or 
NAUTILUS. 1 ay 
Pautilus Porurptlius. 
So long as two species only of the restricted Nautili were dis- 
tinguished by conchologists it was easy to determine the N. 
Pompilius of Linneus; now that five have been indicated in 
Sowerby’s late Monograph, it becomes desirable to ascertain 
which of the once supposed varieties is more especially entitled 
to the specific appellation. The extremely brief description in 
the ‘Systema’ might include any member of the genus, and the 
synonymy embraces both the umbilicated and imperforated 
forms. Even in the ‘Museum Ulrice’ the passage “ latus in 
minoribus umbilicatum, in majoribus exoletum” evidences, that 
both sections were regarded as mere varieties of the same 
species. In ;this predicament an arbitrary decision was un- 
avoidable, and as the majority of those cited figures which 
represented adult examples in their natural condition belonged 
to the more richly painted of the two imperforated species, and 
that, moreover, was the commoner shell, the name has not un- 
wisely been reserved for it inthe ‘Thesaurus.’ A specimen of 
it (Sow. Genera, Nautilus Pompilius) is still preserved in the 
Linnean cabinet, and the representation of it in Martini (pl. 18, 
f. 164) has been cited by Linneus in his revised copy of the 
‘ Systema.’ 
autiluis calear. 
The present species appears, from the list attached to the 
tenth edition of the ‘Systema,’ to have been one of the few 
Nautili possessed by our author, in whose cabinet may be found 
some minute Foraminifera wrapped up in a paper inscribed with 
this appellation. The specimens fairly enough suit the cited 
figure 3 of Plancus and the ¢ of Ledermuller (copied from the 
last), which have been quoted by De Montfort for his Patrocles 
querelans, and remind one somewhat of Montagu’s drawing of 
his N. wnbilicatulus. 
Linneus, by his references to Gualtier and to Plancus, figure 
