5 



further knowledge had been acquired of the inhabitant of the Pearly Nautilus, 

 that the supposition of Belon was adopted. 



The first notice of this kind appears in the writings of Gesner* : it is, how- 

 ever, so obscure and brief as to render it doubtful whether the animal alluded to 

 was really the inhabitant of the pearly and chambered shell which is described ; 

 yet the use of the word velum in the singular number, and the indication of 

 the lateral disposition of the arms, in some measure favour the supposition. 

 With evidence, however, of so slight a nature, the claims of Nautilus Pompilius 

 to rank among the Cephalopods might have remained until now purely conjec- 

 tural, had not more satisfactory data been afforded by the writings of Rumphius. 

 This naturaUst was enabled, during a long residence at Amboyna, to procure spe- 

 cimens of both the species of Nautilus indicated by Aristotle ; and of the latter, 

 to which the name at present exclusively applies, he has given figures both of 

 the soft parts and of the shell, in his work entitled D'Amboinische Rariteit-kamer. 



The animal is there represented in the supine position, with the tentacles re- 

 tracted, and, as far as its general form in this state is concerned, the figure 

 manifests considerable accuracy ; but the terminations of the adherent muscles 

 of the shell are not indicated ; and what seems to have been an accidental rent 

 in the mantle on the ventral aspect of the body, gives the idea of the fold being 

 in a position contrary to nature. Tlie funnel, also, is wrongly represented as a 

 round pipe, though its real structure is accurately described in the text : and 

 an open extremity of one of the lateral digitations might readily be mistaken 

 for the eye, which however is indicated by the triangular corrugated body pro- 

 jecting just above the margin of the part on which the head reposes in the figuref. 



* " Nautili picturam lo. Fauconerus, medicus egregius ex Anglia, olim ad me dedit, liis verbis in epi- 

 stola adscriptis : ' Mitto ad te hic picturam cujusdam piscis ex testaceorum genere, puto, Aristotelis Nauta 

 esse : quam mihi primum, cum in Italia essem Cfesar Odonus, Doctor medicus Bononiensis exhibuit, 

 vir, ut humanissimus, ita in exteros admodum hospitalis, postea vero hic in Anglia ipsum piscem vidi, 

 que pro loci ac temporis opportunitate pinguendum curavi. Testam habet externa parte ex fasca 

 rufescentem : intemam vero partem ita nitentem et splendente, ut cii unionibus preciosissimis de co- 

 lons amoenitate certare posset, multa quoque habet in ipsa testae carina tabulata eodem colore nitentia. 

 Velum constat ex pellicula tenuissima. HXcKTai'ai ab ntroque latere demissse carneae sunt et moUes ut 

 polyporum cirrhi, reliqua coqwris pars confusa erat et indiscreta ut reliquorum testaceorum generum.' 

 Hsec Fauconerus Anglicum hujus piscis nomen ignorare se confessus." — Gesnerus, Historia Anlmalium, 

 iv. p. 623. 



t Tab. xra. B. p. 62. 



