1868.] 157 [Bickmore. 



Prof. Bickmore exhibited a Kautihis pompilius in alcohol, 

 which is the only specimen ever brought to this country. 



It was obtamed at Amboiua, the chief island of the Moluccas or 

 Spice Islands. Only the second day that he was on that island 

 this mollusk was brought to him by a native ; and though he re- 

 mained for five months in those seas, and many natives were em- 

 ployed in the search for a second specimen, the one exhibited was the 

 only one he was able to obtain. The interest in regard to this specimen 

 is not so much on account of its great rarity, as because it is one of 

 the only two living representatives of a group of Cephalopods that 

 were very abundant in former geological times. 



The animal was alive when it was brought to Mr. Bickmore, and 

 was at once put into arrack, and has been perfectly preserved, the 

 mantle not having been chafed, nor even the edge of the shell notched. 

 It was taken in what the Malays call a huhu, which is a barrel-shaped 

 basket made of bambu for taking fish. The ends or heads of the 

 barrel are inverted cones, and at the apices of these cones are holes. 

 A piece of bait is suspended from within, and the whole lowered on a 

 coral reef. 



In this case it happened that one of the holes was unusually 

 large, and the nautilus crawled into the bubu, where it was found by 

 a Malay. It has been commonly believed that the nautilus occa- 

 sionally i-ises to the surface, and " setting its sails, floats over the sea." 

 This was first reported by Rumphiys, but Mr. Bickmore, after mak- 

 ing continued and careful inquiries, satisfied himself that there is no 

 reason to suppose that the animal ever rises from the bed of the sea. 

 The natives frequently reported to him that they had found empty 

 shells floating on the sea, but no one had seen the enclosed animal 

 before. In regard to the distribution of this cephalojjod, he remarked 

 that while at Kupang, a port near the southern end of the island of 

 Timur, he found great quantities of the shells at a Malay village, and 

 the natives assured him that they had collected them for food on the 

 shores of the small island of Rotti, which lies south of Timur. Shells 

 were also found at Bencoolen, on the southwestern coast of Sumatra, 

 and a fine one was given him at that place, which had been brought 

 from the island of Engano, where they are said to be frequently 

 found. These shells had probably been drifted from the vicinity of 

 the island of Rotti, as the animal probably does not live so far west 

 as Engano. 



The specimen is the property of Mr. Bickmore and Mr. J. Warren 



