138 Transactions. — Zoology. 



Art. XXXI. — On a new Paper Nautilus (Argonauta bulleri). 



By T. W. Kirk. 



[Read before Die Wellington Philosophical Society, 24th June, 1885.] 



Plate IV. 



It may be remembered that last year I had the pleasure of ex- 

 hibiting quite a fleet of " paper nautilus," and of describing a 

 new species (A. gracilis), for several specimens of which I was 

 indebted to Mr. C. H. Kobson, of Portland Island. Tbat gentle- 

 man tben informed me tbat he believed tbere was a third species 

 on the New Zealand coast, but tbat he had never been able to 

 obtain a perfect specimen. In tbe " New Zealand Journal of 

 Science " for May, 1884, he mentions having obtained a perfect 

 shell ; and in a letter lately received he says : "I told you of a 

 supposed new species of Argonaut, found by me on Portland 

 Island in March, 1884. ... I will ask you to examine, de- 

 scribe, arid name the specimen which I now forward to you. If 

 it is new, I should like it named after our mutual friend Dr. 

 Buller, who, notwithstanding all he has done for the natural 

 history of New Zealand, has only one bird dedicated to him. 

 . For some time before I obtained the shell which you 

 will receive, I felt sure that a third species visited our shores, 

 having found fragments of shells which did not seem to belong 

 either to A. tuberculata or A. gracilis; but on account of the 

 fragility of the shells in question, the pieces were always too 

 small for practical use, till I obtained the nearly perfect specimen 

 which you will receive, and which you will at a glance perceive 

 is quite distinct from either of the two species above named. I 

 wish to present it to the Colonial Museum, if new, as a type 

 specimen." 



As I have no doubt about its being a new species, I have 

 great pleasure in complying with the discoverer's wish, and 

 naming it after New Zealand's premier ornithologist. 



Description. — Shell translucent, sides much compressed, espe- 

 cially towards the keel, giving the aperture a hastate shape ; 

 sides with numerous transverse plications, which are not tuber- 

 culiferous, sides project near the spire into wing-like processes, 

 similar to those of A. tuberculata, causing this end of the aperture 

 to look nearly straight. Keels very close together, with small 

 compressed tubercles ; colour, white. 



Loc. — Portland Island. 



This shell is very much thinner, more fragile, and of finer 

 texture even than A. gracilis, and may be distinguished by the 

 general form of the shell, the shape of the aperture, the angle 

 at which the wings spring from the sides, the much narrower 

 space between the keels, and by the plications being true, not 



