Chapter I: Preface

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In closing our second series of ZOOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATIONS, we cannot but express gratification at the terms in which they have been alluded to at home and abroad. It is hardly necessary to state that the scientific interest of the subjects described, and the attention bestowed upon the plates, have progressively increased, as the work has approached its termination. The contents of this series may now be divided into three equal portions, so that the BIRDS, the INSECTS, and the SHELLS, will form distinct and uniform volumes, unconnected, except in the general title, with each other.

As complete sets of the first series have now become very scarce, new editions of the deficient parts are in rapid progress; and the whole will then be divided, as above, into three portions.

It is but justice to Mr. G. Bayfield,[1] that the author should here express his satisfaction at the skill and care with which he has executed the colouring of the plates, both of this work, and of every other in which his services have been engaged.

In answer to several correspondents who have requested to know what book we can recommend, as giving a general and popular introduction to the _natural_ arrangement of animals, we are obliged to confess that amid countless volumes of anecdotes, compilations, and methods, no such work has ever been undertaken. With the intention of supplying this deficiency, we have devoted the greatest portion of the last five years to an Encyclopedia of Zoology; wherein the science will be placed under a new and striking light; no less instructive to the general reader, than interesting to the learned. In another year, we trust this work will be before the public. To _that_ volume we must consequently refer the readers of _this_, whenever they wish to understand the full scope and influence of those novelties in natural arrangment, which are but slightly glanced at in the following descriptions.

As more than usual care is necessary in the binding of these volumes, it may be as well to mention that we have particularly instructed Mr. Betts, of Compton Street, Brunswick Square, on this subject.

_Tittenhanger Green,
4th March, 1833._

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_Swainson's Green-lory._]

TRICHOGLOSSUS Swainsoni.

_Swainson's, or Blue-bellied Lory._

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Family Psittacidæ. Sub-family Psittacinæ. Genus Lorius. _Swains_.

SUB-GENERIC CHARACTER.

_Bill_ obsoletely notched; _Tail_ lengthened, cuneated, narrowed from the
base, the two middle tail feathers conspicuously longest, _Nob._

_Type_ Lorius. (Trichoglossus.) Swainsoni. J. and S.

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Green: head, middle of the body and bands on the sides, azure-blue;
throat, breast, and flanks, orange-crimson._

Trichoglossus Swainsoni. _Jardine and Selby. Ill. of Orn. pl. iii._

Blue bellied Parrakeet. _Brown's Ill. pl. 7, White's Voyage, pl. 4. p.
140._

Le Perruche à tête bleue, male. _Le Vaill. Perr. 1. pl. 24. fig.
pulcherima._

Perruche des Moluques. _Buffon, Pl. Enl. No. 743?_

_Trichoglossus hæmatodus. Lin. Tr. 15. p. 289. omitting Syn._

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Large flocks of these resplendent Lorys enliven the woods of New Holland, clinging to the Eucalypti trees, and sucking the honey from the blossoms by their brush-shaped tongue. Mr. Caley, whose notes we now follow, says it a bird remarkable for docility and attachment to some people, although a perfect scold to others. When young they are caught by the natives, but from the loss of their favourite food seldom survive in confinement. An individual, kept by Mr. Caley, on being shewn the coloured drawing of a native plant, tried to suck the flowers, and it even made the same attempt with a piece of cotton furniture. Its scientific history we have already given elsewhere.

We have received more than usual pleasure at seeing our name affixed to this charming bird, and in clearing up its history. (_Ill. of Orn. vol. 3. p. iii._) As a child we well remember our unwearied delight at seeing its figure in _White's Voyage_. As a collector we have preserved a series of nearly twenty specimens, and as a naturalist our name is no longer excluded from the Ornithological Nomenclature of New Holland. It is indeed somewhat curious, that while we were giving information to one of the writers in the _Lin. Trans_. upon the subjects of his paper, he should have studiously witheld from us the only public acknowledgement, for such assistance, it was in his power to make.

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PROTESILAUS Leilus,

_Protesilaus Butterfly_.

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Genus Amphrisius, _Sw._ Sub-genus Protesilaus, _Sw._

SUB-GENERIC CHARACTERS.

Wings trigonal, acute, yellow with black transverse bands; the inferior
lengthened, narrowed, with two long acute tails; antennæ short, the club
thick, slightly compressed, but solid, and convex all round; front very
hairy; _Larva_ covered with sharp spines. _Pupa_ braced, but suspended
downwards.

Type, Pap. Protesilaus. AUCT.

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SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Wings straw-colour; the superior with four, short, black, costal bands
towards the base, and two towards the exterior margin; the latter uniting
at the posterior angle._

Pap. Protesilaus. _Lin. Fab. Ent. Sys. 3. pl. p. 23. Ency. Meth. p. 50.
Merian Sur. pl. 43. Cramer, pl. 202. f. a. b._

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From the resemblance which this insect bears to the rare British species, named by collectors the scarce Swallow-tail, (_Papilio Podalirius_,) it is generally called the Brazilian Swallow-tail. We advert to this circumstance, trivial as it may sound to scientific ears, first because it is one of the many proofs in which the nomenclature of the vulgar conveys greater information than that of the professor: and secondly, because these very names, in numberless instances, imply a perception of natural analogies, which, without the labour of philosophic research, suggest themselves to unscientific observers. In the present instance, these facts may be verified in the most unquestionable manner. According to our views, _Protesilaus_ not only represents one of the primary groups of the Lepidoptera, but also typifies the Fissirostral birds, of which the swallows are the most pre-eminent.

Madam Merian's valuable work on the Insects of Surinam, has furnished us with a figure of the larva; which, unlike that of the European Swallow-tails, is covered with spines: the chrysalis also departs from the usual type of the family, in having the head directed downwards. These facts we have verified by an inspection of the original drawings, of M. Merian, now deposited in the British Museum. These are all important variations in structure, which can only be explained by the natural system.

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CRESSIDA Heliconides

_Cressida Butterfly_.

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Sub-Fam. Papilionæ. Genus Papilio. Sub-Genus Cressida. _Nobis_.

SUB-GENERIC CHARACTER.

Wings diaphanous; posterior perpendicularly elongated, obtusely dentated
or scolloped. Antenna stout, the club very thick.

Types, Cressida Heliconides and Harmonides. _Sw._

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Anterior wings diaphanous, with the base, and two opaque, costal
transverse spots, black; posterior black, with a central white space, and
a marginal row of crimson spots, brightest beneath._

Papilio Cressida, _Fab. Ent. Sys. 3. 1. p. 20. Don. Ill. of Ent. 3. pl.
12. f. 2. Ency. Meth. p. 76. No. 145._

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For a long time, the only museum in Europe which could boast of this butterfly, was that of Sir Joseph Banks; who found it in Van Deimans Land, during his celebrated scientific voyage with Captain Cook. Fabricius, the most eminent entomologist of that day, described the species from this specimen: which, with the whole of the Banksian Cabinet, was presented by its learned and munificent possessor to the Linnæan Society of London, where it still exists. The only published figure is that of Donovans, which is much too small, and is otherwise faulty. The species is still very rare in collections; our own, a fine pair, were received from Van Diemans Land.

Although unacquainted with the larva, and pupa state of this species, nature has stamped the perfect insect with the image of that group she intends it to represent. Its long, narrow, anterior wings, almost transparent, immediately reminds even the unpractised entomologist of the Heliconian butterflys; while the analysis of the genus _Papilio_, confirms this idea, by shewing that _Cressida_ is the Heliconian type. We scarcely need remind the student of the natural system that if our theory be correct, this representation, under one form or other, will be found to pervade every group of _Lepidoptera_. In all such as we have yet investigated, this opinion has been fully verified.

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PAPILIO Memnon,

_Memnon Butterfly_.

----

Fam. Papilionidæ. Sub-Fam. Papilionæ. Genus Papilio.--_Sw._

(Typical form or Sub-genus.)

SUB-GENERIC CHARACTERS.

Wings without tails; the anterior horizontally lengthened, entire; the
posterior margin concave; posterior wings perpendicularly lengthened, the
margin rounded and scolloped; antennæ long. _Larva_ smooth; _Pupa_ braced
in an erect position.

SUB-TYPES OF FORM. 1. _Typical_, Memnon. 2. _Sub-typical_, Erectheus. 3.
_Aberrant_, Pammon, Drusius? Codrus.

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SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Wings black, rayed with blue-grey; inferior wings beneath with two rows
of marginal black spots on a pale ground, and four red spots at the
base._

Papilio Memnon, _Linn. Auct. Ency. Meth. 1. p. 29. No. 10. Cramer, pl.
91. f. c._

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Although of sombre colours, this butterfly is imposing in its size, and highly interesting. It is, in fact, that form which is _pre-eminently typical_ of the whole of the Latriellian _Papilionidæ_. It seems to be common throughout India and particularly so in Java, from whence we possess several specimens. Dr. Horsfield's elaborate work has furnished us with figures of the caterpillar and chrysalis.

In now first defining some of the natural groups of the modern Genus _Papilio_, it may be as well to state that we give the results of minute analysis, the details of which we hope to lay before the public on a future occasion. In regard to the nomenclature, we have adopted the following principles, suggested to us by a scientific friend of no ordinary authority, as tending to facilitate recollection, without altering well known specific names. Each genus or sub-genus will be named after that species which is its peculiar type; and the new specific name of this species will imply one of its supposed natural analogies. Thus the sub-genus _Protesilaus_, derives its name from the typical species, while the specific name, now proposed of _Leilus_, points out the analogy of the group to _Urania_ Fab. The sub-genus we now define, as being in our estimation, pre-eminently typical, retains the name of the genus. It seems also a geographic group, since all the species yet discovered belong to the old world.

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_Two-toothed Disk-Snail._]

CARACOLLA acutissima,

_Two-Toothed Disk Snail_.

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Class Mollusca. Order Phytophages. _Swains._

GENERIC (?) CHARACTER.

_Animal_ with four tentaculæ, the lower pair very short; _Shell_ discoid,
greatly depressed; the spire but slightly raised above the body whorl;
aperture large, oblique, angulated; the lower portion generally dentated;
the margin thickened and reflected.

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Shell imperforate, with the spiral whorls flattened obliquely, the body
whorl acutely carinated, and convex beneath: outer lip reflected; with
from 1 to 2 tuberculated teeth near the extremity_.

Caracolla acutissima. _Lam. Syst. 6. p. 2. p. 95. Knorr. vol. 4 pl. 5. f.
2. 3._

_Encycl. Meth. pl. 462. f. 1. a. b.?_

Helicodonta. _A. de Fèrrusac. pl. 58. f. 2._

Helix caracolla. _Guerin. Iconog. du Règ. Anim. Mol. pl. 6. f. 1._

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It is seldom we can deliniate more than the covering of testacious animals, particularly where the species are natives of tropical countries. In the present instance we owe this power to the singular fact of this snail having survived a voyage from Jamaica, and peered out upon an English sun. It is now near forty years ago since an intelligent correspondent of our honoured father sent him from Jamaica, a box of land shells: they were carefully packed in moist decayed wood, and enclosed the living animals. The season was summer and the voyage short; the box was immediately opened, and by placing the shells in luke-warm water, the animals of every one slowly emerged from their shells. Of their ultimate fate we know not: but that celebrated artist and entomologist, the late Mr. Lewin, then a guest in the house, executed highly finished drawings upon vellum of each species; and from one of these our present figures are faithfully copied. At the request of our friend Dr. Leach, a copy was also made by some one and transmitted to Baron de Fèrussac, for his great work upon Land shell, where it will be found engraved at pl. 58. fig. 2. M. Guerin has re-copied this latter figure, but as both are inaccurate, without any fault of these gentlemen, (who never saw the original drawing of Lewin) we have now represented it correctly.

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_Indian Wren warbler._]

PRINIA familiaris,

_Indian Wren-warbler_.

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Family, Sylviadæ. Sub-Family, Sylvianæ. _Sw._ Genus, Prinia. _Horsf._

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Bill rather lengthened, much compressed, entire; rictus smooth; wings
rounded; tail broad and cuneate; feet large, strong.

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Above olive brown, beneath yellowish; ears, throat, and tips of the
greater and lesser wing-covers white; tail feathers tipt with dusky
white, and margined beneath by a black bar._

Prinia familiaris. _Horsfield. Zool. Researches. Linn. Trans. 8. 165._

The sultry groves of India are not without birds which recall to the European the songsters of his own distant land. And although nature, in her boundless profusion, has so distributed her productions that even the little "Kitty Wren" may in vain be looked for beyond the confines of Europe, its representative in the East is no less neat, active, and familiar to the habitations of man. The _Prinia familiaris_, observes Dr. Horsfield (whose politeness enables us to figure the bird), is abundant in many parts of Java, near villages and gardens, in the confines of which, among trees and shrubs, it builds its nest. Sprightly and active in all its motions, it sports among the branches in short and rapid flights, and has received its native name from its enlivening and pleasant notes. Our figure is the size of life, and to avoid a tedious description, all the details have been accurately measured.

We must refer the scientific Ornithologist, for our exposition of the natural affinities of this group, to _Northern Zoology, vol. 2, p. 200_. It is unquestionably the Rasorial and Scansorial genus of the Sub-family _Sylvianæ_, as there pointed out, and of which _Orthotomus_ is a sub-genus, or type of form.

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AMPHRISIUS Nympalides,

_Amphrisius Butterfly_.

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Family Papilionidæ. Sub-Fam. Papilionæ. Genus. Amphrisius. _Sw._ (Typical Sub-Genus).

SUB-GENERIC CHARACTERS.

Wings without tails, the anterior externally dentated, the posterior
short and rounded, the margin scolloped; Antennæ long. Larva covered with
spine-like tubercles; _Pupa_ braced in an inverted position.

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SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Anterior wings black, with longitudinal paler rays; posterior wings
yellow, with a black serrated border, and an internal row of black
spots._

Papilio Amphrisius. _Godart. Ency. Meth. 1. p. 27, No. 7._

Papilio Heliacon. _Fab. Ent. Sys. 3. 1. p. 19. Don. Ind. Ins. pl. 19. f.
1._

Papilio Amphrisius.--_Horsf. Descrip. Cat. Part 1. pl. 4. f. 13._

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The Butterflies of which we consider the species now figured as the typical example, constitute one of the great natural divisions of the modern genus _Papilio_; and they are peculiarly distinguished in all their three stages of existence, namely in the caterpillar, the pupa, and in the winged state. Dr. Horsfield has enabled us to illustrate the two former, and we add a figure of the perfect butterfly from specimens in our own cabinet, collected in Java. It seems subject to much variation in point of colour, but we have strong suspicions that some of the varieties are distinct species. The richness of the black resembles Genoa velvet, while that of the yellow may be compared to glossy satin. All the larger species of the group are Oriental, but we suspect America is not without typical examples, although they are of a much smaller size. The species however, even with these additions, are so few, that the sub-types of the group cannot be accurately made out.

As this seems to be the pre-eminent type of the genus, we preserve to it the generic name.

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_1, Pica. 2, Perversa. 3, Acuta_]

ACHATINELLA Pica,

_The Bead Snails_.

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Class Mollusca. Order Phytophages. _Lam. Sw._ Genus ----?

SUB-GENERIC CHARACTER.

Shell oblong-conic, spiral, Columella with the base thickened and
truncate, inner lip none; outer lip internally thickened; aperture
without teeth. _Nob._

Type _Monodonta seminigra_ Lam.

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Shell trochiform, black; apex and base of the pillar white._

Monodonta semi-nigra _Lam._

Achatina pica. _Swains. Monog. in Brands Journal, April, 1828, p. 84._

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Achatinella is a very peculiar group of land shells, found only in the Pacific Islands. They are all small, and so remarkably beautiful, that the natives use them for ornaments. It was under this form that seven different species came into our possession on the return of Captain, now Lord Byron, from his voyage to the South Seas. As the systematic conchologist will find them fully described in the Journal above quoted, we now only illustrate them by figures.

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ACHATINELLA perversa, _fig. 2._

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Shell reversed, sub-trochiform, fulvous brown with darker transverse
bands and longitudinal lines; apex and suture white._

Achatinella perversa. _Swains. Monog. No. 2, p. 84._

Our figures of this elegant species are somewhat larger than nature.

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ACHATINELLA Acuta, Fig. 3.

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Shell ovate-oblong, chesnut, with a marginal fulvous band; spire
somewhat lengthened, acute, the tip black._

Achatinella acuta _Sw. Monog. No. 3, p. 84._

Shell somewhat pyriform, the spire being pointed, and considerably longer than the aperture: In these respects it differs considerably from the two preceding, but the great peculiarity of the twisted and truncated columella or pillar, sufficiently points it out as belonging to this group.

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_Murex eurystomus_]

MUREX (_Centronotus_) eurystomus,

_Wide mouthed Murex_.

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Family Cassidæ, Sub-family Muricinæ, _Nob._ Genus. Murex _Auct._

SYNOPSIS OF THE SUB-GENERA.

1. _Typical._

Canal very long: Shell armed with tooth-like
spines mostly arranged in three varices MUREX _Auct._

2. _Sub-Typical_ (?).

Canal very long: Shell without spines, varices
tuberculated. HAUSTELLARIA. _Sw._

3. _Aberrant._

Canal moderate: Shell with foliated or compressed
varices.
1. Varices foliated, mostly three. PHYLLONOTUS. _Sw._
2. Varices numerous, mostly acute. CENTRONOTUS. _Sw._
3. Varices compressed, fin shaped. PTERYNOTUS. _Sw._

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SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Shell with from 7 to 8 simple foliated varices; body whorl with three
brown bands; aperture effuse, tinged with rosey; umbelicus very large._

Murex Saxatilis. _Auct. Lamark. 7. p. 167. Martini. pl. 108. f. 1013._

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We feel some surprize that Lamark should have viewed this large and imposing _Murex_ as one of the varieties of _Saxatilis,_ from which it is unquestionably distinct. It is by no means common, nor do we know its precise locality.

In directing the attention of the philosophic Zoologist to the above synopsis, we feel called upon to express our opinion on the unfortunate Denis De Montford, whose labours, however honoured in his own country, have neither been understood nor appreciated in this. We can say of him, what can be said of very few, that he had an intuitive perception of natural groups. And if we cannot place him on a par with his great rival Lamark, in the extent of his researches, or the polished accuracy of his names, we can safely affirm that in other respects, he is fully equal, either to him, or to any of his successors.

There are some extraordinary analogies between the natural types of this genus, and the series of vertebrated animals, which we cannot at present develope. Nor can our doubts on the Sub-typical form, which we rather think has not been discovered, effect any alteration of the series here pointed out.

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POLYDORUS Thoas,

_Polydorus Butterfly_.

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Sub-family Papilionæ. Genus Amphrisius. Sub-genus Polydorus. _Sw._

SUB-GENERIC CHARACTER.

Anterior wings horizontally narrow and obtuse, posterior perpendicularly lengthened, and furnished with prominent spatulate tails; _Larva_ covered with fleshy tubercles; _Pupa_ braced and suspended, but with the head downwards.

Types, Pap. Polydorus. Polystes. Romulus. &c. _Auct._

----

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

_Anterior wings brownish black, with darker stripes between the nerves;
posterior, black with a central five-parted spot of white; lunules round
the margin, obscure above, bright crimson beneath._

Papilio Polydorus _Linn. Cramer. Pl. 128. f. a. b. Fab. Ent. Syst. 3. 1.
p. 9. Ency. Meth. p. 72. No. 130. Horsf. Cat. pl. 3. f. 17. 17. a._
(_larva and pupa_).

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Among the most remarkable of those laws which belong to the natural system, is that which assigns to every great division of our globe its peculiar races of animals: and these in numerous instances, are so marked, that a naturalist would no more expect to find such genera inhabiting a different continent, than a Physiologist would hope to discover a race of Hottentots among the Highlands of Scotland. It is under the tropical latitudes of the old world (and chiefly those of Asia), that nature has placed the group of butterflys which we now, for the first time, characterize. Distinguished, in the most beautiful manner, by their larva and pupa, they shew, even in the external appearance of the perfect insect, an unerring distinction, in the dark stripes between the nerves of the anterior wings. We have indeed, in the tropics of America, a race of black and crimson butterflys representing these of India; but they belong to a very different group; and are known at the first glance by their broader wings, totally destitute of the stripes just mentioned.