Chapter I: Part 1

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}.

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THE
NATURALIST’S REPOSITORY,
OR
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,
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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_.

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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.

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_1_

_London. Published by E. Donovan as the Act
directs April, 1822._
]

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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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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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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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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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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.