224 Mr. Broderip's additional Note on Argonauta. 



injunction to take care of them. The ariero, supposing that they were 

 to be prepared for breakfast, roasted thenL, and thus destroyed the shells. 

 Spix has not mentioned this shell, and I have reason to believe that 

 there is no other specimen in this country. Whether the species is con- 

 fined within narrow limits in the almost untrodden district traversed by 

 Lieut. Maw, will be an interesting subject for future inquiry. This en- 

 terprising traveller is the first European who has performed a journey 

 across the continent of South America in the line of the Maranon, or 

 Amazon River. After passing from Truxillo across the Andes to Cha- 

 chapoyas he embarked upon the river in Peru, and proceeded through- 

 out its course to Para. In the course of this expedition he collected se- 

 veral animals, which he has liberally presented, together with the subject 

 of this memoir, to the Zoological Society. 



Addenda to Argonauta.* 



In the paper on the animals found in the shells of Argonauta in the 

 last number, there is an omission which I wish to supply. Bontius in 

 his twenty-seventh chapter De Nautilo pisce, Sepiis et Holothuriis f after 

 citing part of Pliny's description, proceeds " Hactenus Plinius ; quae verba 

 " tarn naturaliter hujus Nautili formam exprimunt, quam si ipse in eo 

 " habitasset. Ac paulo post. Ita vadit alto, libumicarum ludens imagine, 

 *' et si quid pavoris interveniat, hausta se mergens aqua.'* Then 

 comes the testimony of Bontius, and, as a piece of natural history and 

 pharmacy, it should not be overlooked. " Haec quia ipse saepius vidi, et 

 " cum damno meo expertus sum, verissima esse novi : nam dum talem 

 ** pisciculum in mari captum imprudentius manibus meis contrectassem, 

 " tantus ardor manum invasit, tanquam si aqua ferventi sufFusa esset, et, 

 " nisi apposito statim alio contuso cum aqua mihi ipse subvenissem, 

 " procul dubio prcB dolore infebrim incidissem: unde ego ipsum piscera 

 ** de Holothuriorum esse genere contenderim, ut quae omnia in mari 

 " fluctuantia, tam acrem calorem attrectantibus inurunt, quod et falla- 



♦ Ante p. 57. 



t Hist. Nat. et Medic. Ind. Orient, p. 79. 



