NAUTILUS.— Plate I. 



Nautilus shells, and of homy mandibles, as if the animals 

 had been used at a recent meal ; and a lady residing at 

 the island of Aneitum, of whom he requested a specimen 

 of the animal, wrote : " I have been fortunate in procu- 

 ring one so soon after I received your letter ; it was cast 

 on shore during a heavy gale, and found by one of our 

 native servants. He was just in the act of putting it 

 upon the fire for a meal, when one of the native girls from 

 the Isle of Pines, knowiug the value we set on them, 

 stopped him. This will be an answer to your inquiry. 

 The natives sometimes take them in their fish-falls, in 

 from three to five fathoms water ; the bait they use is the 

 Sea-egg {Echinus). They are very fond of them. In 

 some of the islands they make a kind of soup of them. 

 These animals are very plentiful at Ware, an island about 

 thirty miles from New Caledonia ; and I have noticed at 

 that place some difference in the shell" (A r . macromphalus 

 being found about that coast) "from the one we have at 

 this place. I am acquainted with a person who was 

 wrecked at that island, and used to have them curried fre- 

 quently : he says they taste like whelks when roasted. I 

 once saw one floating past our residence near the beach 

 at the Isle of Pines." 



A further communication from Dr. Macdonald, who vi- 

 sited the western Polynesian islands in H.M.S. ' Herald,' 

 is also curiously illustrative of a mollusk, the history of 

 which has so long remained in obscurity. " The Feejeans 

 esteem the Pearly Nautilus highly as an agreeable viand, 

 and their mode of capturing it, for the embers or for the 

 pot, is not a little interesting. When the water is smooth, 

 so that the bottom at several fathoms of depth, near the 

 border of the reef, may be distinctly seen, the fisherman 

 in his little frail canoe scrutinizes the sands and the coral 

 masses below to discover the animal in its favourite haunts. 

 The experienced eye of the native may probably encounter 

 it in its usual position, clinging to some prominent ledge, 

 with the shell turned downwards, and preparations are 

 accordingly made for its capture. The tackle consists, 

 first, of a large round wicker-work basket, shaped very 

 much like a cage rat-trap, having an opening above, with 

 a circlet of points directed inwards, so as to permit of en- 

 try, but preclude escape ; secondly, a rough piece of na- 



tive rope of sufficient length to reach the bottom; and, 

 thirdly, a small piece of branched wood, with the branches 

 sharpeued to form a sort of grapnel, to which a perforated 

 stone is attached, answering the purpose of a sinker. The 

 basket is now weighted with stones, well baited with 

 boiled cray-fish (Palinurus), suggested no doubt by the 

 large quantity of the fragments of Crustacea usually to be 

 found in the crop of the Nautilus, and then dropped gently 

 down near the victim. The trap is now either closely 

 watched, or a mark is placed upon the spot, and the fish- 

 erman pursues his avocations on other parts of the reef, 

 until a certain period has elapsed, when he returns, and 

 in all probability finds the Nautilus in his cage feeding 

 upon the bait. The grapnel is now carefully let down, 

 and having entered the basket through the opening on 

 top, a dexterous movement of the hand fixes one or more 

 of the points or hooks, and the prize is safely hoisted into 

 the canoe. Thus we observe that, although it has been a 

 matter of doubt if the animal could be so silly as to run 

 iuto the nets of the fishermen, as related by Eumphius, 

 whose account was supposed to be exaggerated, yet it is 

 now found that the Nautili are in reality stupid enough 

 to run into the well-baited baskets of the Feejeean and 

 Aneitum fishermen." 



Species 1. (Mus. Cuming.) 



Nautilus Pompilius. Naiit. testa suborbiculari, lavi, 

 imperforatd, albidd, postice transversim Jlavescente- 

 ferrugineo strigatd, strigis latiiisculis, distantibus. 



The Pompilius Nautilus. Shell nearly orbicular, 

 smooth, imperforated, whitish, posteriorly transverse- 

 ly streaked with yellowish-rust, streaks rather broad, 

 distant. 



LiNN-EUs, Syst. Nat. p. 1161. 

 Nautilus ambiguus, Sowerby. 



Hab. Eastern Archipelago, New Hebrides, Feejees, etc. 



This species, the oldest, most abundant, and most 

 widely distributed, differs from the rest in not being um- 

 bilicated, the place of the umbilicus being overlaid with 

 a deposit of callous pearl-matter. 



