VOLUTES. 85 



ployed at the British Museum in arranging the valuable 

 collections of natural history resulting from their enter- 

 prise. And thus has Dr. Solander written concerning tlie 

 Courtier Volute: — "1^0.4021, Valuta aidica, a beautiful 

 red-clouded species of the Wild Music kind ; its country 

 unknown, unique.^' 



This fine specimen passed from the Portland Museum 

 into that of M. Calonne, then into the collections of the 

 Earl of Tankerville and of Mr. Broderip, lastly into that of 

 our national museum, where it remained unique until the 

 return of Mr. Cuming from his voyage among the Philip- 

 pine Islands, during which he obtained several magnificent 

 specimens from the Sooloo Archipelago, yet mostly differing 

 from the original one in being tuberculated. Of these, Mr. 

 Broderip characterized six new varieties in the ^ Proceedings 

 of the Zoological Society' for 1843; and with reference to 

 his own description of No. 4 a, exquisitely figured in the 

 ' Conchologia Iconica,' he remarks, that when considering 

 the novelty and lovely arrangement of colour in this admi- 

 rable specimen, he felt that description would convey but a 

 faint idea of one of the most beautiful shells he ever saw. 



Another species, the Valuta innexa, or Knitted Volute, 

 hitherto undescribed, and of which the locality is unknown. 



