466 Miscellaneous. 



Gulf. The presence of this shell at Singapore is easily accounted 

 for, as large numbers of shells are taken there from North-west 

 Australia by the Trepang traders and those engaged in the pearl- 

 fisheries on that coast. 



The three species are perfectly distinct. Mr. Tryon's supposition* 

 that T. spinosa is " probably identical with T. armigera," and that 

 T. inermis (which should be of Angas, and not Sowerby) " is simply 

 a depauperated specimen of the same species," is altogether incor- 

 rect. It is, however, a notorious fact that Mr. Tryon has made a 

 large number of errors of this kind, and it is to be regretted that the 

 usefulness of his work is in a great measure lessened through his 

 rash judgment of the value of species which he has not had an 

 opportunity of seeing personally. 



All of the specimens of T. inermis received from Mr. Haynes have 

 the canal fully six millimetres longer than that represented in 

 Mr. Angas's woodcut f, and the colour is rather different. The 

 general tone of the shell is lightish chestnut-brown, the angle of the 

 bodj'-whorl is spotted at intervals with white, a white band crossed 

 by flames of a darker chestnut tint encircles the lower part of the 

 body-whorl, and the aperture within, the columellar callus, and the 

 thickened outer lip within and without are white. 



The Natural- History Museum. 



The Natural- History branch of the British Museum in Cromwell 

 Road has just received a most important donation from Lord Wal- 

 singham, consisting of a collection of Lepidoptera with their larvae, 

 mainly British butterflies (Rhopalocera) and certain families of 

 moths (Heterocera), including Sphingidce, Bombyces, Pseudo-Bom- 

 byces, Noctua3, Geometridaj, and Pyralida3. There is also a fine 

 series of Indian species, collected and preserved at Dharmsala, in 

 the Punjab, by the Rev. John H. Hocking, and specimens of exotic 

 silk-producing Bombyces, in various stages of their development, 

 obtained mostly from Mens. Wailly. 



With very few exceptions, the British larvae, which retain a most 

 life-like appearance and are placed upon models of the plants upon 

 which they feed, have been prepared and mounted by Lord Walsing- 

 ham himself — the process adopted having been inflation of the 

 empty skin of the caterpillar by means of a glass tube and india- 

 rubber spray-blower over a spirit-lamp guarded by wire gauze. This 

 has been found a simpler and quicker process, and one admitting of 

 more satisfactory manipulation than the alternative system of 

 baking by means of heated metal plates or ovens. The specimens 

 have mostly retained their natural colour ; but in the case of the 

 bright green species it has been found necessary to introduce a 

 little artificial dry pigment. The whole collection consists of 2540 

 specimens of larvae, belonging to 776 species, together with a series 

 of the perfect insects of each species. 



* Manual Conch, vol. iii. p. 144. 

 t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 610. 



