Chapter II: Part 2

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.