20*6 On some rare Fossils of' Vestena Nova. 



This feather was discovered in 1777? and came into the 

 possession of I. 1, Dionisi, canon of the cathedral of Ve- 

 rona, who is fond of the study of natural history. It was 

 considered as a very rare object, for it was the first fealher 

 ever found in the quarries ot Vestena Nt :va. 



In regard to the first feather that is to say, the one re- 

 presented fig. 1, it was sold, about ten years ago, to count 

 Ignatius Ronconi, of Florence, then resident at Verona, by 

 the workmen, who had taken it from that portion of the 

 quarry of which M. de Gazola is proprietor. These work- 

 men, tempted by the price which M. Ronconi, who was then 

 forming a collection, set on this rare article, privately be- 

 trayed the confidence of the person who employed them as 

 day-labourers. M. de Gazola, some time after, purchased 

 from the heirs of M. Ronconi the feather with its double, 

 impression : there is seen on the stone of one of the coun- 

 ter-parts a small fish. M. de Gazola, when he gave the 

 feather to the Museum which I have caused to be engraved, 

 reserved that part to which the fish is attached; but being 

 pleased with the reception given to him by the professors of 

 the Museum, he has promised to deposit the second frag- 

 ment in the galleries of geology, along with that which is 

 already in it. 



I have caused to be delineated on the same plate a small 

 crab and a marine insect, presented by M. Gazola along 

 with the stones which contain feathers: both of them were 

 found in the quarrry of Vestena Nova. 



The marine insect, fig. 4. seems to belong to the genus 

 pycnogomim of Fabricius, or to a genus which must ap- 

 proach very near to it. It is not an asilus attached to the 

 fish, for the asili have fourteen claws, and their mouth is 

 *not formed into a tube; whereas the pyc?wgomcm has only 

 eight claws, and its mouth is tubular; a character found in 

 the insect of Vestena Nova, fig. 4. Rondelet has given 

 the figure of an insect of the Mediterranean, which has a 

 great relation to the one in question; he distinguishes it, 

 after Aristotle, by the Greek name oi<rh*$, in Latin, asilu$> 

 and in French, thon marin. He has given an engraving and 

 description of it from the insect which he found adhering 

 under the fins of a tunny fish in the Mediterranean. The 

 figure given by Rondelet* resembles, in regard to the cha- 

 racter 



* *' Having seen the animal.'* says Rondelet, " I have ar'ded what 

 follows, to the description of Aristotle : Instead of mouth it has a small 

 long tube, and on both sidss of the body th^-rc are, as it were, two han^s 

 which turn towards the mouth j thjen foilo.vs the hollow pat of the 



body, 



