528 Illustrated Zoological Notices. 



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the Argonaut having power to repair any loss of substance 

 with fresh deposit, agreeing in every respect with the original 

 shell. By a reference to the woodcut, it will be seen that a 

 triangular breach of about 1 in. in depth has been made in 

 the margin of the shell ; and this has been susequently repaired 

 in a most beautiful manner, the union of the newly formed 

 parts with the old being so neatly effected, that it cannot be 

 detected by touch. The reproduced portion has also the 

 " texture" " solidity" and " whiteness " of the rest of the 

 shell. I have placed this specimen in the museum of the 

 Zoological Society, where it is open to the inspection of any 

 one curious upon the subject. 



Being now in possession of the evidence necessary to 

 show that the constructor of the Argonaut had the same 

 reparative powers as other testaceous Molluscs, I naturally 

 felt interested to obtain a specimen in which the reparation 

 had been effected by means of the false membrane so 

 minutely described by Captain Rang, and which it was clear 

 was really the work of the Ocythoe. Here, however, two 

 difficulties presented themselves : in the first place, the im- 

 perfection would be so strongly marked where an Argonaut 

 had been repaired with only membrane, that very few in this 

 condition would be likely to reach this country, so long as 

 entire shells could readily be procured; and, secondly, if, 

 among a large series of specimens, a solitary example of the 

 kind escaped observation, the process which the shells undergo 

 for the purpose of bleaching and cleaning them might be 

 expected to remove all traces of this reparative action. Under 

 these circumstances, I hardly expected to meet with any facts 

 bearing upon the result of Captain Rang's observations ; but, 

 in looking over the large collection of shells belonging to Mr. 

 Graham of Ludgate Hill, I was agreeably surprised by de- 

 tecting an Argonaut with several small apertures in the body 

 of the shell, across which a diaphragm had been thrown of 

 precisely the same nature as that described by Captain Rang ; 

 the membrane, in this instance, being preserved, probably from 

 the small size of the apertures, and from their not being 

 marginal. 



At a recent meeting of the Zoological Society of London 

 (August 22. 1837), I exhibited the two specimens of which 

 1 have spoken, along with several others, in which injury to 

 a greater extent than in the one figured had been repaired, 

 and in a similar manner. On that occasion, I argued rather 

 strongly in favour of the parasitic character of the Ocythoe, 

 from the evidence which had been adduced by Captain Rang 

 respecting its non-reparative powers ; it being clear from 



