Zoological Society. 443 



black colouring occupies but little space, but in ^ach successive 

 feather it increases in extent. The feathers of the tail are of a very 

 dark green colour above, inclining to black ; beneath they are black, 

 but exhibit indistinct purple reflections. The rump, upper and un- 

 der tail coverts, thighs, and vent are black, obscurely tinted with 

 purple or green in parts. The tarsi are black. The eyes are hazel, 

 and the naked, or almost naked, space around the eye, is of a crimson 

 colour ; not carunculated, as in C. Buffonii and C. leucotis. 



A highly-interesting and valuable series of specimens of the Paper 

 Nautilus (Argonauta Arc/o), consisting of the animals and their 

 shells of various sizes, of ova in various stages of development, 

 and of fractured shells in different stages of reparation, were ex- 

 hibited and commented on by Professor Owen, to whom they had 

 been transmitted for that purpose by Madame Jeanette Power. 

 Mr. Owen stated that these specimens formed part of a large collec- 

 tion, illustrative of the natural history of the. Argonaut, and bearing 

 especially on the long- debated question of the right of the Cepha- 

 lopod inhabiting the Argonaut shell to be considered as the true 

 fabricator of that shell. 



This collection was formed by Madame Power in Sicily in the 

 year 1838, during which period she w T as engaged in repeating her 

 experiments and observations on the Argonaut, having then full 

 cognizance of the nature of the little parasite (Hectocotylus, Cuv.), 

 which had misled her in regard to the development of the Argonaut 

 in a previous suite of experiments described by her in the Transac- 

 tions of the Giaenian Academy for 1836. 



As this mistake had been somewhat illogically dwelt on, to depre- 

 ciate the value of other observations detailed in Madame Power's 

 Memoir, Mr. Owen observed, that it was highly satisfactory to 

 find that the most important of the statements in that memoir had 

 been subsequently repeated and confirmed by an able French mala- 

 cologist, M. Sander Rang. 



The collection of Argonauts, — Cephalopods and shells, — preserved 

 in spirits, included twenty specimens, at different periods of growth, 

 the smallest having a shell weighing not more than one grain and 

 a half, the remainder increasing, by small gradations, to the com- 

 mon-sized mature individual. 



The inductions, w T hich the present collection of Argonauts of 

 different ages and sizes legitimately sustained, w r ere in exact ac- 

 cordance with Madame Power's belief that the Cephalopod was the 

 true constructor of the shell, while no contradictory inference had 

 been, or could be, deduced from an examination of the specimens 

 themselves. 



