THE MAUTILUS. 75 



whether certain species dissolve their shells and construct new 

 ones as their bodies increase in size. 



A large example of an Argonauta in the collection of the 

 Boston Society of Natural History has been frequently referred 

 to in literature. At a meeting of the Society, held March loth, 

 1854 (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 5, p. 35), it was re- 

 corded that "Dr. A. A. Gould made some remarks upon the 

 collection of shells presented to the Society by the family of the 

 late Col. Perkins. * * To one shell in particular he called 

 attention, the large Argonauta, commonly called Paper Nauti- 

 lus, and which is the largest specimen known to exist. Its 

 measurements are llf by 1\ inches; the next largest specimen 

 in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, London, measures 

 f of an inch less than this. This large specimen was brought 

 from the Indian Ocean." 



In the same vol., p. 370, this shell was again referred to 

 under the title "On the Animal of the Argonauta Shell," by 

 John C. Warren. He says: "The beautiful specimen of the 

 A. compressa Blain. presented to the Society by Col. Thomas H. 

 Perkins was also exhibited; this shell, which cost him $500, is, 

 according to Dr. Cabot who has made the comparison, the 

 largest Argonauta shell in any cabinet in Europe or America. 

 D'Orbigny in his great work gives as the measurements of the 

 largest he has examined: greatest length of the shell 9* incl; s, 

 while our specimen is 10 inches; greatest diameter of the open- 

 ing 6 inches, in our specimen it is 6J inches; greatest width of 

 the opening, including the auricular appendages, 3 incl. 

 while in ours it is four inches." 



In the Structural and Systematic Conchology, vol. I, p. 151, 

 Try on says: "The Boston Society of Natural History possesses 

 an Argonauta argo or Paper Nautilus shell, which is said to 

 have been purchased for 8500 by the gentleman who presented 

 it to that Society. It is a common species, and the only reason. 

 for the great valuation of this specimen is that its diameter is 

 about two or three inches greater than any other individual 

 known to naturalists." 



Tryon again refers to this specimen in the Manual of Con- 

 chology, vol. 1, p. 136. This specimen was later figured and 



