches this species in point of size, and is eagerly sought after,
we are told, by the people of those parts as a delicious food. We
should, however, imagine from its scarcity, that it is only at the
tables of the rich that this luxurious repast appears.
In adopting the genus Terebratula for the shell before us, some
explanation may be expected for our departure from the Linnæan
classification, for in the system of that author it is one of the Anomia
Tribe, the term and character of Terebratula not being recognised by
that author as generically distinct from the Anomia. Our reasons for
this deviation shall be explained as briefly as it is possible: from the
nature of those remarks, and the extent of enquiry with which it is
connected, this cannot however be comprised within very slender limits.
In the Linnæan arrangement, the Anomia form a very comprehensive genus,
and since in particular the fossil species are included it should
certainly have been divided into several distinct sections or families
in order to embrace the different tribes of those shells, which
according to the character Linnæus has given of the genus must
necessarily be referred to it. It is impossible without some
modification of this kind to reconcile _Anomia Ephippium and Cepa_, with
_Anomia Caput Serpentinus_ or _Terebratula_, or either of them with _A.
Placenta_; and there are besides these some other families which do not
well accord, and which might perhaps be separated into distinct genera
with great advantage, the fossil kinds especially, which are very
numerous and much diversified in structure. It cannot be very material
whether they be so divided into genera or be placed in different
families under the general appellation of Anomiæ: they are obviously
very dissimilar and should be kept apart, and we have examples of both
these modes of classing the Anomiæ among the early Naturalists.
A late french writer, M. Bosc, speaking of this tribe of shells,
observes, that Linnæus having confounded the _Terebratules_ with the
_Anomies_, Bruguière first established their differences, and Lamarck
had fixed their characters. This observation is not sufficiently
explicit, and may possibly imply more than the author of it has
intended. It assumes as a conclusion that Linnæus committed an error in
confounding these two genera, without informing us in what state of
arrangement Linnæus found them. It may be inferred from this that they
had been more accurately discriminated before his time, or on the
contrary, that they never had been classed in any form, and that it was
the want of knowledge in Linnæus which led him to confound shells
together that were generically distinct. But whichever we are to
understand, the conclusion is, that Linnæus had confounded them, and
that it remained for Bruguière and Lamarck to reform those errors of
Linnæus, which all later Naturalists had left uncorrected, if not
unobserved. Now really this view of the subject is not fairly taken if
such an inference be intended. The result of a very little enquiry among
the authors who preceded Linnæus, or were immediately subsequent to him,
will assure us of the truth of this; and will convince us beyond a
doubt, that the discrimination of neither of those authors was necessary
either to furnish the Naturalists of the present day with the term
Terebratula; to determine the differences that exist between them and
the Anomiæ, or to fix the characters by which the Terebratulæ are
distinguished.
The Anomia genus, instead of being devised by Linnæus, or Terebratula in
particular, owing its invention to any modern writer, have been both so
long established that the greatest difficulty is to determine where in
the retrospect of authors our enquiries are to cease. Without proceeding
further back than the last two centuries, it may be observed that
_Fabius Columna_ in his work “De Purpura,” published at Rome in the year
1616, speaks of the Anomiæ; he calls them _Conchæ rariores Anomiæ_, and
from that period at least the term Anomia has been received among
Naturalists. Nor is the term Terebratula of much later origin. Da Costa
in his Elements of Conchology informs us that from the time of Fabius
Columna the word Anomia had become universal, that is as a general
denomination for all the shells which Linnæus subsequently placed
together under that name. The term Terebratula was given, says this
writer, by Gualtieri; in plate 96 of his work, Gualtieri figures three
recent kinds, and has made a particular genus for them, which he calls
Terebratula. And it is further added in another place “the Anomiæ are
bivalves with unequal valves, and never eared, the beak of the largest
or under valve is greatly produced, and rises or curves over the beak of
the smaller or upper valve, and is perforated or pierced through like a
tube, from which particular they have also obtained the name of
_Terebratulæ_.”
These remarks sufficiently establish the circumstance of the term
Anomia, being a comprehensive title for all the shells which Linnæus
subsequently placed together under that name, and also shews that we are
not indebted to either Bruguière or Lamarck for discriminating the
Terebratulæ. We can ever go further back in this particular than Da
Costa has done, for that able author is mistaken in supposing Gualtieri
to be the first writer who had proposed the genus Terebratula. Gualtieri
published his work in the year 1724, and we happen to possess among
other valuable MSS. of the celebrated Antiquarian, Hearne, the original
copy of Lluid’s Lithophylacia Britannica, as corrected for the press,
dated Montgomery, 1698, in which the genus Terebratula is distinctly
named: and this, as it appears from the date, was more than fifty years
before the time of Gualtieri; and we have also the authority of our
english Lister in 1694 for the like distinction. All these writers, it
will be observed, preceded Klein, who has in a particular manner
described the genus Terebratula in his Methodus Ostraceologia, published
in 1753, but in which he does not speak of himself as having invented
that term. “TEREBRATULAS, _Luidiano_ titulo, vocamus DIACONCHAS
anomalas, rostro parterebrato, vid. _Nomencl. Litholog. Promotum_ hoc
titulo.” His genus _Concha_ ΤΡΊΛΟΒΟΣ, genus _Concha_ ADUNCA, genus
BURSULA, and genus GLOBUS, are all sub-divisions of the _Anomiæ Conchæ_
of other writers, divided according to their forms and other
peculiarities, and in which particular attention is paid to the
perforation or non-perforation of the beak; Trilobos being distinguished
as “_vertice integro_,” Bursula as _Terebratulæformes_ rostro non
perforato, &c. And we may lastly mention that from some original MSS. of
Da Costa, in our possession, it appears that Anomia was a general term
for the whole family, and _Terebratula Anomiæ lævis_ was the term by
which the English and other Naturalists, long prior to the middle of
last century, were accustomed to distinguish the same kind of shells
which in the modern nomenclature of Conchology is also named generically
Terebratula. Da Costa, as Librarian of the Royal Society, was in the
habit of correspondence with the learned men of his time throughout
Europe, and his local knowledge from this circumstance, though never
committed to the press, is not likely to be disputed.
We could proceed yet further, but enough has surely been advanced to
shew that so far from Linnæus having confounded the Terebratula with the
Anomia, he left them precisely as he found them, placing them after the
example of his predecessors, under the comprehensive term of Anomia,
which they had assigned to them. And we have also said enough to prove
that to ascribe the Genus Terebratula to either Bruguière or Lamarck can
result only from our ignorance of that information which in former days
was regarded as the best criterion of an able Naturalist, a correct
knowledge of the labours of his predecessors.
Under all its circumstances it may be a matter of some indifference to
the scientific Naturalist whether in the arrangement of the Anomiæ we
follow the concise method of the old writers and Linnæus among the
number, or the diffuse distribution of later writers. If we place them
in different families according to their characters, whether regarded as
sectional distinctions of Anomia, or as distinct genera, we shall at
least produce some consistency in the arrangement. But there is yet
another mode of arrangement which appears to be the favourite theme with
some Conchologists of the present day, and which it may be proper in
this place to mention, namely, the classification of shells according to
their animals. This has been attempted in the work of Cuvier, his “Règne
Animal,” and the result of this endeavour, so far as it relates to the
Anomia in particular, may in this place deserve our explicit
observation. In this work (_Règne Animal_) Cuvier endeavouring to class
the Anomiæ according to the animals known to inhabit them, as well as
those which he imagines for the fossil tribes, so disperses them, that
the Trochi, Turbines, Nautili, Volutæ, and indeed nearly the whole of
the _Univalves_ intervene between his two first genera of these
_bivalves_, Hyalæa and Anomia; and the Anomia tridentata of Forskahl,
which is the Hyalæa of this author, is placed with Clio (the shell of
which is our _Bulla Aperta_[26]) among the _Ptéropodes_. After the long
interval occasioned by this introduction of the Univalves we find
Anomia,[26] and Placuna, two of his genera together, but with another
tribe of beings, the animal inhabitants being of his class _Acéphales_;
and after another wide interval in which the bivalve Mya,[26] the
multivalve Pholas,[26] the univalve Teredo,[26] and the naked or
shell-less Ascidia, occur we find in a distant class among another tribe
of animals, _Mollusques Brachopodes_, the genus _Terebratula_. It is
here ascribed to Bruguière, as in other works it is assigned to Lamarck.
Such is the arrangement of this family in the _Règne Animal_ of Cuvier,
a form in which no cabinet, it must be acknowledged, could be arranged
without embracing the most unprecedented anomalies; nor can we doubt
that if the animals of the fossil Terebratulæ and Anomiæ were known, for
in this arrangement they rest on presumption only, they must be further
separated in such a system than they are at present, some being
perforated at the beaks, others imperforate, and some having the
aperture under the beaks, all which demonstrates a difference in the
structure of the animal, to whose use they were adapted.
From this analysis of the generical distinctions of the different
families of the Anomiæ we may now be permitted to return to the shell
before us, the object of our more immediate consideration, and
respecting which there appears to be no less misconception among late
later writers than we have found already respecting the genera.
It appears that Dr. Leach had some short time since published a figure
of this shell: his definition is altogether brief, and the information
he affords less explanatory than might be desired: he quotes no
authority or synonyms, and in his general description merely observes
that “It seems to be a very rare species, a few specimens only having
been received from New Zealand.” _Vide. Zool. Misc. p. 76._ Lamarck
assuming from these observations, as it may be presumed, that the shell
had not been previously noticed, unless it were an Anomia Capensis of
Gmelin, proposes it as a new species under the name of Terebratula
Sanguinea of Leach, at the same time that he rejects his specific
character, and assigns another to the species; the character given to it
as a new species by Dr. Leach is “_Testa sanguinea, subtillissime et
creberrime impresso-punctata, longitudinaliter costata, costis
simplicibus; antica uniundulata_;” that of Lamarck, “_Testâ oblongâ,
irregulari, rubrá, creberrimé impresso punctata; striis transversis
undulatîs; margine denticulato_,” to which is added, “_Habite—les mers
de la Nouvelle Zélande d’après M. Leach_.” This seems to shew that the
shell was only known to Lamarck, through the communication of the
last-mentioned writer; and the suggestion is the more probable since the
specimen in the British Museum has the same interrogation as to being
the Anomia Capensis of Chemnitz, that is annexed by Lamarck to his
description of the species. “Je crois qu’on doit donner comme synonyme
l’Anomia capensis Gmel., d’après la citation de Chemniz; mais l’individu
que j’avais sous les yeux, n’est pas assez entier pour affirmer ce
rapprochement.”
There is obviously some want of farther explanation in these details,
the omission of which may possibly be supplied by tracing the history of
this interesting shell from the time in which it first appeared in this
country; for there are local circumstances connected with it which
having escaped the mention of Dr. Leach, and consequently of Lamarck,
have led to the erroneous conclusion that it had remained till very
lately undescribed. Dr. Leach was probably not aware, or through some
oversight omits to notice that the specific name which he has given to
this shell was that assigned to it many years ago by Dr. Solander, and
that it has uniformly borne the name of _Anomia sanguinea_, or
(_Terebratula sanguinea_) among all the English Naturalists in
consequence from the time of that learned friend and companion of Sir
Joseph Banks down to the present period: It is the Anomia sanguinea of
Dr. Solanders MSS. and was designated under that name in the Museum of
the Dutchess of Portland: it appeared under the same appellation in the
catalogue of that museum, published in 1786: in the Calonnian Museum and
Catalogue, printed in the year 1795; it stood under that name also in
the Museum of Sir Ashton Lever, and it appeared under the same
denomination in the sale catalogue of that museum, published in the year
1806. Under all these circumstances it may be presumed the name must
have obtained no small publicity, and we need scarcely add that the
example of these authorities were followed in the Cabinets of english
collectors generally, that happened to be in possession of the shell,
among which was that of Mr. Cracherode, which was subsequently deposited
in the British Museum. And lastly, it should be mentioned that it occurs
under the same name in the Testaceological Manual of Mr. Dillwyn.
Nothing therefore can be more certain than that the french writers are
not correct in their opinion when they imagine that the shell had been
so named in the first instance by Dr. Leach; and it is no less certain
that the credit of having first noticed the species is due to Dr.
Solander, he described it more than forty years ago: his words as they
stand in his manuscripts are, “ANOMIA SANGUINEA _obovato,
longitudinaliter sulcata, triloba; sinu profundo nate producta latere
angulata foramen ambiente_.” Mr. Dillwyn has well expressed the
character of this shell in his description of Anomia Sanguinea, but has
by some oversight misquoted this passage of Dr. Solander’s manuscripts;
and by that means has confounded the _Anomia Sanguinea_ of Dr. Solander,
with his Anomia Cruenta; this will be more fully shewn hereafter.
Upon this subject we have only lastly to observe that although Lamarck
has deemed it requisite to give a specific character of this shell
dissimilar from that of Dr. Leach, he omits to mention, as well as the
former, that very conspicuous character of the species, the deep
longitudinal hollow down the middle of the upper valve, and the dorsal
elevation of the lower one. Lamarck, indeed, confesses that the
individual which he had under his eyes, and consequently that which he
describes, is not sufficiently perfect to authorize him in determining
the analogy between that shell and the Anomia Capensis of Gmelin, which
Chemnitz has figured; a circumstance that may explain the cause of this
omission in the specific character of Terebratula sanguinea. Yet we
should have thought a shell sufficiently entire to have enabled this
ingenious Naturalist to have composed his character of the species,
would have been so far perfect as to have justified some conclusion upon
its analogy with the Gmelinian Anomia Capensis. We may confidently add
that these two shells are totally distinct species, and are even
generically different if we enter very scrupulously upon their
distinctive characters. Dr. Solander had described this latter shell
before the time of Gmelin under the name of Anomia Cruenta.
The representations of this choice testaceous production, which
accompanies our present description, will, it is presumed, convey a more
correct idea of the shell than can be expressed by words. The Leverian
specimen from which, as before observed, these figures are taken,
realized at the public hammer at the Leverian sale the sum of five
guineas,[27] and it still remains so rare that there would probably be
little, if any, dimunition in the price were it again to be disposed of
in the same manner at the present period. The shells of this kind vary
in some small degree in the intensity of colour from a very deep
sanguineous red to a paler hue.
-----
Footnote 26:
Many of these are found on our own coasts. _Vide Donovan’s British
Shells_, in which the figures and descriptions of a number of the
species of these genera occur.
Footnote 27:
Last Day’s Sale, lot 74, £5 5s.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.^{rs}
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]
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XXXV.
PAPILIO BELLADONNA
BELLADONNA’S BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
**** HELICONII.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings oblong entire, black with somewhat hyaline spots: posterior pair
with a yellow spot at the base, and two at the anal angle.
PAPILIO BELLADONNA: alis oblongis integerrimis atris sub-hyalino
maculatis: posticis macula baseos anguloque ani maculis duobus
flavis.
PAPILIO BELLADONNA: alis oblongis integerrimis atris: anticis hyalino
punctatis, posticis flavo maculatis. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p.
1. p. 180._
Papilio Belladonna. _Jon. fig. pict. 3. tab. 37. fig. 2._
Statura P. Pasithoe at major. Corpus nigrum abdominis marginibus
cinereis. Alæ atræ, cinereo punctatæ. Subtus concolores at lineola
maculaque baseos albis. Posticæ atræ, flavo maculatæ macula baseos
angulique ani majoribus. Subtus fere concolores.
* * * * *
A figure of this very rare and probably unique insect cannot fail, it is
presumed, of proving an acceptable addition to the collectanea of the
Entomologist: it is the only representation of the species now extant,
and has been ascertained upon the authority of the only document we now
possess of the insect intended in the Fabrician writings under the
appellation of _Papilio Hel. Belladonna_.
Fabricius, as it appears from his references in his Entomologia
Systematica, met with the drawings of this species in the collection of
Mr. Jones, whose cabinet also possessed the original specimen from which
the drawing was taken. It is from this individual example in the cabinet
of Mr. Jones that the delineation in the annexed plate is copied.
This curious Papilio is one of the larger species of the Heliconi tribe
to which it appertains. The wings are a blueish black, and rather
closely studded with sub-hyaline or transparent spots, which are
minutely speckled with black: those on the anterior wings are somewhat
sagittate and disposed into two irregular bands towards the exterior
half of the wings: those on the posterior wings are rather larger and
more inclining to an ovate form; and three of the largest, namely, one
at the base, and two at the anal angle, are of a bright yellow colour.
The inner limb of the wing is grey inclining to yellowish. The head and
thorax are black; the abdomen black with the sides pale yellow. The
spots being semitransparent the appearance on the underside in a great
degree corresponds with that above: there is a small difference, because
instead of one yellowish spot at the base of the posterior wing, there
are two, another smaller than that which appears at the base of that
wing on the upper surface being situated below it. We have been more
minute in the description of these spots, because upon an attentive
comparison of the insect in Mr. Jones’s Cabinet, with the Fabrician
description, we perceive some small deficiency in the latter, a
circumstance, it must be confessed, of rare occurrence in this author,
but unquestionably worthy of our notice and correction, as it is the
only authority upon which the species must in future rest.
The country of this interesting insect is unknown; it is remotely
conjectured only that it may be Africa. The insect is represented with
its wings expanded upon a sprig of
ERICA PARMENTARIA,
an elegant vegetable production of the Cape of Good Hope.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_36_
_London. Published by E. Donovan & Mess.^{rs}
Simpkin & Marshall, April 1, 1823._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XXXVI.
NERITA POLITA. _Var._
PINK-BANDED VARIETY
OF THE
THICK POLISHED NERIT.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Animal a Limax. _Linn._[28] Shell univalve, spiral, gibbous, flattish at
the bottom: aperture semi-orbicular and semi-lunar, pillar lip
transversely truncated.
*** Perforated with the lips denticulated.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell thick, glabrous, variously coloured, crown obliterated: lip
toothed each side.
* Var. Variegated with white, red, and black.
NERITA POLITA: testa crossâ, glabrâ, colore variâ vertice obliterato,
labio utroque dentato.
* Ex albo rubro nigroque variegata.
NERITA POLITA: testa lævi: vertice obliterato, labio utroque dentato.
_Linn. Mus. Lud. Ulr. 678. n. 392._
_Linn. Syst. Nat. edit. 12. 2. 1254. 731._
_Gmel. Linn. Syst. 6. 3680. 43._
NERITA POLITA. _Chemn. 5. t. 193. f. 200. 2014._
_Rumpf. Mus. t. 22. fig. 1. k._
_Argenv. Conch. t. 7. f. k._
_Seba Mus. 3. t. 38. f. 56._
_Lamarck T. 6. p. 2. 192. 7._
* * * * *
In the arrangement of Cuvier, entitled “_Règne Animal_,” the Mollusca or
animal of the Nerita constitutes one of his “_Gasteropodes
pectinibranches_,” the character of which as defined by that author is
quite as comprehensive and rather less explicit than the Linnæan
limaces: he divides them into several families according to the peculiar
form of their shells, for collectively almost every genera of the spiral
univalves fall under this very general denomination, as well as many of
those shells which are simply conic, as in the Linnæan classification
they do under that of Limax. Cuvier mentions as a character of this
tribe that their breathing apertures, with the exception of a family he
calls Cyclostomes, are composed of a number of foliations ranged
parallel to each other like the teeth of a comb. They have two feelers,
and two eyes usually situated on a pedicle. The greatest difference
between these animals consist in the presence or absence of the canal
formed by a prolongation of the edge of the pulmonary cavity of the left
side, a respiratory organ communicating with others by means of which
the animal breathes without quitting its retreat in the water.
According to Lamarck the animal of Nerita has the foot large and short,
with two pointed feelers, and the eyes raised upon a papilla at the
exterior base of each.
Bosc is less diffuse than either. The animal of the Nerites, he
observes, have the head flat and lunate, a little sloping to the two
extremities: from the base of the head on each side issues two conic
slender horns, one of which is twice the length of the other. The eyes
are two little black points placed upon a trihedral tubercule at the
exterior base of the horns, the mouth placed underneath the head and
formed with a lip, thick and wrinkled. The foot almost round, flat
beneath, convex above, and rather shorter than the shell. The mantle or
fleshy prolongation entirely covers the interior of the shell and is
slightly crenulated at the margin.
Denys de Montfort speaking of the species Nerita Peloronata, a shell
abounding on the shores of the Antilles, observes that there are male
and female animals of this kind, the two sexes being isolated or
distinct individuals; they are of an amphibious nature, living in the
sea, from whence they ascend occasionally and crawl about the rocks.
Linnæus under the Nerita genus comprehends as well the imperforated or
non-umbilicated kinds as those which have that perforation. The later
continental writers divide these again, retaining the name Nerita to
those which have no perforation; those with a perforation are called
Natica, by the french authors Natice, after Adanson, Gualtieri, and
Favanne. Lamarck has also a genus Neritina, and another Navicella, all
which in the Linnæan system are of the Nerita tribe.
Nerita Polita is by no means an uncommon shell upon the coasts of the
Indian Ocean, being found throughout their whole extent from Japan to
the Cape of Good of Hope, and as it appears also upon the shores of many
islands in the Indian and the Great Southern Ocean.
Besides being so very abundant in those parts, it may also be observed
that no species of the testaceous tribe is more remarkable for the
almost endless variety of colours, or the form and disposition of the
spots, dots, and lineations, than the individuals of this kind of Nerit.
There are, however, some few of its varieties which from being local are
far less abundant than the rest, and the shell in particular which we
have selected for the most conspicuous object in the annexed plate is
one the most important of the number. The prevailing colour of the
ordinary varieties is olivaceous, in some paler, in others more
inclining to blackish; the charactered marks in general yellowish,
triangular or sagittate, and varied with short blackish lines. This is
the usual appearance of the back or upper part of the shell, the region
surrounding the mouth is white, including the lip, the inside of the
mouth yellow, and this latter character appears constant throughout all
the varieties of the species. The particular variety which constitutes
the chief object in our plate, is of the red banded kind, the bands
being diversified with red and white, disposed in spots, and lineations,
with peculiar elegance. The varieties of this banded kind are scarce in
general, but the particular kind which we have represented is unique,
whether regarded for its magnitude, its exquisite perfection, or
brilliancy of colouring. We have represented the upper and under surface
of this shell, together with the upper and under surface of a shell of
the common kind, in order that by the contrast, the beauty of the former
might be exemplified with greater perspicuity.
The history of this matchless variety of Nerita Polita is distinctly
known: it is one of those shells which were brought from the Sandwich
Islands by Captain Cook, when he returned from his first voyage of
discovery in the South Seas. It was observed appended to an ornament
worn at the breast of one of the natives, and was obtained in exchange,
it is believed, for an iron hatchet; the Islander to whom it belonged
esteeming it very much, and the English Officer being anxious to possess
it. This circumstance of its having been affixed to an ornament worn by
one of the savages, explains the reason of the shell being perforated,
the hole having been made in order to pass a string through the shell to
fasten it on the ornament securely. The shell was presented by Captain
Cook to Sir Ashton Lever, in whose Museum it was subsequently deposited;
and notwithstanding the defect above-mentioned, this little shell
produced at the dissolution of the Leverian Museum, in the year 1806,
the sum of nine pounds sterling, at the public hammer.[29] A celebrated
collector, the late Mr. Noel Jennings, was the purchaser; and it is
understood that on the subsequent dispersion of the collection of Mr.
Jennings, which took place a few years ago, that it became, with some
other very rare shells of that collection, the property of Lord Mount
Morris.
-----
Footnote 28:
Linnæus describes the animal of the Nerita as a limax, the body of
which is oblong, with a fleshy shield above, and a longitudinal flat
disk beneath: aperture on the right side within the shield: feelers,
four, placed above the mouth: eyes, two, and situated one at the tip
of each of the larger feelers. This character does not exactly accord
with the animal of the Nerita, for in this tribe, instead of the eyes
being situated upon the apex of the longer feelers, they stand each
upon a kind of papilla, situated at the outer base of the longer
feelers. And besides this, it differs in some less material
peculiarities.
Footnote 29:
Fifty-Eight Day (last day but two) lot 87, “_A most beautiful variety
of the Painted Nerita, having three rich pink bands on a dark clouded
ground taken from an ornament worn by a native of one of the Sandwich
Islands._”
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