describing the olivaceous kind, the type, as before remarked, of the
present species, has paid an appropriate tribute of applause to the
memory of its original discoverers. “It is,” says he, “to the Voyages of
the celebrated Captain Cook, and to the researches of the indefatigable
Naturalists who accompanied him, that we owe the knowledge of this fine
and magnificent shell.” “This shell,” he adds, “appears to be exposed to
such a swarm of aggressors, that his Mollusca (or animal) must lead a
life of activity and war: his shelly covering is ploughed, or furrowed,
and pierced by a host of enemies, and he must necessarily employ almost
the whole of life in repressing their attacks, and in constantly
repairing the breaches and perforations they occasion, by the exudation
of the nacrous molecules, or fluid, with which nature has furnished him,
in order to preserve the inner coating of his shelly habitation entire.”
Such is really the appearance of this shell in general; we have seen it
so completely despoiled of its exterior coating by these attacks, as to
render it impossible to form any tolerable conception of the shell when
perfect; even an approach towards perfection in its outer coating is
very rare. The most complete of its kind in the collection of the late
Admiral Bligh, and probably selected as the best he ever met with, was
perfect in this respect than might be expected. By one of those rare
chances which sometimes happen, the Roseate variety, which forms the
subject of our present illustration, had entirely escaped every accident
of this nature, insomuch, that its figure may be regarded as that of a
very perfect shell.
The earliest figures of the common, or olivaceous kind, occurs in the
work of Chemnitz, and among the plates of Martin. Gmelin quotes the
former, and describes the shell under the name of Trochus Imperialis. It
is truly a Trochus of the Linnæan classification, but not, it appears,
of any later writer, excepting those of the Linnæan school. Sometimes it
has been generically classed as a species of SOLARIUM, a name assigned
by Lamarck to the Trochi possessing the character of the Linnæan
_Trochus Perspectivus_, and which he renders into his own language as a
generical epithet, by the name _Cadran_ (Sun dial). To accord exactly
with the genus Solarium, as laid down by Lamarck himself, the general
figure of the shell should be that of a depressed cone, having at the
base an umblical opening, crenulated upon the inner edge of all the
spires; as may be perceived in looking down the umbilical opening of
Trochus perspectivus; and finally, the opening of the mouth should be
almost quadrangular. This is the character of SOLARIUM, as proposed by
Lamarck, and which does not agree exactly with the shell before us.[9]
Denys de Montfort constitutes another genus of this shell, which he
denominates IMPERATOR (_Conchyliologie Systematique T. 2. p. 199_) in
the French, L’EMPEREUR. The olivaceous kind he calls Imperator
aureolatus, l’Empereur couronné. The character of this new genus,
Imperator, consists in the shell having a regular spire: in being
imbricated, or covered with scales, like tiling upon the roof of a
house: the carina of the whorls armed; the armament, for example, in the
shell before us, consisting of a kind of frieze or curled foliage-like
plates which succeed each other with great regularity: it has an
umbilicus, which, in the present shell is large and deep; the mouth of
the shell angular and entire; pillar lip spreading somewhat like a fan;
and the exterior lip cut off. We have deemed it requisite to advert to
these new genera, but as the shell itself is so clearly a Trochus, we
have not thought it necessary to remove it from the place in the Linnæan
System to which Gmelin had assigned.
-----
Footnote 7:
This article is thus described in the last day’s sale, lot 81, “An
elegant and unique pink variety of the imperial sun, drawn up with the
anchor of a ship, from the depth of sixty fathoms, in Cook’s Straits,
New Zealand.” Sold for £24 3s.
Footnote 8:
In Orchard-street, Portman-square, Thursday, April 13th, 1815. _Vide_
lot 84.
Footnote 9:
_Système des animaux sans vertèbres, p. 86._
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XII.
PAPILIO EGÆA
EGÆA’S BUTTERFLY.
ORDER
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* NYMPH. GEMM.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented: above black, with a common white band: posterior pair
with two ocellar spots beneath.
PAPILIO EGÆA: alis dentatis supra nigris: fascia communi alba, posticis
subtus ocellis duobus. _Fabr. Syst. Ent. 496. 231._—_Spec. Ins.
T. 2. 79. 351._—_Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. 100. 309._
Parvus. Alæ omnes supra nigræ, basi cyaneo nitentes, in medio fascia
communi anteriorum interrupta, alba. Maculæ duæ parvæ, albæ versus
apicem alæ anterioris; subtus anticæ fuscæ maculis albis lunulaque
media, ferruginea. Posticæ basi fasciis albis fuscisque alternis disco
niveo, macula biloba, fusca, et in hac ocelli duo atri, iride ferruginea
pupillaque magna, cyanea. Margo posticus flavescens. _Fabr. Ent. Syst.
T. 3. p. 1. 309._
* * * * *
We have much pleasure in assuring our readers that the present figures
of this very elegant and rare Papilio, are the first that have appeared
in illustration of the species. This becomes the more incumbent to
observe, because those figures afford an elucidation of some moment at
least, to the writings of an Entomologist of acknowledged eminence, the
late Professor Fabricius: he had described the species in his several
works as above adverted to, under the name of Papilio Egæa, but these
descriptions have remained before the learned world for nearly half a
century without any pictorial illustration. The existence of such a
species is therefore well known, but from description only, and this
circumstance, it is presumed, will tend to confer more real interest
upon the figures now produced, than if it had been entirely undescribed,
because, heretofore, a deficiency has been in this respect perceived;
and that deficiency is now supplied by the figures submitted to our
readers in the annexed plate.
The first description of this species, as already intimated, to be found
among authors, is that given by Fabricius in his _Systematica
Entomologia_: subsequently it appeared in his work entitled _Species
Insectorum_, and lastly in his _Entomologia Systematica_, as inserted
among our synonyms. It is these authorities that have supplied Gmelin
with the description of the species as we find introduced by him, into
the last edition of the Linnæan Systema Naturæ.
The Fabrician description of this insect was taken in the first
instance, _Syst. Ent._ from a specimen in the Hunterian collection: the
same description occurs again in _Spec. Ins._ and lastly, in far more
copious detail in _Ent. Syst._ This latter description given by
Fabricius, though by some oversight of its author, not identified by any
reference with the drawings of Mr. Jones, was certainly derived from
that source of authority; a point we have been enabled to ascertain,
both upon the kind information of our late worthy friend Mr. Jones
himself, and also from the manuscripts in the hand-writing of Fabricius,
which Mr. Jones was pleased to place in our hands, in order to assure
us, there could be no uncertainty in this respect from any lapse of
memory. Fabricius refers for his Papilio Egæa to the Hunterian cabinet.
There was a specimen of this insect in that collection, but it may not
be improper to observe that the specimen from which the drawing of this
species, Papilio Egæa, by Mr. Jones, was taken, as it appeared from
these MSS. was one preserved in the cabinet of Mr. Drury, the venerable
author of a well known work on Exotic insects, published towards the
close of the last century. We may also add, that this insect, with many
others which Mr. Jones had figured, and Fabricius had described, from
that extensive and valuable cabinet, devolved into our hands after the
death of its proprietor, the whole collection having been dispersed by
public sale in the month of May, 1805.
We have been thus minute in the production of authorities, in order to
demonstrate that we have not ventured upon the hazard of conjecture to
submit the present figures as those of the true Papilio Egæa of
Fabricius; and, consequently, of all later writers who have relied upon
his evidence. In stating this, it may not be amiss to add still further
for the information, as well as the gratification of the Naturalist, not
of this country alone, but of Europe generally; and indeed of every
portion of the world to which the light of science may extend, that we
are in possession of the like authorities for the whole series of those
Papiliones which Fabricius has described from the drawings of Mr. Jones,
and which, in most instances, are the only unequivocal authorities now
remaining. Possessing this means, it shall become the great object of
our care to rescue from obscurity and doubt that ample portion of the
scientific writings of Fabricius, by similar illustrations of the more
beautiful and rare species, of which no figures are extant, as often as
we conceive the requisite variety of our a miscellany will permit[10]
their introduction.
Papilio Egæa is a native of America; it is a species of that family
which is distinguished by the name of _Nymphales Gemmati_, having eyes,
or ocellated spots upon all the wings; it is represented in the annexed
plate in a flying posture, as well as in its resting position.
-----
Footnote 10:
We have lately understood that the editors of _Encyclopædie
Methodique_, now publishing in Paris, intend giving figures of the
Papiliones of the Equites family, which Fabricius has described. This
endeavour to illustrate Fabricius is under the direction of Mons.
Latreille, a Member of the National Institute, an Entomologist
himself, of acknowledged talent, and one to whose great ability, as
well as personal urbanity, we are happy to bear our testimony of
praise. In the absence of more conclusive authority, the conjectures
of Mons. Latreille would be, unquestionably, useful; but we shall,
ourselves, tread the same path, and as we trust, may assist also, in
no small degree to dispel the darkness which at present overshadows
this fair portion of the science. As we are, ourselves, possessed of
the authentic evidences, by means of which, the species of Fabricius
can be immediately identified, we have no occasion to wander into the
labyrinths of conjecture: we at once arrive at the certainty of truth.
The annunciation of this design, on the part of the French editors,
leads to a conclusion of the importance attached to this endeavour: it
need be only stated on our part, that the illustrations we shall
subjoin to such of the Fabrician species as may pass under our own
observations, will be precisely taken from the individual objects
which Fabricius has described.
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ENTOMOLOGY.
PLATE XIII.
PAPILIO PYLADES
PYLADES BUTTERFLY.
LEPIDOPTERA.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob:
wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.
* EQUITES ACHIVI.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Wings indented, snowy: border black with white dots: ocellar spot in the
anal angle of the posterior wings rufous.
PAPILIO PYLADES: alis dentatis niveis: limbo atro albo punctato, ocello
anguli ani rufo. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p. 1. 100. 34._
_Jon. pict. T. 1._
Alæ omnes supra atræ, albo punctatæ disco omni albo, immaculato. Angulus
ani ocello rufo. Subtus pallide flavescentes, albo punctatæ discoque
albo. Linea rubra a basi ad medium costæ. _Fabr. Ent. Syst. T. 3. p.
34._
* * * * *
The Entomologist of the present day must naturally remain under some
uncertainty as to the identity of the Fabrician Papilio Pylades, since
no figure whatever has hitherto appeared in elucidation of this rare
Papilio; and in this instance, as in almost every other, whatever
advantage we may be able to derive from the very accurate and elaborate
descriptions of our author, it would be absurd to deny that a faithful
delineation of the insect described, is not essentially requisite, in
order to determine with perfect satisfaction, the precise species
Fabricius had intended.
But, besides the want of a correct delineation, there is yet another
circumstance, not, perhaps, at present known, which might have tended
also to perpetuate this ambiguity, had it not been in our power to
explain it: the intimation of which, it is presumed, will be considered
useful by the scientific Entomologist. Previous to the time of Fabricius
this elegant species had been unnoticed by any author. Fabricius
describes it in his Entomologia Systematica, and refers for the specimen
so described to the Cabinet of Mr. Francillon. That the insect, to which
he adverts, was included in that celebrated cabinet, we are well assured
from our own inspection, but it stood there unaccompanied by any
indication of its being a specimen described by Fabricius, or even a
Fabrician species. The truth is, that Professor Fabricius, upon this
occasion, as in some others, took his description, not from the specimen
itself, but from the drawings of Mr. Jones, of Chelsea, which had been
copied from the specimen in the cabinet of Mr. Francillon, and it was to
the drawing therefore of Mr. Jones, and not to the specimen of Mr.
Francillon’s cabinet that Fabricius annexed the name of Pylades. Those
drawings must for this reason be now considered as the only positive
memorial of the identity of the Fabrician species, Papilio Pylades, that
remains extant at this time. The figures, it may be added, which are
submitted in the annexed plate, are faithful copies from the original
drawings of Mr. Jones, so inscribed in the hand writing of Fabricius, a
circumstance that must remove every shade of doubt as to the individual
object to which Fabricius had assigned that appellation.
Papilio Pylades is a species of the Butterfly tribe, of moderate size,
in comparison with the generality of those which appertain to the same
family, the _Equites Achivi_ of Fabricius. The upper surface exhibits an
appearance of much simplicity and elegance: the disk is white, and the
broad black limb, or border, by which it is surrounded, is marked with a
number of spots and semilunar marks of white disposed with much
regularity. The disk of the lower surface is also white, but surrounded
with a pale brown, or fulvous limb, and marked with white spots in the
same manner as the broad black border on the upper surface. A few of the
white spots on this fulvous border are surrounded by black lines and
spaces. There is also a red band marked with black and blueish spots,
that extends along the main or anterior rib of the upper wings, from the
base, as far as the middle of the wing, and a spot of red at the base of
the posterior pair.
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[Illustration:
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_London. Pub^d. as the Act directs by E. Donovan
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ORNITHOLOGY.
PLATE XIV.
AMPELIS CAYANA
PURPLE-THROATED CHATTERER.
PASSERES.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill straight, convex, slightly incurvate: mandibles notched: nostrils
covered with bristles: tongue acute, cartilaginous, bifid: middle toe
connected at the base to the outer one.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Cærulean blue: neck beneath violet: quill and tail feathers black, edged
with blue.
AMPELIS CAYANA: nitida cærulea, collo subtus violaceo. _Linn. Syst. 1.
p. 298. 6._—_Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 840._
AMPELIS CAYANA: nitida cærulea, collo subtus violaceo remigibus
rectricibusque nigris cæruleo marginatis. _Lath. Ind. Orn. 1.
365. 3._
Cotinga Cayanensis. _Briss. 2. p. 344. 32. t. 34. f. 3._
Lanius Ococolin. _Klein. av. p. 54. 6._—_Seba. ii. p. 102. t. 96. f. 3._
Cotinga de Cayenne, Quereiva. _Buff. 4. p. 444._—_Pl. Enl. 624._
Purple-Throated Chatterer. _Lath. Syn. 3. p. 95. 3._
* * * * *
The Purple-Throated Chatterer is assuredly one of the most beautiful of
the feathered race, at present known; the general colour of the plumage,
a blue of most transcendant brightness, and highly changeable, varying
from a fine cærulean, or azure, to a green of equal delicacy and beauty.
There is an intermixture of black disposed in spots throughout; one half
of each feather, from the base, being black, and only the tips blue, so
that the plumage appears more or less spotted with black, as the
feathers are ruffled or misplaced from their natural position. The
region of the chin and throat is of a beautiful crimson purple, whence
its name of Purple-Throated Chatterer. The greater wing coverts are
black, varied and spotted with blue: the quills and tail black with blue
margins: the bill black with the lower mandible rather paler: the legs
black.
This brilliant species of the Ampelis tribe has been sometimes
denominated the Ultramarine Thrush, and not unfrequently the Ultramarine
Starling: its size resembles that of the Starling, and there is also a
general similitude in its form and manners, but it is, nevertheless
generically distinct.
Inhabits Cayenne, and probably some other parts of South America.
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XV.
MUREX FOLIATUS
FOLIATED MUREX
OR, FOLIATED ROCK SHELL.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, rough with membranaceous sutures: aperture oval, ending in
an entire straight or slightly ascending canal.
* Sutures expanding into crisped foliations: beak abbreviated PURPURA
_Gmel._
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Three rows of foliations: aperture one-toothed.
MUREX FOLIATUS: testa trifariam frondosa: apertura unidentata. _Gmel.
Linn. Syst. T. 1. p. 6. 3529. 174._—_Martyn Conch. 2. t. 66._
MUREX Purpura alata, testa triangulari, transversim costata trifariam
frondosa, frondibus alatis membranaceis instructa cauda recta clausa,
labro latissimo, labio adnato, apertura subovata, fauce alba. _Chemn.
Conch. 10. f. 1538._
* * * * *
This is a shell far more remarkable for the singularity of its growth,
than for any elegance or beauty of its colouring. The peculiarity of its
character consists in the large, erect, and longitudinal foliations,
which are disposed in three distinct, and nearly equi-distant series
throughout the whole length of the shell: for they appear in continuity
upon every whorl, from the base to the apex. It is from this peculiarity
that the species has obtained the very appropriate appellation of
foliatus, or Foliated Rock Shell.
In point of colour, as before observed, the Murex foliatus is not
particularly conspicuous, and they are of a texture so delicate that it
almost constantly occurs in a bleached or depauperated state; it is also
a very fragile shell, and from this cause very liable to be broken. When
in fine condition, as in the example selected, for the representation
now before us, the general hue is a lacteal white; the body of the
shell, externally, a deep tawny, with the foliations whitish, and the
opening, or mouth of the shell, very delicately tinted with a violaceous
hue. Sometimes the foliations have the appearance of fine white
porcelain.
This is esteemed a scarce shell, and very rarely occurs perfect, or in a
living state. Found on the sea coast of North America.
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CONCHOLOGY.
PLATE XVI.
MUREX SCORPIO
var MINOR
LEAST STAG’S HORN MUREX.
UNIVALVE.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Shell spiral, rough with membranaceous sutures: aperture oval, ending in
an entire straight, or slightly ascending canal.
* _Sutures expanding into crisped foliations: beak abbreviated._ PURPURA
_Gmel._
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Shell with four rows of foliations: spire capitate: beak truncated.
MUREX SCORPIO: testa quadrifariam frondosa: spira capitata, cauda
truncata. _Mus. Lud. Ulr. 628. n. 296._—_Gmel. Linn. Syst. T. 1.
p. 6. 3529. 14._—_Rumpf. Mus. t. 26. f. D._—_Seba. Mus. 3. tab.
77. fig. 13. 16._
Cochlis volutata muricata parva sex duplici laciniarum serie horrida,
spiris quatuor capitatis faucibus, quasi Scorpionum forficulis armatis.
_Purpura_ quæ SCORPIO Auctorum. _Chemn._
* * * * *
The extraordinary form of this very rare and singular kind of Murex
cannot fail to interest the curious observer. The shell is of the spiral
kind, with an oval aperture; the head of the spire large or tumid, and
the first or body whorl beset with four distinct longitudinal rows or
series of elongated foliations or processes. These last mentioned
appendages are flat and somewhat cylindrical from the base nearly to
their summits, where they become cleft or furcate, expanding most
commonly into two, sometimes three, or rarely four distinct little
lobes, and the radiation of these process by which the exterior margin
of the aperture is encircled, have a groove or canal extending from the
margin of the lip to the cleft or lobate summits.
The learned Seba, to whom this very remarkable shell, it appears, was
known, has well observed in speaking of the Murices, which he describes,
that this kind is more particularly distinguished by the greater
disproportion of those advanced processes in comparison with the size of
the body of the shell than any other of his species; so that their
superior length in this respect was, in his opinion, to be considered
truly characteristic of the species.* It is from these processes it may
be also added, that this curious shell has been variously and not
unfrequently fantastically designated by appellations that cannot very
readily be reconciled in our ideas with any object they have been
supposed to resemble, even admitting that latitude of fancy which may be
tolerated when we are entirely aware that the assimilation is remote.
Thus this shell has obtained in various languages names according with
those of the Ragged Spike Whelk, the Stag’s Horn Whelk, the Skeleton,
Water Trough, and others of no less vague import. The Least Ragged Whelk
is a name assigned to it by our countryman Petiver: the Scorpion Shell
is a very old name for it among the early collectors, it is the Murex
Scorpio of Rumpfius. In France it was distinguished formerly by the name
of _Patte de Crapaud_, (the Toad’s Foot) because, says the author of
Davila’s Catalogue, besides the spires on the body, the exterior edge of
the lip is bordered with others that are very large and flat at the
extremity, and no doubt, for the same reason it is called by Seba
_Bufonis Pedes_. It was known at that time also among the collectors in
Holland by the name of the Stag’s Horn,[11] from a remote similitude
which these processes are supposed to bear to the horns of that
quadruped. And lastly, in conclusion it may be added, that for nearly
half a century past it has been distinguished among the collectors of
this country by a title not less whimsical, namely, the “Water Wheel,”
from a fancied similitude the contour of the shell and its
verticillation of processes bear to the circle and lamellar appendages
or sweeps of a water wheel.