constitute a species of the Genus Buccinum, the Buccinum Harpa of that
author. Previous to the time of Linnæus, the best Conchologists had
considered those particular shells that possess the essential characters
of the Common Harp Shell, as a distinct genus. Rumpfius so adopts it
under the name of Harpa; and Argenville subsequently regarding that
particular kind called Buccinum Harpa, by Linnæus, as the type of the
genus, denominates it, by way of eminence, Harpa Nobilis. By some
inconceivable error it has been asserted that Lamarck was the first
author who separated the family of Harps from the genus Buccinum; this
is evidently a mistake, as we perceive from Rumpfius and Argenville, and
as we are now proceeding to shew from the “_Catalogue Systématique et
Raisonné_,” of the once celebrated cabinet of M. de Davilla; besides
which, some others might be added, were it material to notice them.
As we have introduced the subject of Davilla’s Cabinet, it will,
perhaps, afford some pleasure to many of our readers if we mention a few
of those very beautiful varieties of this natural family of the Harps,
which were once concentrated in that costly collection. These,
collectively, appear to have presented a series of the most choice and
interesting of the varieties at that time known. The distinctions are
taken from the number of the prominent ridges with which these shells
are longitudinally traversed, and these, it hence appears, varied from
thirteen to fourteen and fifteen in number. One of these, a very fine
shell, and deemed the type of the _Harpe_ tribe, was the Harpa Nobilis
of D’Argenville: it had fifteen ribs, was very regularly marked with
alternate zic-zac lines of brown and white, or rather of brown lines
disposed upon a white ground, with a small intermediate incurvate line
of grey traversing the middle of each of the white lines, in the same,
direction as those of brown; a disposition of marking, very similar to
the zic-zac lineations upon the shell represented in the annexed plate.
There were two other Harps, in which the number of ribs, or ridges,
amounted to no more than fourteen, so that the sides were larger; and
they were also more inclined than in the preceding. These were marbled,
and marked with streaks and dashes of rose colour, yellow, white, and
chesnut, a large intermediate and rather deeper coloured zone, or band,
passed round the middle of the shell, and two large spots of brown
appeared on the under surface of the shell. There were yet two other
Harps, which differed in their colours and markings from the preceding;
one of these had only twelve ribs, or ridges, the other thirteen. The
colours in one of these were paler, in the other the zic-zac lines, were
more contiguous, or placed closer, and the longitudinal striæ less
distinct or prominent. And besides these, there were several others, all
which differed in some peculiarities of inferior moment, principally in
the paleness or intensity of their colours, and variations in the
disposition of the dark and paler spaces with which the shells were
marbled.
The above series of Davila presents us with a pretty ample elucidation
of the presumed varieties of that beautiful species the Linnæan Buccinum
Harpa. We say, only the presumed varieties, because in the present state
of the Conchological Science there appears to be a very strong
propensity among collectors to increase the number of the species, by
considering every trivial variation, or accidental circumstance in the
growth of shells, as so many characteristic indications of new species;
a disposition that the best Conchologists cannot but disapprove.
Experience teaches us that there is no class of beings in the creation,
in which nature is more sportive, than the testaceous tribes; none in
which a greater caution is required in the precise determination of what
are species and what varieties only: and among other local causes the
influence of climates in different regions are not the least powerful in
producing those variations. With the best experience, and the advantage
of many years assiduous application, the Conchologist may be sometimes
in doubt, and hence it is not likely that a slight acquaintance, only,
with the subject will be found sufficient to enable him to pronounce
with definitive satisfaction the exact distinction between approximating
species and the sportive varieties into which they sometimes divaricate.
These remarks cannot be more forcibly exemplified than in the series of
the presumed varieties of the Buccinum Harpa. Some of these are indeed
so very dissimilar as to justify a persuasion that they may be
specifically distinct, and yet again, these are blended so intimately
with others, which are confessedly varieties, that it demands the utmost
caution in pronouncing which are species, and which varieties or
transitions only. This is the impression under which the best informed
Conchologists have ever ventured to define the shells which constitute
the natural family of the Harps, and may serve to afford us a sufficient
explanation of the causes of those differences in opinion which so
manifestly prevail among them.
It may not be very generally known, excepting only among Naturalists,
that the late Dr. Solander had devoted much attention to this intricate
science: his arrangement of shells was designed as an amendment upon
that of Linnæus. This arrangement was never made public; it remained in
manuscript in the library of the late Sir Joseph Banks. From a perusal
of these MSS. it appears that Dr. Solander had conceived the necessity
of a new disposition of the shells comprised in general as varieties of
this species. Some he allows to remain varieties, while others
constitute, in his ideas, species nearly analogous, but nevertheless
distinct. He does not propose the formation of an independant genus of
the Harp family, nor the removal of those shells from the genus
Buccinum, in which Linnæus places the species Harpa: he proposes only to
assemble together the least equivocal varieties of that shell, together
with that which he considers as the type of the Linnæan species, the
true Harpa Nobilis of preceding authors; and to allow the others to
remain as species distinct from the Linnæan shell. It will be hence
perceived that Dr. Solander’s constitutes several distinct species among
the number of those Harps, which other writers, and Gmelin among the
rest, regard as varieties only of the common kind. In the manuscripts of
Dr. Solander the very beautiful Harp shell now before us stands as a
distinct species from Buccinum Harpa, under the name of _Buccinum
testudo_. Some of the French Naturalists have called it _Harpa
testudinaria_: it was placed under that name, and its synonymous
appellation _L’ecaille de Tortue_ in the once celebrated Museum of Mons.
de Colonne, the French Minister of State, under Louis the XVI: the
definitive English name of Tortoiseshell Harp was assigned to it by Mr.
George Humphrey, and from his known authority in the study of shells,
this variety has been since distinguished among collectors in our
country by that appropriate appellation. All these names, it will be
scarcely necessary to add, are devised in allusion to that resemblance
which its peculiarly beautiful variegations of colour are conceived to
bear, to those of tortoiseshell, when transparent and exposed to light.
We have been at some pains in our endeavours to reconcile our mind to
the idea of introducing this Tortoiseshell Harp as a species distinct
from the Buccinum Harpa, in conformity with the opinion of Dr. Solander.
We have compared our shell with the acknowledged type of the Linnæan
species, with every attention, and are compelled, in truth, to allow,
that however distinct it may appear upon the first glance of inspection,
we cannot implicitly accede to the persuasion of its being specifically
distinct. Placing this remarkable variety with that particular shell,
the true Buccinum Harpa, the less informed Conchologist would assume as
certain that the difference existing between the two removed them
sufficiently from each other. Arrange these, however, with those
varieties and transitions of the Common Harp that approach the nearest
in appearance to both kinds, and we shall then perceive such a close
analogy, such an intermediate catenation, as will induce a pause, and
certainly under the impression with which we view them, an idea that
these variations arise only from local causes, and are not specifical
distinctions. As a marked and well distinguished variety we have
retained the term _testudo_, which Dr. Solander had assigned to it; but
as a distinctive appellation of it as a variety, and not as a shell
altogether distinct.
That it may not be imagined we feel any disposition to object against
those changes in the Science of Conchology, which the more advanced
state of our present knowledge may demand, we have no hesitation in
adding that in our own opinion the _Harpa_ family should constitute a
very distinct tribe from the other Buccini; we believe, also, that had
Linnæus lived to reconsider them, he would have comprehended them
together as a genus. The French writers have long since done so. De
Monfort advances that Lamarck was the first who separated the Harps from
the Linnæan Buccinum. This we have already shewn to be an error.
Lamarck’s example in proposing them as a genus in his _Système des
Animaux sans Vertèbres_, published in the year 1801, and his subsequent
observations in other writings, has tended to establish them as a genus;
he was not its first proposer.
It may not be amiss, in conclusion, to observe, that Lamarck has taken
for the type of his genus, the variety figured by Lister, in his
Conchology, _tab._ 992 f. 55, the shell which he denominates Harpa
Ventricosa. The leading character of his genus consists in the shell
being of an oval form, ventricose or swollen, and having the surface
furnished or beset with longitudinal, parallel, and sharp or acutely
edged ribs. The opening or mouth, oblong, ample, abbreviated or cut off
below, and without canal. The pillar, or inner lip, smooth, or without
plaits or tubercles, and terminating in a point at the base. The absence
of a canal is one material character by which the Harpa genus, as thus
laid down, is to be distinguished from the new genus Trophon, to which,
in some respects, at least, it bears a general resemblance. The
definition of the genus by De Montfort is rather different from that of
Lamarck: according to De Montfort the shells of this family are globose;
the first whorl very far surpassing the rest in size, and the spire
obtuse. The mouth is very open. The pillar or inner lip smooth and
rounded. The outer lip bordered by an acutely edged rib or ridge,
running paralled to those with which the shell is traversed externally,
and the base cut off. The spire in the true Harpa, according to this
writer, forms a kind of little domes, one surmounting the other, and the
spire, instead of ending in an acute point, terminates in a small
mammillated knob.
All the known varieties of this natural family are inhabitants of the
deep waters of the sea, and the animal inhabitants appear to have
remained hitherto undescribed. They are confined chiefly to the Indian
Seas. The variety known by the name of Nobilis is a native of Japan;
there is another found in China, distinguished by the name of Chinensis:
both these are considered by Dr. Solander as the Buccinum Harpa of
Linnæus: there is one kind found at Ceylon, and another at Madagascar,
which are to be esteemed distinct species. The sanguineous Harp, from
the Coast of Guinea, is the Buccinum pandura of Solander. The Harp,
distinguished by having a far greater number of elevated ribs than any
of the preceding, is from the seas of the Phillippine Isles, and is
certainly a distinct species. The very fine variety which constitutes
the more immediate object of our present illustration, the Tortoiseshell
Harp, is a native of Madagascar: its length is four inches, and its
greatest breadth two inches and a half.
-----
Footnote 5:
“Testa _varicibus_ æqualibus longitudinalibus, &c.” is an incorrect
reading of Professor Gmelin. If we examine the Linnæan description of
the Museum of the Queen of Sweden, _Mus. Lud. Ulr._ to which Gmelin
refers, we shall find it to be as might be naturally expected, “testa
_costis_ æqualibus;” for it is the ribs, and not for veins that
Linnæus intended. Linnæus refers to the 10th edition of his Systema
Naturæ, which is not mentioned by Gmelin, and here we again meet with
the same reading “testa _costis_ æqualibus, &c.” We have been the more
explicit in pointing out this error, because we observe that one
Conchologist, not long since, in the absence, doubtlessly, of the
moment, has translated literally the Gmelinian text in describing
Buccinum Harpa.
Footnote 6:
Lot 75 of the 60th day. July 2nd, 1806.
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE IX.
PAPILIO PSAMATHE.
PSAMATHE BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ elevated or thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating
in a knob. Wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* Danai Cand.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings entire, white; tip of the anterior pair black spotted with white,
lower ones beneath greenish with two darker bands, the anterior one
incurvate.
PAPILIO PSAMATHE: alis rotundatis integerrimis albis: anticis apice
nigris albo maculatis; posticis subtus virescentibus; fasciis
duabus obscurioribus; anteriore incurva. _Fabr. Spec. Ins. T. 3.
p. 1. 207._
* * * * *
A native of America and nearly allied to Papilio Phronima, represented
in plate 153 of the work of Cramer. It differs in having only the tip,
and not both the base and tip, black, as in Phronima. Our present
species is also distinguished further by having two white spots on the
black tip of the anterior wings, in the apex of the anterior wings being
destitute of any black spot beneath, and in the anterior band on the
lower wings beneath being incurvate.
This species has not been represented by any author. Fabricius described
it from the drawings of the late Mr. Jones, and it is from that
matchless series of designs and MSS. that the present figures are
copied.
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE X.
FRINGILLA BENGALUS
BLUE BELLIED FINCH.
ORDER
PASSERES.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill conic, straight and pointed.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Pale blue; head and back grey: sides of the head purple.
FRINGILLA BENGALUS: dilute cærulea, capite dorsoque griseis, lateribus
capitis purpureis. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 920._
FRINGILLA BENGHALUS: _Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 323. 32._ (mas.)
FRINGILLA ANGOLENSIS: _Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. p. 323. 31._ (fem.)
FRINGILLA BENGHALUS: dilute cærulea, capite dorsoque griseis, lateribus
capitis purpureis. _Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. p. 461. 91._—_Lath. Syn.
111. p. 310. 81._
Le Bengali. _Briss. Orn. 111. p. 303. 60. pl. 10. f. 1._—_Buff. Ois. iv.
p. 92._—_Pl. Enl. 115. f. 1._
Blue Bellied Finch. _Edw. pl. 131._ (female)
* * * * *
A pretty species of the Fringilla tribe, about the size of our smaller
Linnets. The bill and legs of this bird are of a pale flesh colour: the
body above, together with the wings, of a greyish brown: the lower part
of the back, rump, and whole of the underside, of a delicate azure blue;
the tail blue, of a somewhat deeper tint, and rather cuneated or
wedge-formed. This is the general appearance of the plumage in both
sexes, excepting, only, that the colours are usually somewhat brighter
in the male than the female bird; and that the male bird is
distinguished further by having a dark red spot on each side of the
head, beneath the eyes, a character altogether wanting in the female.
It should be observed that these birds vary occasionally in the colours
of their plumage, particularly in the cærulean tints of the under
surface, which sometimes inclines to a pale rufous grey, or to blue
intermixed with rufous grey; and in some instances when the state of
plumage is less mature, the latter colour predominates so entirely on
the lower surface, that only a transition tint of the azure appears upon
the breast and abdomen.
Linnæus was induced to imagine that the two sexes of this bird were
distinct species, the male he denominated _Fringilla Bengalus_, the
female _Fringilla Angolensis_; the male bird, which he happened to
describe, having been received from Bengal, the female from Angola. The
truth is, that this widely diffused species inhabits both these places
in common, with many others in Asia and Africa: in Angola, in
particular, they appear to be very common.
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XI.
TROCHUS IMPERIALIS
var α ROSEUS
PINK, OR ROSEATE, IMPERIAL SUN TROCHUS.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, more or less conic: aperture sub angular, or rounded, the
upper side transverse and contracted: pillar placed obliquely.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell conic, olive, covered with rows of arched violet scales: whorls
inflated, with a spinous radiate margin: perforation funnel-shaped and
white.
* Variety, pink or rose-coloured.
TROCHUS IMPERIALIS: testa conica olivacea, squamis violaceis seriatis
fornicatis tecta: anfractibus inflatis margine spinoso radiatis,
umbilico infundibuliformi albo. _Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. 3576.
63._—Var OLIVACEUS.
TROCHUS IMPERATOR _Chemn. T. 5. 173. 174._—Var OLIVACEUS α PINK SUN
TROCHUS _Lev. Mus._
* * * * *
We cannot for a moment hesitate to believe that in announcing to our
readers the introduction of the Pink, or Roseate Imperial Sun Trochus:
the significant appellation under which the present rarity has been for
many years distinguished, we shall awaken the attention of every
Conchologist and amateur of the science. The shell so named, formerly
constituted an object, no less conspicuous than beautiful, among the
Conchological productions treasured together in the once celebrated
Leverian Museum. And, as we possessed, through the immediate favour of
the proprietor of that Museum, John Parkinson, Esq. an unreserved access
to every article in the Museum, for the purpose of delineating the
figures, or taking the descriptions of whatever we conceived worthy of
such observation, it will be naturally imagined the Pink, or Roseate
Imperial Sun Trochus, would be esteemed of too much importance to escape
our very particular attention. The dispersion of that once celebrated
Repository of Natural History has long since removed, and probably for
ever, this exquisite rarity from the eye of public curiosity; nor indeed
is its present destination correctly known; a circumstance, it is
presumed, that cannot fail to enhance the value of a drawing, which we
have every reason for believing to be the only memorial of this kind the
pencil of the Arts have consecrated to the commemoration of the shell:
the only figure, we are assured, the proprietor ever permitted to be
taken from it.—Having premised so far, it will not be deemed superfluous
to add, that the outline of the specimen is precisely a fac-simile of
the shell itself, having been traced round its contour while lying upon
the paper, and being afterwards finished in colours upon the outlines so
struck, with every attention an object so estimable was presumed to
merit.
The history of this curious variety of the Imperial Sun Trochus is
altogether interesting, and deserves explicit mention; it is one among
the number of those rare shells which were discovered by that
distinguished navigator, Captain Cook, in his voyage round the world. It
was fished up in the Straits that divide the Island of New Zealand, now
distinguished after him, by the appellation of Cook’s Straits. Upon the
return of Captain Cook to England, he presented Sir Ashton Lever, among
other articles of great curiosity, with this particular shell, the only
one of its kind he had found. The Imperial Sun Trochus, of an olivaceous
violet hue, the shell which constitutes the type of this species, though
very scarce, occurred occasionally, but this Pink variety only in the
solitary instance before adverted to: it was drawn up, adhering to the
cable of the ship, from the depth, as it appeared, of sixty fathoms
water.[7]
In the general computation of the value of the various articles in the
Museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, submitted to government, previous
to the grant of the Lottery which transferred the possession of that
Museum from its original founder to the hands of Mr. Parkinson, this
shell was estimated at the value of _one hundred guineas_: and as this
valuation was arbitrary, that sum was considered as the worth of the
shell while it remained in the Museum. At the final dissolution of this
Museum, which took place in the months of May, June, and July of the
year 1806, this shell, like the rest, was submitted to the chance of
taste or caprice: it was sold on the last day of the sale, for the sum
of twenty three guineas, an amount considerably below its former
valuation, but sufficient, nevertheless, to shew that its attractions
were still great in the mind of the connoisseur.
The purchaser of this shell was at that time unknown, subsequently,
however, the specimen appeared among the property sold at the residence
of the Duke de Bourbon, immediately after the departure of that noblemen
for France, in the beginning of the year 1815.[8] Dr. Leach has since
that time informed us that he had given instructions for the purchase of
this shell for the British Museum: the shell does not, however, appear
in that collection, and the lamented illness of our ingenious friend, is
likely, for the present, to preclude all further inquiry respecting its
final destination.
It does not appear that this very curious variety of the Imperial Sun
Trochus is known in any of the continental cabinets: the olivaceous
kind, which as before observed, is to be regarded as the type of the
species, though esteemed scarce, is to be found in every continental
cabinet of importance. Indeed, the olive kind maintained a very high
reputation and price for many years after the time of Captain Cook, who
brought several of them to England; from whence those continental
cabinets were, in the first instances, supplied. Since that time the
same seas have been attentively explored by Admiral Bligh, in the ships
of his Majesty under his command; and through his researches, this
shell, which was once considered of such unusual rarity, has become
rather more common. The Pink, or Roseate variety, the immediate object
of our present illustration, has hitherto, however, escaped all
research, and it still remains as it was esteemed originally, after a
lapse of nearly fifty years, not merely scarce, but perfectly unique.