308 SUPPLEMENT 
less by the labours of Breynius, divided the nautili into two 
genera, and with a singular sort of caprice reserved this 
name of nautilus to the species with which Aristotle was 
certainly not acquainted, although Belon had considered it — 
his second species, and gave the name of cymbium to that 
which this celebrated philosopher had regarded as the type 
of the nautili. - 
Nevertheless this mode of consideration was not adopted 
by every body. Thus D’Argenville always comprized under 
the same name the nautili without chambers and those with 
them, indicating many species in each group. Davila did so 
likewise, and many other authors. But at length Linnzus, 
having admitted the division proposed by Gualtieri into two 
genera, restricted the appellation of nautilus to the polythala- 
mous species, and that of cymbium, which the Italian con- 
chologist had proposed for the monothalamous, was changed 
into the denomination of argonaut. 
From this it is evident, that under the name of nautilus the 
modern zoologists can by no means employ the observations 
which the ancients have left us on the octopi which navigate 
in a shell, but merely what Rumphius has given us in his 
Curiosities of Amboyna. This is the nautilus of the text, to 
which we refer for characters. The animal, though very 
common in the Indian seas, is known to us only by the unsa- 
tisfactory figure and incomplete description of Rumphius; for — 
it appears evident that the details added by Denys de Mont- é 
fort are the product of his own imagination, or mere con- | 
jectures founded on the description of the Dutch writer. The — 
description, of course, we will not follow here. Rumphius 
tells us that this animal, when it is desirous of sailing, is — 
always alone. It puts forth its head, all its tentacular ap- 
pendages, and extends them with the membrane it has be- — 
hind. Often it draws itself along with the body upwards, . 
the head and tentacula under, and more frequently still it is 
