Transcriber Notes
● Obvious typos and punctuation errors corrected. Spelling of names
Lamarck and Bruguière standardized, otherwise variations in
spelling, capitalization and hyphenation retained.
● “var” is sometimes italicized, other times not. It has been kept as
printed.
● Corrections printed in the text as a note to THE BINDER have been
made. In addition, plates 19 and 20 were reversed in the original.
These plates have been swapped so that the correct image precedes
the chapter that discusses it.
● Missing title text “PLATE VI” added at the start of its chapter.
● Missing entry for Plate 36 in the Index has been added. “Polita,
Nerita, var; Pink-Banded Variety of the Thick Polished Nerit 36”
● There are entries in the Index that don’t seem to correspond to
specific text in the related plate chapter, but may refer to a
plant that is in the plate background.
● The author uses asterisks in varying numbers in front of some
descriptive text at the beginning of plate chapters. There are also
a couple of asterisks within the text that appear similar to
footnote indicators, but a corresponding footnote does not seem to
exist. These asterisks have been left in the text in their original
location.
● Footnotes have been moved to the end of their respective chapters.
● Italics are indicated by underscores surrounding the _italic text_.
● Small capitals have been converted to ALL CAPS.
● Superscript text is represented by a ^ preceding it, e.g. 1.^{st}.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
NATURALIST’S REPOSITORY,
OR
Monthly Miscellany
OF
EXOTIC NATURAL HISTORY:
CONSISTING OF
ELEGANTLY COLOURED PLATES WITH APPROPRIATE SCIENTIFIC
AND GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS
OF THE MOST CURIOUS, SCARCE, AND BEAUTIFUL
PRODUCTIONS OF NATURE
THAT HAVE BEEN RECENTLY DISCOVERED
IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD;
AND MORE ESPECIALLY SUCH
NOVELTIES
As from their extreme Rarity remain entirely undescribed, or which have
not been duly noticed by any preceding Naturalists.
THE WHOLE COMPOSED ACCORDING TO
THE LATEST IMPROVEMENTS IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF
The Science,
AND FORMING COLLECTIVELY A TRULY VALUABLE
COMPENDIUM OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES
OF
QUADRUPEDS, BIRDS, FISHES, INSECTS, SHELLS,
MARINE PRODUCTIONS,
AND EVERY OTHER INTERESTING OBJECT OF NATURAL HISTORY,
THE PRODUCE OF FOREIGN CLIMATES.
BY E. DONOVAN, F.L.S. W.S. &c.
VOL. I.
London:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR AND W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL,
STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, LUDGATE STREET.
1823.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plummer and Brewis, Printers,
Love Lane, Eastcheap.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADVERTISEMENT.
The Twelfth Number of this work is now respectfully submitted to the
attention of the public. This number, accompanied by the Title Page and
Index, renders the first volume complete. The Subscribers, therefore,
are now enabled to form a correct idea of the nature and object of the
undertaking: and from the style in which it has been so far conducted,
to form some conclusion of that in which it is likely for the future to
be continued.
The general approbation that has been bestowed already upon this
publication can be best appreciated from the extent of sale, which, to
say the least, has been respectable from the commencement,
notwithstanding that the undertaking was began under the manifest
disadvantage of being little known, and the very knowledge of its
existence being still in no small degree circumscribed. It is not,
therefore, without a sense of grateful feeling that the author has
observed that besides the incidental sale of the different detached or
monthly parts selected by purchasers desirous of the plates and
descriptions of some particular object of rarity, that the number of
regular subscribers, instead of diminishing, has rapidly advanced with
the publication of each number in succession, and as it seems to appear
in proportion as the public became better acquainted with its merits,
and the more assured of its uninterrupted continuance. While this
testimony of approbation prevails, the author of this undertaking will
be duly stimulated to exert his best means of rendering it deserving of
their consideration. Nor has he any hesitation in believing that it will
be in his power, under the auspices of public favour, to produce a work
of much elegance, and no mean utility, either as a work of taste for the
library of the general reader, or the admirer of nature; the folios of
the amateur, or the professed Study of the experienced Naturalist.
The commencement of this work was necessarily preceded by a few
observations upon the nature and object of the undertaking: those
observations are no less appropriate on the present occasion than the
former, and for this reason we shall again advert to them in restating
the intention the author has in view. The NATURALIST’S REPOSITORY, or
MONTHLY MISCELLANY OF EXOTIC NATURAL HISTORY, is designed to comprehend
in the most commodious form, a miscellaneous assemblage of elegantly
coloured plates, with appropriate scientific and general descriptions of
the most curious, scarce, and beautiful productions of nature that have
been recently discovered in various parts of the world or may hereafter
occur to the notice of the author; and more especially of such novelties
as from their extreme rarity remain entirely undescribed, or which have
not been duly noticed by any preceding Naturalist.
Most readers, it is presumed, will be aware that the labours of the
authors life, during a course of many years have been directed to the
pursuits of natural science: labours not confined to any one particular
branch or department of the varied face of nature, but extending
generally to the whole. The endeavours of the author to elucidate the
Natural History of the British Isles are sufficiently known from the
various extensive works which have been produced by him during the
course of the last thirty years, and the magnitude which those works
have at length acquired in the progressive course of publication that
had been adopted, is the best criterion of the approbation that has
attended them. But it is not within the views of the author in this
place to expatiate upon a subject which might be deemed irrelevant, the
works alluded to being devoted solely to the productions of our native
country, while the avowed object of the present undertaking is to
comprehend a selection of those only which are peculiar to foreign, and
with few exceptions, to extra European climates. The chief motive of the
author in adverting to those works, is to point out a style and mode of
execution for the present undertaking, which, from the very extensive
patronage those former labours of the author have experienced, may be
considered applicable in a very peculiar degree to every purpose of
correct elucidation, and as one most likely to ensure by its elegance
and perfection that same proportion of general approbation which the
other productions of the author have obtained.
With respect to the means within the author’s power of rendering this
work deserving of the public notice, either as to the novelty, variety,
rarity, or beauty of the various objects it is destined to embrace, the
author must rather trust to the favourable opinion which the world may
entertain in its behalf, from the examples now submitted to
consideration, than to any preliminary observations he can offer: he
shall only presume respectfully that they are adequate to the purpose,
and calculated to answer every moderate expectation his preliminary
observations may have excited.
It will be readily conceived that the opportunities of the author’s
life, so assiduously devoted to the Science of Nature, must have enabled
him to enrich his _port feuilles_ with a collection of DRAWINGS,
MANUSCRIPTS, and MEMORANDA of no mean importance in all its branches.
This is perfectly correct. His own Museum confined chiefly, but not
exclusively, to the productions of Great Britain, have afforded many
rarities, the offspring of foreign climates, which could not elsewhere
be procured. But independently of those resources which his own
collection has afforded, his other means have been amply extensive.
Through the kindness of his scientific friends, he has had unlimited
access to many other collections of acknowledged moment, for the purpose
of enriching his Collectanea with drawings and descriptions of the more
interesting rarities which those cabinets respectively contained. Some
of those collections exist no longer and are probably now forgotten, but
the memory of others, even among the number of those which have passed
away, will ever be cherished with regret in the mind of every man of
science by whom their merits were understood. The preservation even of
the memorials of some minor portion of the rarities which those
collections once embodied can scarcely fail to prove of interest at the
present day, while their total loss to the rising generation will be in
some degree appreciated from the memoranda and occasional references
that will appear respecting them in the progress of the present work: to
enumerate the many collections of private individuals, the rarities of
which have contributed to render this collection of the author’s
drawings important, would extend our advertisement far beyond our
intended limits. It may be sufficient to observe that the late Leverian
Museum, rich in every branch of Natural History, has tended in an
eminent degree to this effect; the author having been favoured with
unreserved permission to take drawings and memoranda of whatever he
deemed important, besides having subsequently enriched his own Museum
with a very ample portion of that fine collection, by public purchase,
at the time of its dispersion; particularly in the different tribes of
the Mammiferous animals, in Ornithology, Ichthyology, and various
others; and also with every object materially important among the
extraneous fossils which that splendid museum originally contained. It
will be also seen from many of our pages that through the kindness of
the late worthy President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, the
rich and truly scientific collection of that munificent patron of the
sciences was ever open to us for the furtherance of our pursuits in
Natural History; and of the object of the present work among others. The
collections of Mr. Drury, and also that of Mr. Francillon, in the
particular branches of Entomology, are too considerable to be passed
slightly over: the rarities of both these collections have in an eminent
degree improved our means of rendering this work important. And lastly
we may mention among other scientific acquisitions the Collectanea of
drawings formed by the pencil of the late Mr. Jones of Chelsea, together
with the manuscripts of Fabricius in elucidation, as a treasure which
cannot be too highly appreciated when we recollect the importance of the
Fabrician writings on the continent, and remember also that those
drawings afford the only illustration of the most splendid portion of
the insect race which that author exclusively describes, and by which
very many of the species can alone be now determined.
In conclusion of these remarks it may be observed, however, that while
in our elucidation of those rarities which the collections and museums
above adverted to have so amply afforded, we render a deserved tribute
of record to the liberality of those whose services in the cause of
Natural History have so amply contributed to its advancement in former
days, the author will not remain unmindful of those advantages which the
many valuable collections of the present period offer. It will appear as
this work proceeds that he is in no small degree indebted to the favor
of many eminent scientific characters of our time, as well as those who
have preceded them, for their permission to take drawings and
descriptions of such rarities in their collections as really appear
worthy of distinct consideration. And it may be added finally that he
shall at all times avail himself with pleasure, and acknowledge with
thanks, any further advantages of the same kind which the favours of
others may be induced to allow for the purpose of enriching the present
undertaking.
LAMBETH,
_March 1st, 1823_.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX
TO
VOL. I.
Plate. Fig.
Acamas, Papilio; Acamas’s Butterfly 18
Agave, Papilio; Agave’s Butterfly 6 2
Ageæa, Papilio; Ageæa’s Butterfly 12
Alliacea, Peteveria, America 24 1
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_ Amboinensis; 1 1
Three-Banded High-Spired Admiral Shell
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_; Six-Banded 1 2
High-Spired Admiral Shell
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_ Cedonulli; 1 3
Olive-Banded Nonpareil Cone
Ammiralis, Conus, _var_ Fulvous 1 4
Nonpareil Cone
Aurantiaea, Jacquinia, Sandwich Isles 25
Aurora, Cypræa; Aurora, Morning Dawn, or 32
Orange Cowry
Belladonna, Papilio; Belladonna’s 35
Butterfly
Bengalus, Fringilla, Blue-Bellied Finch 10
Camara Lantana, West Indies 18
Cayana, Ampelis, Purple-Throated 14
Chatterer
Ciris, Emberiza, Painted Bunting 7
Codomannus, Papilio, Codomannus’s 3 1, 1
Butterfly
Dimas, Papilio, Dimas’s Butterfly 27 2
Foliatus, Murex, Tri-Foliated Murex, or 15
Rock Shell
Galgulus, Psittacus, Sapphire Crowned 17
Parrakeet
Harpa, Buccinum var testudo, 8
Tortoise-Shell Harp
Hippodamia, Papilio; Hippodamia’s 31
Butterfly
Homerus, Papilio; Homer’s Butterfly 19
Imperialis, Trochus var Roseus; Roseate 11
Imperial Sun Trochus
Maculatus Psittacus; Spotted-Breasted 33
Parrakeet
Marcellina, Papilio; Marcellina’s 6 1, 1
Butterfly
Melanopterus, Psittacus; Black-Winged 30
Parrakeet
Ornatus, Trochilus; Tufted-Necked 25
Humming Bird
Ovata, Goodenia; Ovate-Leaved Goodenia 20
Palustre, Sedum, North America 29
Parmentaria, Erica 35
Pella, Trochilus, Topaz Humming Bird 5
Polita, Nerita, var; Pink-Banded Variety 36
of the Thick Polished Nerit
Psamethe, Papilio, Psamethe’s Butterfly 9
Punctata, Pipra, Punctata, or Speckled 20
Manakin
Pylades, Papilio, Pylades’s Butterfly 13
Pyramus, Papilio, Pyramus’s Butterfly 3 2, 2
Pyrum, Voluta, Pear Volute, Front View 21 1
---- Reversed Ditto, or Sacred Chank 21 2
Shell, Front View
Pyrum, Voluta, Pear Volute, Back View 22 1
---- Reversed Ditto, or Sacred Chank 22 2
Shell, Back View
Sanguinea, Terebratulo, Sanguineous Lamp 34
Anomia, or Lamp Cockle
Scalaris, Turbo (Scalaria Pretiosa) 26
Scarce Wentletrap
Scapha, Volute var Nobilis, Noble 4
Chinese Volute
Scorpio, Murex, var Minor; Least Stag’s 16
Horn Murex
Thersites, Papilio, Thersites Butterfly 24
Tricolor, Tanagra β, Tricoloured Tanager 23
Tros, Papilio, Tros’s Butterfly 29
Viridis, Trogon, Yellow-Bellied Green 2
Trogon or Curucui
Vulgaris, Malleus, Hound’s Tongue Hammer 28
Shell
Zacynthus, Papilio, Zacynthus’s 27 1
Butterfly
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
THE BINDER
Is requested to observe that the Numbers have been transposed by
mistake upon the Three following Plates.
For Plate 27 _read_ 25.
Plate 25 _read_ 26.
Plate 26 _read_ 27.
And place the plates with their respective descriptions according to
this correction.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_1_
_London. Published by E. Donovan as the Act
directs April, 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
NATURALIST’S REPOSITORY.
_&c. &c. &c._
CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE I.
FIGURE I.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var AMBOINENSIS.
THREE-BANDED AMBOYNA HIGH-SPIRED
ADMIRAL SHELL.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Animal a limax. Shell univalve, convolute and turbinate. Aperture
effuse, longitudinal, linear, without teeth, entire at the base: pillar
smooth.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell with rough punctures at the base.
CONUS AMMIRALIS: testa basi punctato scabra.
CONUS AMMIRALIS: testa basi punctato. _Linn. Syst. Nat. 10 p. 714. n.
257._—_Mus. Lud. Ulr. 553. n. 157. Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 3378.
10._
CONUS AMMIRALIS _var_ AMBOINENSIS. α. Spire high and tapering; shell
pyriform, glossy, smooth, pale yellowish with two broad bands of
testaceous marked with large subsaggitate oval spots of white, and a
narrow band between composed of white spots and intermediate testaceous
dots.
* * * * *
Were it within the contemplation of our present views to enter into the
ancient history of the science of Conchology, we should be under little
difficulty in demonstrating upon the authority of the best informed
historians as well as ancient classics that it has a claim to very
remote antiquity. The study of Shells prevailed, at least to some
extent, in those early times when the generality of mankind believe the
world to have been buried in the depths of ignorance. At periods, even
when some among those of better information may be inclined to imagine
that the ancients could have had no very accurate conceptions of the
nature of these bodies, or of their classification, natural or
artificial, and even when it might be supposed from the warlike temper
of the age the collecting of shells would have been deemed an unworthy
occupation, we discover sufficient indications to prove that their
leisure hours were so employed. The productions of the sea were
delineated in their manuscripts; Pliny speaks of the delight the artist
took in painting the asterias, or sea stars. The spontaneous offerings
of the ocean were depicted in their natural colours upon the walls of
their dwellings, abundant evidence of which appears among the ancient
paintings of Herculaneum and Pompeii; and that the shells themselves
were sometimes collected by the ancients is placed beyond a doubt from
those remains which have been found, at various times, among the relics
of those celebrated ruins, and also among the ruins of the Roman town,
perhaps no less ancient, denominated La Scava.
It is declared by Pliny, in the ninth book of his Natural History, that
the Romans of his time were better acquainted with the productions of
the sea than the animals of the land, a circumstance he attributes, and
unquestionably with sufficient reason, to the extravagant excess to
which the luxurious taste of those times was carried. This will excite
the less surprise when we recollect the various useful results deduced
from this investigation. Of these we have several very memorable
examples; the exquisite dyes of green, the scarlet, and the imperial
purple, which they possessed and prized so eminently, were all the
produce of testaceous bodies. And so likewise the pearls gathered from
the various perlaceous bivalve shells; and pearls we are assured were in
those days valued at Rome, as in Egypt, at a price infinitely beyond
that of gold and gems, the diamond alone excepted.
Pliny tells us, that, in his time, after the diamonds of India and
Arabia, pearls were esteemed most precious, and that we may be under no
error as to the application of the text to the pearls found in shells,
he further adds, that he had before spoken of these pearls in his book
that treats upon the productions of the sea[1]. The diamonds in those
times were so scarce, and esteemed so highly, as to be little known,
except among princes, the smaller and most inferior kinds alone
excepted. The pearls were the most costly jewels employed in the
ornaments for the ears, the neck, and fingers of the fair sex, and the
shells themselves were converted into various articles of finery for
their wardrobe and furniture.
But it is not, as before observed, within our province in this place, to
enter into any such latitude of explanation as an ample illustration of
these remarks may be conceived to merit. It is our object only to
express ourselves in general terms: it may be sufficient therefore to
observe, that among the luxuries of the great in the times of Pliny,
Oppian, and Juvenal, it is certain they indulged their peculiar taste in
the study of these productions of the deep. They not only amassed
together the more curious among those shells whose beauty attracted
their regard, they entered also to some extent into their history and
manners, and were sufficiently informed as to their natural properties
to render them subservient to the general purposes of luxury and life.
They knew the distinctions between the land, the fresh-water, and the
marine tribes of shells, and they proceeded with minuteness and
sometimes fully into their history. No classic reader of the Halieutics
of Oppian will doubt the general acquaintance of the ancients with those
beings in their native element, nor will any one imagine, who is
conversant with the lives of the philosophers of the infant ages of the
world, that the study of Conchology, even as a science, was unknown. So
many writings of the ancients, even of the classic ages of Greece and
Rome, have disappeared, that it may be now impossible to form any very
accurate conclusions, at the same time that enough remains to justify
our persuasion that it was far from inconsiderable. Among others, the
works of Aristotle, the preceptor of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander,
have survived the ravages of time, and very happily, for the history of
human knowledge unfolds to us the views which the ancients had then
taken of natural science, and among the rest of the science of
Conchology; and there is, moreover, every reason to believe that in the
classification of the testaceous tribes, or shells, which the writings
of this philosopher present us, we, in reality, possess the arrangement
of the shells composing the Conchological collection of that most potent
monarch, the conqueror of the world:—the classical distribution of the
shells of the great Alexander, as they were disposed by the most
celebrated naturalist of his age, and at a period more remote than three
centuries before the commencement of the Christian æra.
The Science of Conchology, like that of all other branches of nature,
has undergone its mutations at various periods. Generally, it has held a
rank of some eminence, a circumstance attributable no doubt to the
peculiar beauty of this interesting tribe. In speaking of the latter
times, the period of the last and preceding centuries, it would be
difficult to determine in which country of civilized Europe the science
of Conchology has been most esteemed; at one time, the virtuosi of
Holland, at another of France, and latterly of Britain, have endeavoured
to produce the most extensive and costly cabinets of Conchology, and
each in consequence may perhaps have excelled alternately; nor were
other countries of Europe in this respect less emulous, or materially
deficient in the number and excellence of their collections in this
department of nature, during the same periods.
We have been unavoidably led into this train of digression and remark
from a due consideration of the very interesting history connected with
the shells which form the subject of the annexed Plate, the particulars
of which, it is presumed, will be found to justify the general tendency
of these observations, and these remarks may be considered also as a
prelude to the introduction of many others among the number of those
rarities which it is within our contemplation to produce progressively
in the course of the present work; shells, to which the prevalence of
general taste has assigned a value and importance scarcely less
considerable than the nonpareil cones, or the eminently celebrated cedo
nulli.
The first shell in the plate before us that invites attention from its
magnitude is that superb cone delineated at figure I. This shell, which
once held a distinguished place in the Leverian Museum, is two inches
and six-eighths in length, its greatest breadth one inch and
three-eighths. The general colour pale yellowish, with two bands of
chesnut, marked with irregular arrow-headed spots of white, and an
intermediate narrow band composed of white spots of the same form, each
connected by means of an intervening dot of chesnut, which, together,
form a catenated band of peculiar elegance. When very closely examined
with the aid of a magnifier, the whole surface of the shell appears
finely reticulated with yellow.
This shell was sold in one of the latter day’s sale of the Leverian
Museum for the sum of five guineas and a half.
FIGURE II.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var AMBOINENSIS β.
SIX-BANDED AMBOYNA HIGH-SPIRED
ADMIRAL SHELL.
Spire high and tapering; shell subpyriform; smooth, pale yellowish,
sprinkled with fulvous; body-wreath with six bands, the three uppermost
linear, and composed of alternate white and chesnut-coloured dots, the
three lower of two broad castaneous bands, marked with subsaggitate oval
spots, and an intermediate narrow belt of alternate brown and white
dots.
* * * * *
This shell, like the former, (fig. I) constituted part of the Leverian
collection of exotic shells. Its length is an inch and half, its
greatest breadth exceeding five-eighths of an inch.
Notwithstanding the inferiority of its size, this very elegant and
curious shell is not less interesting than the preceding. The general
tints in both are nearly the same, but in the present shell are rather
deeper, the dots of fulvous brighter and more thickly sprinkled, and the
bands more numerous. Like the former shell it has two broad bands of
brown, checquered with subovate spots of white, and an intermediate
dotted line, but these are placed rather nearer towards the narrower end
of the shell, and the intervening space between the spire and the larger
band, encompassed or girt round with two other linear bands, composed of
white and brown dots, besides another still more conspicuous, and
composed of larger spots along the base or body-wreath, contiguous to
the spire or turban.
This little shell may be considered as affording an excellent type of
one of the rarer kinds of Conus Ammiralis, the variety denominated the
Six-banded high-spired Admiral Cone. During a period of some years that
have now elapsed since the dispersion of that collection, no other
example of this variety has occurred to our observation more perfect and
characteristic in all its markings.
FIGURE III.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var CEDO NULLI α.
OLIVE-BANDED NONPAREIL CONE.
Spire high and tapering; marbled white, fulvous, and dusky; body-wreath
with three subolivaceous bands, the broadest towards the spire, with
four belts of whitish dots; the two others towards the narrow end each
with a single row of dots.
* * * * *
If in the preceding instances we have produced some novelties worthy of
particular attention, the present shell, in point of value as well as
beauty, must also lay a distinguished claim to our consideration. This
is one of those rare varieties of Conus Ammiralis denominated the CEDO
NULLI, or CEDO NULLI _pretiossissimus_, in allusion to the incomparable
value affixed to the varieties of this peculiar species. The importance
attached to the shells of this kind may indeed be best conceived by
stating that some of its varieties have been valued at twenty, fifty,
and one hundred guineas; one, in almost every respect resembling that
delineated at figure 4, the celebrated Cedo Nulli of Lyonet’s cabinet,
was valued by Lyonet himself, about the year 1732, at three hundred
guineas; and either this shell, or another very similar to it, actually
realized a sum of 1200 florins.
As the shells of this kind may very justly be presumed to be of the
first rarity, every trait of information that may appear calculated to
elucidate their history, it is presumed, will not only be permitted but
be deemed acceptable, and under this impression the ensuing observations
are submitted.
Much about the æra of the first explosion of the French Revolution of
1789, and within the space of a few years after, it is perfectly well
known that many of the choicest cabinets and collections of rarities
that had before been the pride of France and Holland were consigned to
this country for the sake of safety, and being in some instances
afterwards dispersed, had tended, in no small degree, to enrich the
cabinets of our own country. It was at this period that many very rare
shells occurred to our observation which have since disappeared, and
among others, several of those varieties of Cedo nulli which had been
before held in other parts of Europe in considerable estimation. In the
year 1797 we saw no less than five specimens of this rare shell, all
varying a little from each other, in the cabinet of the French Minister
of State, M. de Calonne; in one, the colour was pale, in another deeper,
one was lineated, and another distinguished by having three distinct
bands.
At the dispersion of the Calonnian Museum, which took place by public
sale rather more than twenty years ago, the series of these valuable
shells passed into the fine collection of the present Earl Tankerville,
a collection his lordship was then forming for the pleasure of an
amiable and beloved daughter since deceased, and these shells are still
considered among the more choice rarities of that valuable cabinet.
The shell, however, more immediately under our consideration, the
variety, delineated at figure 3, is from another source; it was among
the spoils of rarities sent over to this country from Holland, at the
time of the insurrection connected with the first inroads of the French
into that country. The shell passed into the hands of a merchant of
curiosities in London, and being afterwards sold, its destination is
uncertain; the price affixed was twenty guineas.
This shell corresponded very nearly with the variety denominated Seba’s
Cedo nulli, having once formed a part of the museum of the celebrated
Seba, but it could not be the same, because the entire collection of
Seba, which at the period of the French invasion constituted part of the
Royal Museum of the Stadtholder, was carried into France and its
contents distributed among the other objects of natural history in the
French Museum[2]. The description which Favanne has left us of the CEDO
NULLI DE SEBA is in the following words, and will be found on a near
comparison to accord pretty accurately with our present shell:—“_Le Cedo
nulli_ de Seba, à large bande citron foncé, chargée de quatre
cordelettes de grains inégaux, blancs, bleus, rouges et orangés. Le
reste de sa robe est fascié et marbré d’orangé-brun, de jaune, de rouge
et bleu-pâle sur un fond blanc avec deux bandes grenues vers le bas.”
FAVANNE, t. ii. p. 422.
FIGURE IV.
CONUS AMMIRALIS var CEDO NULLI β.
FULVOUS NONPAREIL CONE.
Spire high and tapering, fulvous reddish and orange, varied and marbled
with white; two orange bands, each with four belts of white dots, and a
single series near the tip.
* * * * *
The shell from which this drawing is taken fell also into the possession
of the same individual as the last, and much about same period. This
rarity was disposed of, as I have been informed, at a price exceeding
that of the former, and passed shortly after, I believe, into the
Imperial cabinet, at Vienna, or otherwise into one of the continental
cabinets in the north of Europe, a circumstance we have not, at this
distant period, any means whatever of determining.
The accordance between this shell and the celebrated Cedo nulli of
Lyonet’s cabinet, which, as before intimated, was estimated at the value
of three hundred guineas, will not escape the remark those who are
acquainted with the description of Lyonet’s shell. According to Favanne
there were two or more varieties of the Cedo nulli, in his time, in
France, that bore a very near resemblance to the shell of Lyonet; he
speaks of one in the cabinet of Madame La Presidente de Bandeville,
which differed in its marbling of white: in being larger and more
prolonged upon the top of the first whorl, ather larger, and interrupted
with veins of orange, and the last of the two belts of white spots which
follows this zone near the bottom of the first whorl, composed of rather
larger spots; with these exceptions the two shells were precisely the
same.
The Cedo nulli of Lyonet is described as being of a yellowish colour,
divided into bands, the lower one and that in the middle marbled with
white, the other two marked, the one with four little belts with white
dots, the second with only three[3].
I ought not to close these remarks without observing, that these shells
vary so considerably that no two specimens have yet occurred that agree
precisely with each other. Some approach also, but are clouded instead
of banded; these are the French Cedo nulli graphique, Conus mappa of
Solander, and being held in less esteem from having their colours
disposed in clouds instead of bands, have obtained the name of the false
Cedo nulli. The transitions of these shells, it must be confessed are so
various as to render it extremely difficult, if not unsafe, to determine
where one species ends and another commences, the difference in the
colours affords no sufficient data, neither is the form of the shell,
nor the height of the spire so uniformly certain as to constitute a
precise criterion.
Linnæus, in his description of the conchological cabinet of her majesty
_Ludovica Ulrica_, the Queen of Sweden*, speaks of three different
varieties of Conus Ammiralis α _Ammiralis summus_, β _Ammiralis
ordinarius_, γ _Ammiralis occidentalis_, and these are again recited in
his Systema Natura. But it will be seen from the last edition of that
work, by Professor Gmelin, that the varieties discovered subsequently to
the age of that inestimable naturalist are very considerable, amounting
to no less than thirty different kinds, and these do not include the
whole at present known. Gmelin, it should be added, admits only two or
three kinds as the true CEDO NULLI, which he characterizes essentially
as being encompassed with dotted articulated belts, Cedo nulli cingulis
punctato-articulatis; one he describes as being yellow, painted with
red, and marked with eleven distinct belts of milk white; another,
orange with crouded elevated interrupted chesnut lines.
These shells inhabit chiefly the South American Seas; the true Cedo
nulli, as it is called, has been found at Grenada. Some of the varieties
of Conus Ammiralis, are not very uncommon, and are in infinitely less
esteem than others; for, as it has already appeared, it is in proportion
to their rarity in addition to some peculiarity in the colours and
markings, and most especially in their disposition into the form of
bands, that taste and fancy has affixed a value so considerable as that
which these shells are sometimes known to bear.
-----
Footnote 1:
(Adamas.) “Proximum apud nos Indicis Arabicisque margaritis pretium
est, de quibus in nono diximus volumine inter res marinas.” _Plin.
Hist. Nat. lib 37. cap. 4._
Footnote 2:
Vide _Annales du Museum National_. _An._ xi. (1802) _Premier Cahier_.
Footnote 3:
Le Cedo Nulli à bandes, ou dont la robe jaunâtre se partage en quatre
bandes, l’inférieure et celle du milieu sont comparties de marbrures
blanches, les deux autres sont remplies, l’une de quatre cordelettes à
point blancs, la seconde de trois seulement. _Tom._ 1, p. 442.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
2
_London. Published by E. Donovan & Simpkin &
Marshall. April 1.^{st} 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE II.
TROGON VIRIDIS.
YELLOW-BELLIED GREEN TROGON,
OR
CURUCUI.
ORDER
PICÆ.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill shorter than the head, sharp edged, hooked margin of the mandibles
serrated: feet scansorial or formed for climbing.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Green gold, beneath luteous; chin black; on the breast a green gold
band.
TROGON VIRIDIS: viridi-aureus, subtus luteis, gula nigra, fascia
pectorali viridi-aurea. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 2. 404. n. 3._
TROGON VIRIDIS, _Linn. Syst. Nat. edit. 12. 1. p. 167. 3._
Trogon Cayanensis viridis. _Briss. av. 4. p. 168. n. 2 t. 17._
Couroucou à ventre jaune. _Buff. Ois. 6. p. 291. Pl. Enl. 195._
TROGON VIRIDIS: viridi-aureus subtus luteis, gula nigra, retricibus
utrinque tribus extimis oblique et dentatim albis. _Lath. Ind.
Orn. t. 1. p. 199. 2._
Yellow-bellied Curucui. _Lath. Gen. Syn. 2. p. 488. 2._
* * * * *
This curious and very elegant bird is about twelve inches in length; the
bill an inch long and of a pale cinereous or ashen hue, and, like most
other species of this remarkable genus, serrated along the margin. The
legs are feathered to the toes, and with the toes and claws are of a
pale brown.
The colour of the head and neck of this species is black, very richly
glossed with blue, which appears, in different directions of the light,
highly splendid upon its surface. Upon the crown of the head the blue
verges into violet and purple, and in descending towards the neck
becomes changeable into a fine green, glossed with gold; these brilliant
hues appear also on the sides of the neck, and passing round as a kind
of pectorial band forms in particular a rich zone of golden green upon
the breast.
The pale ashen hue of the bill is singularly contrasted with the deep
black and violet of the head and neck, and the sudden transition of the
colours of the body is no less remarkable, the plumage in this part
becoming abruptly of a fine yellow from the breast down to the thighs;
these latter are black, but the vent feathers beyond are of a fine
yellow, like the colour of the abdomen. The upper parts of the body are
green glossed with yellowish and partaking of a golden lustre. The upper
wing coverts and scapulars are dark fuscous, mottled with greyish; the
quill feathers dark brown, quills from the base to the middle white. The
tail is cuneated or wedge-formed, the middle feathers being longer than
the outer ones. These feathers are most singularly contrasted with the
rest, being of a fine dark green, glossed with gold, and at the tip
black, while the three outer feathers on the contrary are white, and
from the base downwards nearly to the tip very elegantly marked with
oblique indented bars of black, leaving the tip of each feather
immaculate; the inner one of these three exterior feathers are the same
length as the dark ones, but the next outer feather is shorter, and the
extreme exterior feather on each side shorter than the latter.
There is a variety of this bird in which the belly, instead of being
yellow, is white; the whole bird is a trifle smaller than the example
now before us, and may possibly prove hereafter to be the same species,
in a less mature state of plumage. Buffon calls it _Le Couroucou verd_.
All the birds of this tribe at present known are inhabitants of the
warmer climates of South America and India. Our present subject is a
native of Cayenne, where it lives in damp and retired woods, building
upon the lower branches of trees and feeding chiefly upon insects, with
which the trees and herbage in those countries abound.
This truly interesting and very beautiful species is already known in
our language by the epithet of the yellow-bellied Trogon or Curucui.
There is, however, another bird of the same genus, which has the belly
yellow, as in the present bird; we allude to the Rufous Curucui, the
better therefore to define our species we have denominated it the
yellow-bellied Green Trogon, or Curucui, as the least attention to the
difference in the general colour of the plumage will thus enable the
most cursory observer to discriminate the two species with facility and
accuracy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_3_
_London. Published by E. Donovan, as the Act
directs April 1.^{st} 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE III.
FIGURE I, I.
PAPILIO CODOMANNUS.
CODOMANNUS BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire, deep black with sanguineous bands: posterior ones beneath
with annular yellow lines and dots of blue.
* DANAI FESTIVI _Fabr._
PAPILIO CODOMANNUS: alis integerrimis atris sanguineo fasciatis:
posticis subtus lineis annularibus flavis punctisque cœruleis.
_Fabr. Spec. Ins. t. 2. p. 57. n. 253._—_Mant. Ins. 2. p. 28. n.
292._—_Ent. Syst. t. 3. p. 1. p. 53. n. 165._
Alae anticæ supra atrae basi fasciaque, quæ margines haud attingit,
sanguineis. Punctum fulvum transversum versus apicem et margo apicis
albo punctatus. Subtus fere concolores fascia tantum flava et striga
cœrulea apicis. Posticæ supra atræ vitta abbreviata fulva, subtus atræ
lineis annularibus flavis punctisque cœrulescentibus. Pectus albo
punctatum. _Fabr._
PAPILIO CODOMANNUS alis integerrimis atris sanguineo fasciatis:
posterioribus subtus lineis annularibus flavis punctisque
cœruleis. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. t. 1. p. 5. 2280. n. 473._
* * * * *
The delineations of the very beautiful butterfly that appears in the
annexed plate, are copied from a specimen in the cabinet of the late
worthy president of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks.
Fabricius had previously observed and made known throughout Europe the
description of this species with many others of the Banksian Cabinet,
but the figures of it now submitted to the amateur are the first that
have appeared.—When we consider the celebrity which the entomological
writings of Fabricius have acquired it may be satisfactory to learn that
the delineation now before us is copied from the individual specimen
which Fabricius had described, and that no other figure of this very
interesting Papilio is extant.
The upper surface of the butterfly is of a dark brown colour of peculiar
richness, crossed by stripes of deep scarlet. The insect with expanded
wings displayed in a flying position in the lower part of the plate
exemplifies this aspect of the upper surface. The lower surface is much
more beautiful; the marks and colours on the anterior pair possess
nearly the same character as those of the upper surface; the posterior
pair are very different, being marked with large annular bands of bright
yellow upon a fuscous ground, and inclosing a number of distinct spots
of cœrulean blue, which in beauty emulate the brilliancy of the finest
ultra marine: three of these blue spots are placed in the dark ground
upon the disk, the remainder are disposed in a semi-circle upon a band
of black towards the posterior extremity of the wings. This appearance
is best perceived when the insect appears in a resting position as it is
seen on one of the branches of the mimosa in the upper part of the
plate.
This insect is a native of Brazil.
FIGURE II.
PAPILIO PYRAMUS.
PYRAMUS BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob;
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire, fuscous glossed with blue, and marked with a fulvous spot;
lower wings beneath grey.
PLEBEJI RURALES, _Fabr. Sp. Ins._
HESPERIA RURALES, _Fabr. Ent. Syst._
PAPILIO PYRAMUS: alis integerrimis fuscis cœruleo micantibus, macula
fulva, posticis subtus griseis. _Fabr. Spec. Ins. 2 p. 130. n.
590._—_Mant. Ins. 2 p. 83. n. 755._
HESPERIA PYRAMUS: _Fabr. Ent. Syst. t. 3. p. 1. 323. n. 223._ Alæ omnes
fuscæ, cœruleo micantibus: macula magna, in medio fulva. Anticæ,
subtus concolores, posticæ griseæ sive cinereo fuscoque variæ.
_Fabr._
* * * * *
Fabricius describes Papilio Pyramus as a new species of the genus from
the drawings of the late Mr. Jones, of Chelsea, a gentleman of fortune
who had long devoted his attention to this peculiar tribe of insects,
the Papiliones, and whose labours tended in a very eminent degree to aid
those of Fabricius. In return for this assistance, Fabricius affixed to
each of those insects the names under which they were destined
afterwards to appear before the world, a circumstance that may explain
sufficiently the frequent references of the Fabrician writings to those
drawings, first in his _Species Insectorum_, and subsequently in his
_Entomologia Systematica_. It may be further added, that the whole of
these drawings, together with the manuscripts in the hand-writing of
Fabricius were long in our own possession, during the life-time of the
very amiable proprietor, Mr. Jones, for the very liberal purpose of
copying and making known to the public whatever might appear likely to
us to promote the interest and advantage of the Science of Nature; and
that the insect now before us is one of those very rare species copied
for this purpose.
The specimen from which the painting of Mr. Jones was taken formed
originally part of the collection of the lamented Mr. Yates, the
ingenious author of an English translation of the Linnæan Fundamenta
Entomologia, that appeared about forty years ago, and who lost his life
by bathing in the river some short time afterwards.
There was a variety of this insect, pretty nearly but not exactly
according with this in the collection of an old and well-known
entomologist, the late Mr. Drury, a figure of which appeared shortly
after the publication of the Fabrician writings as the true Papilio
Pyramus. It was not precisely the same as it appeared to us from an
inspection of the specimen in the cabinet of Mr. Drury. This insect is
to be found represented in the 23rd plate of the third volume of the
Exotic Insects of that author, published in the year 1782.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
_4_
_London. Published as the Act directs, by E.
Donovan, May 1, 1822._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE IV.
VOLUTA SCAPHA var NOBILIS,
NOBLE CHINESE VOLUTE.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Animal a limax. Shell uniocellar, spiral; aperture without a beak and
sub-effuse: pillar twisted or plaited: generally without lips or
perforation.
* Ventricose, spire papillary at the tip, or terminating in an obtuse
rounded eminence.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
_Var_ NOBLE CHINESE VOLUTE: Shell smooth clouded with zig-zag brown
lines, pillar blueish and four plaited: lip subulate.
VOLUTA SCAPHA (var, NOBILIS) testa lævi nebulosa; lineis angularibus
fuscis columella caerulescente quadruplicata, labro subulato.
VOLUTA SCAPHA: testa rudi nebulosa: lineis angularibus fuscis columella
cærulescente quadruplicata, labro subulato.—_Gmel. Linn. Syst.
Nat. t. 1. p. 6. 3468. 121._ _Hist. Conch. t. 799. f. 6._
_Kircher 3. f. 10._ _Bonanni, c. 3. 113. f. 10._ _Klein Ostr. t.
5. f. 94._
* * * * *
The fine example from which our figure of this rare and interesting
Volute is taken, once held a distinguished place in the Conchological
department of the celebrated museum of Sir Ashton Lever. The length of
this shell is four inches and one eighth, its greatest breadth two
inches and three eighths; the colour a kind of buff with an olivaceous
tint, and the whole surface traversed with a number of irregularly
undulated or zig-zag lines of dark brown, disposed longitudinally
throughout: the peculiar character of which will be conceived more
readily from the delineation than from any explanation that can be
conveyed by words. These longitudinal lines are numerous upon the back
or superior surface of the first wreath of the shell, and extends also
on the lower surface as far as the dilated space of the columella or
pillar lip; which latter is of a pure white and destitute of any
markings. The mouth or aperture with the interior of the shell is also
white, and the plaits of the pillar, which constitutes one of the most
essential characters of the genus Volute, are prominent and well
defined.