Chapter V: Part 5

The tribe of Butterflies to which the Papilio now before us appertains, includes many of the larger and more interesting species of the Papiliones known. This tribe, as its designation implies, has been dedicated by Entomologists to the memory of the more distinguished worthies of the Trojan race, and above others to preserve the memory of those heroes whose exploits in the defence of that rich and potent station of the ancient world, the town of Troy, has been commemorated in the Iliad by the immortal Homer. Our present species refers indeed to a Trojan of an earlier period; it is named after Tros, the founder of the Trojan name. Tros was the fifth king of the Trojan dynasty, from its first establishment in the person of Scamander, and the last but three; the destruction of Troy being accomplished under the reign of Priam. The country before the time of Tros was called Dardania, from Dardanus, who is usually stiled the first of the Trojan kings, though in Phrygia he was preceded by Scamander and Teucer. Tros lived about fourteen hundred years before the Christian Era, and reigned king of Troy for the space of sixty years. It is in honour of this Trojan Monarch that Fabricius has given the present insect the name of Papilio Tros.

There are several Papiliones which bear a nearer or more distant resemblance to this Papilio, a circumstance that will impose some caution upon the Entomologist before he can venture to pronounce upon the species with decision: its characters are nevertheless sufficiently conspicuous, and when examined with due attention, enables us to determine the species from its nearest approximations, in a clear and satisfactory manner. The wings are dark above as well as beneath, the deeper colouring prevailing, however, on the upper surface as well as beneath; the anterior wings are marked with a broad abbreviated whitish band, and the lower wings with a large sanguineous or blood red spot of considerable magnitude. This sanguineous spot from lying in the disk of the wing is traversed and divided by the black nerves of the wing in such a manner as to appear in the form of six distinct oblong spots, placed laterally to each other: these spots appear also on the lower surface, in the same form as above, but the colour is rather paler.

As there is no figure extant of this large and fine Papilio in the work of any author, the delineation which we have the pleasure on this occasion to submit before our readers will doubtlessly be viewed with peculiar satisfaction. It need be only added that the species has been definitively determined upon the authority of Mr. Jones’s collection of original drawings, to which Fabricius so constantly refers, and that for this reason its specific appellation may be implicitly upon by the scientific Entomologist.

This interesting Papilio is a native of Brazil.

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ORNITHOLOGY.

PLATE XXX.

PSITTACUS MELANOPTERUS
BLACK WINGED PARRAKEET.

ORDER
PICÆ.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Bill falcated; upper mandible moveable and in general covered with a cere: nostrils rounded, placed in the base of the bill: tongue fleshy, obtuse, entire: feet formed for climbing.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.

Pale green, back and wings black: secondary wing feathers yellow, at the tip blue: tail purple with a black band.

PSITTACUS MELANOPTERUS: pallide viridis, dorso alisque nigris, remigibus
secundariis luteis apice cæruleis, rectricibus purpureis fascia
nigra.—_Lath. Ind. Orn. T. 1. p. 132. n. 152._

PSITTACUS MELANOPTERUS: pallide viridis, dorso, tectricibus alarum,
caudæ fascia remigibusque primariis nigris, secundariis
flavescentibus cæruleo punctatis.—_Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1.
p. 350. n. 132._

Perruche aux ailes variées.—_Buff. Hist. Nat. des Ois. 6. p. 172._

Petite perruche de Batavia.—_Buff. Pl. enlum. n. 791. f. 1._

Petite perruche de l’isle de Luçon.—_Sonner. it. p. 78. t. 41._

BLACK WINGED PARRAKEET.—_Brown Illus. t. 3._

* * * * *

There are few beings of the feathered race more peculiarly distinguished for the splendid gaiety and rich variety of colours with which their plumage is adorned than the parrot race; for however they may differ in size from the magnitude of a kite or hawk, to that of the comparative diminutive thrush or sparrow, they are almost uniformly beautiful in this particular, and exhibit a diversity that is scarcely found in any other tribe. The species we have selected for our present representation is one of the smaller kinds of the family distinguished by the name of Parrakeets. Its total length is about six inches, its form robust or bulky in proportion.

The bill and legs of this bird are usually described as being dusky, in our specimen the bill is rather pale, tinged with brown and greenish, and the legs inclining to flesh colour. The general colour of the head and neck is green, and the same colour prevails on the breast, belly, and thighs. Upon the crown of the head the green assumes a blueish tint, and on the neck appears enlivened with yellowish, the disk of a number of the feathers being of a yellow colour, with the edges brown, so as to present a kind of scolloped appearance. The back and wing coverts are deep black, with a somewhat velvet aspect; the greater quill feathers black. But one of the characters by which it is distinguished chiefly is the remarkable band of yellow, and its contiguous parallel band of blue by which the wings are traversed. This conspicuous band is formed by the secondary quill feathers, which being of a fine yellow, with the ends a lively blue, appear like two distinct bands, and from their gaiety of colouring are admirably relieved by the deep sable hues of the wings and back. In the bird before us the black colour of the back extends nearly to the tail, the ends of the tail coverts only being green. The most singular contrast in the appearance of its plumage arises from the very different colour of the tail: this is of a pale carnation, glossed or changeable to a delicate violet. The tail, with the exception of the two middle feathers, is traversed near the tip with a single broad band of black; the two middle feathers are of the same pale carnation colour as the rest, but rather more inclined to blueish.

The black winged Parrot is described as a native of Batavia and Luzonia. Our specimen we are assured is from the Brazils. We have also very lately had an opportunity of consulting an extensive series of drawings, representing the principal Natural productions of Surinam, made by an Englishman resident upon the spot, for his own amusement, and among those drawings have met with one of the black winged Parrakeet. Upon this authority we have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be a native of Surinam; and indeed it seems to be so well known in that part of the world that it is distinguished among the inhabitants by a peculiar name, it is called by them _Ajàlàlero_.

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ENTOMOLOGY.

PLATE XXXI.

PAPILIO HIPPODAMIA
HIPPODAMIA’S BUTTERFLY.

LEPIDOPTERA.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob: wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.

**** P. HELICONII.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.

Wings oblong and entire; anterior pair black, with three hyaline bands: lower ones hyaline.

PAPILIO HIPPODAMIA: alis oblongis integerrimis: anticis nigris: fasciis
tribus hyalinis, posticis hyalinis. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p.
1. 165. 509._

_Jon. pict. n. 149._

* * * * *

The Papiliones of the _Heliconii_ tribe are named by Linnæus after the nymphs of the fabulous and mythological history of the ancient classics; an example that has been followed by Fabricius, and subsequently by other writers. Thus the present interesting insect is dedicated to commemorate among the votaries of science, the name of Hippodamia, a nymph feigned by the poets to be the daughter of Oenomaiis, and who according to the legends of classic lore, besides being much celebrated for her beauty, was distinguished for her swiftness in the race; and at length bestowed her fair hand in marriage upon Pelops, because in speed he excelled her.

This insect, which is of a moderate size, is of a light and elegant structure. The wings are black, but the transparent spots occupy so much space that the sable colouring does not appear predominant; it is less prevalent in the posterior than the anterior wings, and yet less upon the under surface than the upper. The form and disposition of these transparent spots with which the dark colour of this fly is variegated, are altogether characteristic, and deserve particular attention, because there are other insects of the same tribe which pretty nearly resemble it. From the middle of the anterior wing extends a transparent spot of a very elongated heart shaped form, having the point directed to the thorax, and a bar of black crossing it at the broader end, so as to give it the appearance of two distinct spots; and beyond this is another hyaline spot about the same size as the larger one of the two transparent spaces of which the first-mentioned spot consists. The posterior part of the wing is further marked with two bands of the same transparent texture as the others, each consisting of three distinct spots. The lower wings present a larger transparent space than the upper wings, the whole disk being hyaline with only the posterior limb or border opake, and of a black colour. The thorax and body is black.

The hyaline spots as seen on the under side are of the same size and form as they appear above, but the opake spaces instead of being uniformly black as on the upper surface, are agreeably diversified with rufous and geminous dots of white: these double white dots are situated on the black border at the tips of the wings, three on that of the anterior pair, and three on that of the posterior ones.

From the very close analogy that prevails between this and several other species of the same tribe, it would, no doubt, have been a matter of considerable difficulty at this time to determine the Fabrician species Papilio Hippodamia with precision, if we had not possessed the means of reference to the Fabrician manuscripts, and the drawings in which it is delineated; for it has remained to this period unfigured by any author. It will be observed that Fabricius does not refer for this species to the Collectanea of Mr. Jones, as in many other instances. The cause of this omission will admit of a very easy explanation; Fabricius had seen the insect in the first instance in the cabinet of M. Mauduit, at Paris, to which he has referred. But subsequently when in England he found a drawing of the insect in the collection of Mr. Jones, and inscribed the name and character of the species upon the drawing, as it afterwards appeared in his Entomologia Systematica; and it is upon this authority that we are enabled to speak with certainty upon a species which, but for this circumstance, would be now involved in ambiguity. The figures in our plate are copied from the drawings of Mr. Jones, inscribed with the hand-writing of Fabricius.

At the time Fabricius described this species its _habitat_ was unknown: we have lately met with it in a collection of Brasilian insects, and entertain no doubt of its having been brought with the rest from that part of the globe.

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CONCHOLOGY.

PLATE XXXII.

CYPRÆA AURORA
AURORA, MORNING-DAWN,
OR,
ORANGE COWRY.

* UNIVALVE.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Shell univalve, involute, subovate, smooth, obtuse at each end: aperture effuse at each end, linear, extending the whole length of the shell and denticulated each side.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.

Shell ovate ventricose, and somewhat globose, orange without spots: margin white: throat orange or sometimes rosy.

CYPRÆA AURORA: ovato-ventricosa, subglobosa, aurantiâ immaculatâ:
margine alba, fauce aurantia vel incarnata.

CYPRÆA AURANTIUM: testa subturbinata aurantia margine alba immaculata
fauce rutila. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. T. 1. p. 6. 3403. 121._

CYPRÆA AURORA: testa ovato-ventricosâ, turgidâ subglobosâ, aurantiâ,
immaculatâ; lateribus albis; fauce aurantiâ. _Lamarck T. 7. 382.
14._

* * * * *

Every Conchologist is aware of the existence of this superb shell: its magnitude is considerable, and its colour too conspicuously distinct from that of all other species of its genus to be passed over without immediate observation.

The Cypræa generally are a tribe of shells peculiarly striking: the most common species possess an elegance of fervid colouring and politure that never fail to recommend them to attention. But a few years only have passed away, since the mantle decorations of the fire place in the apartments of fashion, besides images and jars of china porcellain, consisted of shells, among which the various kinds of Cowries were not esteemed the least ornamental. And they are sometimes still seen in such situations; while the grotesque statuary, the josses, and the dragons, of China and Japan, in conformity with a better taste, have wholly disappeared.

The shells of the Cypræa, genus which are most familiar to the generality of observers, are the spotted Cowries, and some others of usual occurrence. There are others which from their rarity are less extensively known, and among the number we may truly rank the species which we have now before us, the Orange Cowry, or as it is sometimes called, the “Morning Dawn.” The beauty of this shell, as well as scarcity, has established its celebrity; the species is well known, but few collections, excepting those of the more costly kind, possess the shell. Its magnitude is considerable, for its size is nothing inferior to that of the Spotted Cowry, which ranks in this respect the chief species of its family, while the distinction of its colour from that of all other shells of the Cypræa tribe at once attracts particular attention.

The colour of the back in this species is of a very fine orange, simple, and unadorned with any marks or spots whatever. The tint of orange varies in different shells from pale to darker, but whatever may be its deviations in this respect, the tint of colour is constantly deepest upon the back, and the transition as constantly becoming gradually paler or more diluted as the colour descends upon the sides towards the margin. This margin is rounded, projecting, and of a pure white, except at the throat, as it is termed, where a tint of red or reddish prevails to a small extent. The under surface of the shell is white, except at the sides where the orange colour of the back descends, spreads, and fades away into the white. The aperture of the shell is a longitudinal opening down the middle as usual in the other kinds of Cowry; the surrounding region of the shell is a pure white, but the edges of the opening, both which are beset with numerous linear teeth, are of a fine orange.

For the discovery of this extremely beautiful shell, like many other acquisitions of importance in the cabinet of the Conchologist, we stand indebted to the assiduities of that eminent Naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, and those who accompanied him in the celebrated voyage of Captain Cook round the world. They observed it among the ornaments with which the natives of Otaheite had decorated their dresses, which were composed of feathers, and the barks of trees. To these garments they were attached by means of a string passing through a hole perforated for the purpose on one side of the shell. The natives were not so easily induced to part with these shells as the other decorations of their clothing, appreciating them at a much higher value. Our navigators were at first led to imagine these shells to be inhabitants of the seas surrounding Otaheite, in which particular they were at length undeceived by the natives who informed them to the contrary: they said the shells were found near an island at a great distance from Otaheite, and from the direction of the spot toward which they pointed, it was conjectured they meant the Fegee or Fidgi Islands, which are inhabited by the most ferocious cannibals throughout those seas.[24] Our navigators were therefore able only to procure such specimens as were attached to the dresses of the natives, and these being almost constantly perforated for the better convenience of fastening them on safely, at once explains the reason of the Orange Cowry being so rarely met with undisfigured by such perforation.

The mention of this circumstance, which at this distant period can be little known, is moreover of some importance, because as the shells were really brought from Otaheite, it has been generally supposed to be a native of that island, and has even sometimes been called the Otaheitan Cowry. Gmelin, who records this shell under the name of Cypræa Aurantium, speaks of it as a native of the Friendly Isles, “habitat ad insulas amicas,” resting his authority, we apprehend, upon the Conchology of Martyn, and which though published shortly after the return of Captain Cook, could not be so well informed upon the subject as the venerable friend who assured us it is neither a native of Otaheite, nor the Friendly Islands. Lamarck has subsequently observed that the species inhabits the seas of the Friendly Islands as well as those of Otaheite, and also of New Zealand. Upon what authority the _localities_ have been increased to this extent is not stated. We have understood from very good authority that researches have been made repeatedly of late years by our navigators to discover the shells in those seas, and without effect; and this fact appears to be confirmed from the increasing value and importance attached to the species. We are indeed not entirely certain that any of these shells have ever been procured, except as before observed from among the natives of Otaheite, and the value of the shell has progressively advanced in consequence from four, or five, to ten pounds. A specimen in the collection of Mrs. Angus sold about three years ago in London for twenty guineas; thirty guineas have been in vain offered for another specimen within the last two or three years, and a collector at this period in London is in possession of another which it is understood cost him very lately fifty guineas. These circumstances, if we mistake not, conspire to prove, that the Orange Cowry is a far more local species than might be inferred from the observation of Lamarck.

Besides the name of Otaheitan Cowry, this shell has been also called the “Orange Cowry,” and the “Morning Dawn,” in reference to the latin “Cypræa Aurantium,” and “Aurora,” by both which it had been at different times distinguished. That of Aurantium alludes only to the prevailing orange colour of the shell, and has been given to it by Gmelin after Martyn. There is something more poetically elegant, and perhaps no less appropriate in the trivial name Aurora, which Lamarck adopts: we may in truth compare its beauteous fulvous hues fading into white with inexpressive softness, to the warm glowing tints and fainter blushes of an opening morning sky in summer. We have also adopted this name as well as Lamarck, for its peculiar elegance, in preference to that of Aurantium.

The origin of the epithet “Aurora,” bestowed upon this shell has probably long since been forgotten; it arose from one of those fugitive events not likely to be recorded excepting only in the recollection of collectors; and those in whose immediate knowledge the circumstance occurred have long since passed this transitory scene and are perhaps ere this themselves forgotten. The relation though in some respects trivial, may afford amusement to the amateur: it serves to shew the origin of its name “Aurora” at the same time that it presents a striking illustration of that ardent zeal with which the science of Conchology was cultivated in this country nearly half a century ago; its authenticity may be relied upon. The circumstance as related to us by an old collector some years ago was briefly this; a specimen of the shell had very shortly after the return of the discovery ships been presented by one of the officers to a lady, which coming to the knowledge of a most zealous collector of that period, he solicited the indulgence of seeing it; and waited upon the lady for the purpose, upon an intimation that the favour would be readily granted. Madam, said the enraptured visitor, gazing in admiration upon the Cowry, which he now beheld for the first time, has this shell a price? will twenty guineas purchase this lovely gem? it will not answered the lady. Allow me then said its enthusiastic admirer to clasp it for a moment in my hands, and bending on one knee, at the same time pressing the shell to his lips, pronounced with an emphasis of poetic fervour, “thus do I salute the ‘Morning Dawn’ of the new discovered world!” Let poets reverence Venus the beauty of the Grecian seas: my idol is “Aurora,” this sea-born nymph of surpassing beauty, that rose upon the waves of the Southern deep!

Tu quoque cum Dea sis, Divâ formosior illâ
Concha per æquoreum quam vasa ducit iter.[25]

_Sec. 6. Basium._

Abating somewhat of the romantic warmth with which the ideas of the venerable collector alluded to was expressed, it must be admitted that in point of beautiful simplicity this shell has never been surpassed by any subsequent discoveries in the southern hemisphere; and it is no less singular than certain that the price of twenty guineas, which that collector named upon an imaginary valuation, has become the average standard value of a fine shell of this kind for some years past. At present they are more highly prized, because it is now pretty clearly ascertained that they are no longer to be procured among the natives of Otaheite; and for this reason it is much more likely they will reach a still higher price than that the value of them should diminish. The shell we have represented is to be considered as a very fine specimen in respect to size as well as colour.

-----

Footnote 24:

We learn from Labillardière, one of the Naturalists attached to the
expedition of Admiral Bruni d’Entrecasteaux, who went in search of La
Perouse in 1791, 1792, 1793, that this report is true. When the French
ships _Recherche_ and _Espérance_ touched at Tongataboo, there
happened to be peace between them and Fidgi, and as usual when they
are not at war, a considerable commerce was at that time carried on
between them. This brought Vouacecee, one of the chiefs of Fidgi, to
Tongataboo soon after the French had cast anchor, and as he paid them
frequently a visit, they were able to collect from him some useful
information. Vouacecee represented Fidgi to be very high land, of
great fertility and lying distant in the north west direction about
seventy-two _myriametres_. The myriametre reduced to our standard is
six miles, one furlong, one hundred and fifty-six yards, and six
inches, giving in total value about one hundred and forty-nine
leagues, or four hundred and forty-seven miles. In the most favourable
weather with the large double canoe the voyage to Fidgi from thence
could not be less than three days, and when they had to struggle
against the south winds they must ply to windward upwards of a month.
The people of Tongataboo told them the people of Fidgi were cannibals:
Vouacecee strove to exculpate himself by answering that it was only
the _touas_, or people of the lowest class, who eat human flesh. But
the assurances of the natives of Tongataboo were fully confirmed in
other quarters, and Labillardière who observes they devour their
enemies to satiate their fury, is entirely satisfied the chiefs as
well as touas are _Anthrophagi_. These people, notwithstanding this
atrocity, are represented as being far more advanced in arts and
industry than the people of other islands, who receive from them in
time of peace many articles of ingenious workmanship and produce of
their island, and it is, no doubt, by this means that the _Orange
Cowry_ has been introduced among the natives of Otaheite and other
islands in those seas.

Besides its being satisfactory to ascertain beyond any doubt the
habitat of the Orange Cowry, the Conchologist is assured that other
shells of the most choice and valuable kinds inhabit the seas of this
island, for which reason it is presumed the above information may not
prove altogether unimportant.

Footnote 25:

We should not omit to mention that this shell was called _Aurora_ by
Dr. Solander about the same time, _Vide_ his MS. Whether he was
indebted to this circumstance for the hint of so naming it, or on the
contrary that the gentleman was aware of the name which Dr. Solander
intended for it, is now beyond our means of ascertaining. It is more
obvious that Chemnitz, and after him Lamarck, have received the name
Aurora from one or both of these sources, although the anecdote may be
itself forgotten.

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ORNITHOLOGY.

PLATE XXXIII.

PSITTACUS MACULATUS
SPOTTED BREASTED PARRAKEET.

PICÆ.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Bill falcated; upper mandible moveable and in general covered with a cere: nostrils rounded, placed in the base of the bill: tongue fleshy, obtuse, entire: feet formed for climbing.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Green: crown, hind, head and nape black: temples cinereous: throat, neck, and breast fuscous with the margins of the feather sulphureous: shoulder scarlet: rump and middle of the abdomen sanguineous.

PSITTACUS MACULATUS: viridis: vertice, occipite, nuchaque nigris:
temporibus cinereis: gula, collo, pectoreque fuscis marginibus
pennarum sulphureis: humeris coccineis: uropygio abdomineque
medio sanguineis.

* * * * *

A very rare species of the Parrakeet tribe, and which is presumed to be a native of South America.

The length of this bird is nine inches and a half; the bill and legs blackish. The prevailing colour of the plumage green, front and crown of the head blueish green, the rest of the head and neck black: the feathers upon the face glossed with blue: a large ovate cinereous spot on the cheeks: throat and breast black varied with pale yellowish scollops, the margin of the feathers being a pale sulphureous yellow, the disk black: the black disk usually forming a kind of triangular spot with the point tending downwards. The wings are green, except the quill feathers, which are blue, and the butt of the wing or shoulder the colour of which is scarlet. The body beneath green with a large spot of sanguineous-purple on the abdomen. The lower part of the back and rump the same sanguineous purple colour as the abdominal spot: tail above green, the feathers purplish towards the end; beneath rufous brown.

This curious bird is nearly allied to _Psittacus Squammosus_, the _Scaly Breasted Parrakeet_, and in no very remote degree with another kind of Parrakeet, the _Wavy Breasted Parrot_, _Psittacus Lineatus_. The first of these our bird exceeds by at least an inch in length, the other by an inch and a quarter. Instead of the dark colours of the head, as in our bird, the head and neck of P. Squammosus are dull orange. The darker colouring of our bird assimilates more nearly with _Psittacus Lineatus_, but in other respects is entirely different. We have considered it as a new species, at the same time that it must be observed from the very close analogy that prevails between this bird and the Scaly Breasted Parrakeet, it may possibly prove hereafter to be the adult bird of that kind rather than a distinct species.

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CONCHOLOGY.

PLATE XXXIV.

TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA
SANGUINEOUS LAMP-ANOMIA,
TEREBRATULA,
OR,
LAMP COCKLE.

BIVALVE.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Shell inequivalve regular, somewhat triagonal: upper valve imperforate, lower valve beaked above the hinge, the beak usually incurvate, perforated at the tip, or grooved, for the passage of a short tendinous pedicle, by means of which it adheres to other bodies: Hinge with two teeth, and furnished with two osseous elevated and furcated processes arising from the disk of the upper or smaller valve, destined to support the animal.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.

Shell red, ventricose, suborbicular, longitudinally ribbed: upper valve depressed in the middle; the lower with the back elevated.

TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA: testa rubrâ ventricosa, suborbiculata,
longitudinaliter costata: valva superiore in medio excavato:
inferiore dorso elevato, apice incurvato perforato.

ANOMIA SANGUINEA. Obovata longitudinaliter sulcata, triloba; sinu
profundo, nate producta latere angulata foramen ambiente.
_Solanders MSS.—Hab. in O. Pacifico. G. R. Forster._

ANOMIA SANGUINEA. _Portland Catalogue._

ANOMIA SANGUINEA. _Leverian Cat. sec. part. p. 15._

ANOMIA SANGUINEA. _Dillwyn’s Conch. 1. 293. 21._

TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA. _Leach. Zool. Misc. t. 76._

TEREBRATULA SANGUINEA. _Lamarck Anim. sans. Vert. T. 6. p. 1. p. 243._

Lampas Sanguineus, La Sanguinolente (Anomia Sanguinea S.) _Calonne Cat.
Humph. MS._

* * * * *

This is one among the number of those very choice accessions to the Conchological knowledge of the last century, that was derived from the scientific labours of our first circumnavigators in the Southern Ocean: it occurred to them upon the coast of New Zealand, not in any abundance, but so far plentifully that after the Banksian Cabinet was supplied there were several specimens to spare for distribution among the friends of Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, and Captain Cook. From this little store the species passed in the first instance into several collections, and among others into that of the late Duchess of Portland, Dr. Chauncey, Mr. Cracherode, Mr. G. Humphrey, and some others. It has since occurred, but not in any abundance to later voyagers in those seas. And it is reputed also to have been met with in the Straits of Magellan.

The specimen of this rare shell which we have delineated, and which always was considered as one of the largest of its species known, once constituted part of the Testaceological collection of Sir Ashton Lever, having been presented to that eminent collector by Captain Cook, at the time of his return to England after his first voyage. There is a small hole pierced through the upper valve of this shell, and which, in the absence of all other information, induces the persuasion of its having been originally suspended like several other shells we have already mentioned, as an ornament or appendage to the dress of some New Zealander; the aperture being so designed that the two valves could easily have been kept together by means of a string passing through this hole of the upper valve, and the opening in the beak of the lower one. The animal inhabitant is probably eaten by the New Zealanders, who besides being cannibals, subsist chiefly upon the marine productions of their shores, which their wives and female children obtain daily for them by swimming and diving into the sea. There is a rare species found in the Mediterranean Sea, Anomia Vitrea of Gmelin, which nearly approaches this species in point of size, and is eagerly sought after, we are told, by the people of those parts as a delicious food. We should, however, imagine from its scarcity, that it is only at the tables of the rich that this luxurious repast appears.

In adopting the genus Terebratula for the shell before us, some explanation may be expected for our departure from the Linnæan classification, for in the system of that author it is one of the Anomia Tribe, the term and character of Terebratula not being recognised by that author as generically distinct from the Anomia. Our reasons for this deviation shall be explained as briefly as it is possible: from the nature of those remarks, and the extent of enquiry with which it is connected, this cannot however be comprised within very slender limits.

In the Linnæan arrangement, the Anomia form a very comprehensive genus, and since in particular the fossil species are included it should certainly have been divided into several distinct sections or families in order to embrace the different tribes of those shells, which according to the character Linnæus has given of the genus must necessarily be referred to it. It is impossible without some modification of this kind to reconcile _Anomia Ephippium and Cepa_, with _Anomia Caput Serpentinus_ or _Terebratula_, or either of them with _A. Placenta_; and there are besides these some other families which do not well accord, and which might perhaps be separated into distinct genera with great advantage, the fossil kinds especially, which are very numerous and much diversified in structure. It cannot be very material whether they be so divided into genera or be placed in different families under the general appellation of Anomiæ: they are obviously very dissimilar and should be kept apart, and we have examples of both these modes of classing the Anomiæ among the early Naturalists.

A late french writer, M. Bosc, speaking of this tribe of shells, observes, that Linnæus having confounded the _Terebratules_ with the _Anomies_, Bruguière first established their differences, and Lamarck had fixed their characters. This observation is not sufficiently explicit, and may possibly imply more than the author of it has intended. It assumes as a conclusion that Linnæus committed an error in confounding these two genera, without informing us in what state of arrangement Linnæus found them. It may be inferred from this that they had been more accurately discriminated before his time, or on the contrary, that they never had been classed in any form, and that it was the want of knowledge in Linnæus which led him to confound shells together that were generically distinct. But whichever we are to understand, the conclusion is, that Linnæus had confounded them, and that it remained for Bruguière and Lamarck to reform those errors of Linnæus, which all later Naturalists had left uncorrected, if not unobserved. Now really this view of the subject is not fairly taken if such an inference be intended. The result of a very little enquiry among the authors who preceded Linnæus, or were immediately subsequent to him, will assure us of the truth of this; and will convince us beyond a doubt, that the discrimination of neither of those authors was necessary either to furnish the Naturalists of the present day with the term Terebratula; to determine the differences that exist between them and the Anomiæ, or to fix the characters by which the Terebratulæ are distinguished.

The Anomia genus, instead of being devised by Linnæus, or Terebratula in particular, owing its invention to any modern writer, have been both so long established that the greatest difficulty is to determine where in the retrospect of authors our enquiries are to cease. Without proceeding further back than the last two centuries, it may be observed that _Fabius Columna_ in his work “De Purpura,” published at Rome in the year 1616, speaks of the Anomiæ; he calls them _Conchæ rariores Anomiæ_, and from that period at least the term Anomia has been received among Naturalists. Nor is the term Terebratula of much later origin. Da Costa in his Elements of Conchology informs us that from the time of Fabius Columna the word Anomia had become universal, that is as a general denomination for all the shells which Linnæus subsequently placed together under that name. The term Terebratula was given, says this writer, by Gualtieri; in plate 96 of his work, Gualtieri figures three recent kinds, and has made a particular genus for them, which he calls Terebratula. And it is further added in another place “the Anomiæ are bivalves with unequal valves, and never eared, the beak of the largest or under valve is greatly produced, and rises or curves over the beak of the smaller or upper valve, and is perforated or pierced through like a tube, from which particular they have also obtained the name of _Terebratulæ_.”

These remarks sufficiently establish the circumstance of the term Anomia, being a comprehensive title for all the shells which Linnæus subsequently placed together under that name, and also shews that we are not indebted to either Bruguière or Lamarck for discriminating the Terebratulæ. We can ever go further back in this particular than Da Costa has done, for that able author is mistaken in supposing Gualtieri to be the first writer who had proposed the genus Terebratula. Gualtieri published his work in the year 1724, and we happen to possess among other valuable MSS. of the celebrated Antiquarian, Hearne, the original copy of Lluid’s Lithophylacia Britannica, as corrected for the press, dated Montgomery, 1698, in which the genus Terebratula is distinctly named: and this, as it appears from the date, was more than fifty years before the time of Gualtieri; and we have also the authority of our english Lister in 1694 for the like distinction. All these writers, it will be observed, preceded Klein, who has in a particular manner described the genus Terebratula in his Methodus Ostraceologia, published in 1753, but in which he does not speak of himself as having invented that term. “TEREBRATULAS, _Luidiano_ titulo, vocamus DIACONCHAS anomalas, rostro parterebrato, vid. _Nomencl. Litholog. Promotum_ hoc titulo.” His genus _Concha_ ΤΡΊΛΟΒΟΣ, genus _Concha_ ADUNCA, genus BURSULA, and genus GLOBUS, are all sub-divisions of the _Anomiæ Conchæ_ of other writers, divided according to their forms and other peculiarities, and in which particular attention is paid to the perforation or non-perforation of the beak; Trilobos being distinguished as “_vertice integro_,” Bursula as _Terebratulæformes_ rostro non perforato, &c. And we may lastly mention that from some original MSS. of Da Costa, in our possession, it appears that Anomia was a general term for the whole family, and _Terebratula Anomiæ lævis_ was the term by which the English and other Naturalists, long prior to the middle of last century, were accustomed to distinguish the same kind of shells which in the modern nomenclature of Conchology is also named generically Terebratula. Da Costa, as Librarian of the Royal Society, was in the habit of correspondence with the learned men of his time throughout Europe, and his local knowledge from this circumstance, though never committed to the press, is not likely to be disputed.

We could proceed yet further, but enough has surely been advanced to shew that so far from Linnæus having confounded the Terebratula with the Anomia, he left them precisely as he found them, placing them after the example of his predecessors, under the comprehensive term of Anomia, which they had assigned to them. And we have also said enough to prove that to ascribe the Genus Terebratula to either Bruguière or Lamarck can result only from our ignorance of that information which in former days was regarded as the best criterion of an able Naturalist, a correct knowledge of the labours of his predecessors.

Under all its circumstances it may be a matter of some indifference to the scientific Naturalist whether in the arrangement of the Anomiæ we follow the concise method of the old writers and Linnæus among the number, or the diffuse distribution of later writers. If we place them in different families according to their characters, whether regarded as sectional distinctions of Anomia, or as distinct genera, we shall at least produce some consistency in the arrangement. But there is yet another mode of arrangement which appears to be the favourite theme with some Conchologists of the present day, and which it may be proper in this place to mention, namely, the classification of shells according to their animals. This has been attempted in the work of Cuvier, his “Règne Animal,” and the result of this endeavour, so far as it relates to the Anomia in particular, may in this place deserve our explicit observation. In this work (_Règne Animal_) Cuvier endeavouring to class the Anomiæ according to the animals known to inhabit them, as well as those which he imagines for the fossil tribes, so disperses them, that the Trochi, Turbines, Nautili, Volutæ, and indeed nearly the whole of the _Univalves_ intervene between his two first genera of these _bivalves_, Hyalæa and Anomia; and the Anomia tridentata of Forskahl, which is the Hyalæa of this author, is placed with Clio (the shell of which is our _Bulla Aperta_[26]) among the _Ptéropodes_. After the long interval occasioned by this introduction of the Univalves we find Anomia,[26] and Placuna, two of his genera together, but with another tribe of beings, the animal inhabitants being of his class _Acéphales_; and after another wide interval in which the bivalve Mya,[26] the multivalve Pholas,[26] the univalve Teredo,[26] and the naked or shell-less Ascidia, occur we find in a distant class among another tribe of animals, _Mollusques Brachopodes_, the genus _Terebratula_. It is here ascribed to Bruguière, as in other works it is assigned to Lamarck. Such is the arrangement of this family in the _Règne Animal_ of Cuvier, a form in which no cabinet, it must be acknowledged, could be arranged without embracing the most unprecedented anomalies; nor can we doubt that if the animals of the fossil Terebratulæ and Anomiæ were known, for in this arrangement they rest on presumption only, they must be further separated in such a system than they are at present, some being perforated at the beaks, others imperforate, and some having the aperture under the beaks, all which demonstrates a difference in the structure of the animal, to whose use they were adapted.

From this analysis of the generical distinctions of the different families of the Anomiæ we may now be permitted to return to the shell before us, the object of our more immediate consideration, and respecting which there appears to be no less misconception among late later writers than we have found already respecting the genera.

It appears that Dr. Leach had some short time since published a figure of this shell: his definition is altogether brief, and the information he affords less explanatory than might be desired: he quotes no authority or synonyms, and in his general description merely observes that “It seems to be a very rare species, a few specimens only having been received from New Zealand.” _Vide. Zool. Misc. p. 76._ Lamarck assuming from these observations, as it may be presumed, that the shell had not been previously noticed, unless it were an Anomia Capensis of Gmelin, proposes it as a new species under the name of Terebratula Sanguinea of Leach, at the same time that he rejects his specific character, and assigns another to the species; the character given to it as a new species by Dr. Leach is “_Testa sanguinea, subtillissime et creberrime impresso-punctata, longitudinaliter costata, costis simplicibus; antica uniundulata_;” that of Lamarck, “_Testâ oblongâ, irregulari, rubrá, creberrimé impresso punctata; striis transversis undulatîs; margine denticulato_,” to which is added, “_Habite—les mers de la Nouvelle Zélande d’après M. Leach_.” This seems to shew that the shell was only known to Lamarck, through the communication of the last-mentioned writer; and the suggestion is the more probable since the specimen in the British Museum has the same interrogation as to being the Anomia Capensis of Chemnitz, that is annexed by Lamarck to his description of the species. “Je crois qu’on doit donner comme synonyme l’Anomia capensis Gmel., d’après la citation de Chemniz; mais l’individu que j’avais sous les yeux, n’est pas assez entier pour affirmer ce rapprochement.”

There is obviously some want of farther explanation in these details, the omission of which may possibly be supplied by tracing the history of this interesting shell from the time in which it first appeared in this country; for there are local circumstances connected with it which having escaped the mention of Dr. Leach, and consequently of Lamarck, have led to the erroneous conclusion that it had remained till very lately undescribed. Dr. Leach was probably not aware, or through some oversight omits to notice that the specific name which he has given to this shell was that assigned to it many years ago by Dr. Solander, and that it has uniformly borne the name of _Anomia sanguinea_, or (_Terebratula sanguinea_) among all the English Naturalists in consequence from the time of that learned friend and companion of Sir Joseph Banks down to the present period: It is the Anomia sanguinea of Dr. Solanders MSS. and was designated under that name in the Museum of the Dutchess of Portland: it appeared under the same appellation in the catalogue of that museum, published in 1786: in the Calonnian Museum and Catalogue, printed in the year 1795; it stood under that name also in the Museum of Sir Ashton Lever, and it appeared under the same denomination in the sale catalogue of that museum, published in the year 1806. Under all these circumstances it may be presumed the name must have obtained no small publicity, and we need scarcely add that the example of these authorities were followed in the Cabinets of english collectors generally, that happened to be in possession of the shell, among which was that of Mr. Cracherode, which was subsequently deposited in the British Museum. And lastly, it should be mentioned that it occurs under the same name in the Testaceological Manual of Mr. Dillwyn. Nothing therefore can be more certain than that the french writers are not correct in their opinion when they imagine that the shell had been so named in the first instance by Dr. Leach; and it is no less certain that the credit of having first noticed the species is due to Dr. Solander, he described it more than forty years ago: his words as they stand in his manuscripts are, “ANOMIA SANGUINEA _obovato, longitudinaliter sulcata, triloba; sinu profundo nate producta latere angulata foramen ambiente_.” Mr. Dillwyn has well expressed the character of this shell in his description of Anomia Sanguinea, but has by some oversight misquoted this passage of Dr. Solander’s manuscripts; and by that means has confounded the _Anomia Sanguinea_ of Dr. Solander, with his Anomia Cruenta; this will be more fully shewn hereafter.

Upon this subject we have only lastly to observe that although Lamarck has deemed it requisite to give a specific character of this shell dissimilar from that of Dr. Leach, he omits to mention, as well as the former, that very conspicuous character of the species, the deep longitudinal hollow down the middle of the upper valve, and the dorsal elevation of the lower one. Lamarck, indeed, confesses that the individual which he had under his eyes, and consequently that which he describes, is not sufficiently perfect to authorize him in determining the analogy between that shell and the Anomia Capensis of Gmelin, which Chemnitz has figured; a circumstance that may explain the cause of this omission in the specific character of Terebratula sanguinea. Yet we should have thought a shell sufficiently entire to have enabled this ingenious Naturalist to have composed his character of the species, would have been so far perfect as to have justified some conclusion upon its analogy with the Gmelinian Anomia Capensis. We may confidently add that these two shells are totally distinct species, and are even generically different if we enter very scrupulously upon their distinctive characters. Dr. Solander had described this latter shell before the time of Gmelin under the name of Anomia Cruenta.

The representations of this choice testaceous production, which accompanies our present description, will, it is presumed, convey a more correct idea of the shell than can be expressed by words. The Leverian specimen from which, as before observed, these figures are taken, realized at the public hammer at the Leverian sale the sum of five guineas,[27] and it still remains so rare that there would probably be little, if any, dimunition in the price were it again to be disposed of in the same manner at the present period. The shells of this kind vary in some small degree in the intensity of colour from a very deep sanguineous red to a paler hue.

-----

Footnote 26:

Many of these are found on our own coasts. _Vide Donovan’s British
Shells_, in which the figures and descriptions of a number of the
species of these genera occur.

Footnote 27:

Last Day’s Sale, lot 74, £5 5s.

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]

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ENTOMOLOGY.

PLATE XXXV.

PAPILIO BELLADONNA
BELLADONNA’S BUTTERFLY.

LEPIDOPTERA.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob: wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.

**** HELICONII.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.

Wings oblong entire, black with somewhat hyaline spots: posterior pair with a yellow spot at the base, and two at the anal angle.

PAPILIO BELLADONNA: alis oblongis integerrimis atris sub-hyalino
maculatis: posticis macula baseos anguloque ani maculis duobus
flavis.

PAPILIO BELLADONNA: alis oblongis integerrimis atris: anticis hyalino
punctatis, posticis flavo maculatis. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p.
1. p. 180._

Papilio Belladonna. _Jon. fig. pict. 3. tab. 37. fig. 2._

Statura P. Pasithoe at major. Corpus nigrum abdominis marginibus cinereis. Alæ atræ, cinereo punctatæ. Subtus concolores at lineola maculaque baseos albis. Posticæ atræ, flavo maculatæ macula baseos angulique ani majoribus. Subtus fere concolores.

* * * * *

A figure of this very rare and probably unique insect cannot fail, it is presumed, of proving an acceptable addition to the collectanea of the Entomologist: it is the only representation of the species now extant, and has been ascertained upon the authority of the only document we now possess of the insect intended in the Fabrician writings under the appellation of _Papilio Hel. Belladonna_.

Fabricius, as it appears from his references in his Entomologia Systematica, met with the drawings of this species in the collection of Mr. Jones, whose cabinet also possessed the original specimen from which the drawing was taken. It is from this individual example in the cabinet of Mr. Jones that the delineation in the annexed plate is copied.

This curious Papilio is one of the larger species of the Heliconi tribe to which it appertains. The wings are a blueish black, and rather closely studded with sub-hyaline or transparent spots, which are minutely speckled with black: those on the anterior wings are somewhat sagittate and disposed into two irregular bands towards the exterior half of the wings: those on the posterior wings are rather larger and more inclining to an ovate form; and three of the largest, namely, one at the base, and two at the anal angle, are of a bright yellow colour. The inner limb of the wing is grey inclining to yellowish. The head and thorax are black; the abdomen black with the sides pale yellow. The spots being semitransparent the appearance on the underside in a great degree corresponds with that above: there is a small difference, because instead of one yellowish spot at the base of the posterior wing, there are two, another smaller than that which appears at the base of that wing on the upper surface being situated below it. We have been more minute in the description of these spots, because upon an attentive comparison of the insect in Mr. Jones’s Cabinet, with the Fabrician description, we perceive some small deficiency in the latter, a circumstance, it must be confessed, of rare occurrence in this author, but unquestionably worthy of our notice and correction, as it is the only authority upon which the species must in future rest.

The country of this interesting insect is unknown; it is remotely conjectured only that it may be Africa. The insect is represented with its wings expanded upon a sprig of

ERICA PARMENTARIA,

an elegant vegetable production of the Cape of Good Hope.

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]

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CONCHOLOGY.

PLATE XXXVI.

NERITA POLITA. _Var._
PINK-BANDED VARIETY
OF THE
THICK POLISHED NERIT.

UNIVALVE.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Animal a Limax. _Linn._[28] Shell univalve, spiral, gibbous, flattish at the bottom: aperture semi-orbicular and semi-lunar, pillar lip transversely truncated.

*** Perforated with the lips denticulated.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.

Shell thick, glabrous, variously coloured, crown obliterated: lip toothed each side.

* Var. Variegated with white, red, and black.

NERITA POLITA: testa crossâ, glabrâ, colore variâ vertice obliterato,
labio utroque dentato.

* Ex albo rubro nigroque variegata.

NERITA POLITA: testa lævi: vertice obliterato, labio utroque dentato.
_Linn. Mus. Lud. Ulr. 678. n. 392._

_Linn. Syst. Nat. edit. 12. 2. 1254. 731._

_Gmel. Linn. Syst. 6. 3680. 43._

NERITA POLITA. _Chemn. 5. t. 193. f. 200. 2014._

_Rumpf. Mus. t. 22. fig. 1. k._

_Argenv. Conch. t. 7. f. k._

_Seba Mus. 3. t. 38. f. 56._

_Lamarck T. 6. p. 2. 192. 7._

* * * * *