406 Miscellaneous. 



be worth preserving as a literary curiosity and monument of his in- 

 dustry ; as few men, perhaps no one, ever wrote more letters to his 

 correspondents, who had so many public claims upon his time, 

 family anxieties and bodily sufferings, as my late venerable and re- 

 spected friend. The letter from which I quote is dated November 

 1 1th, 1825 : — " I had yesterday a bird brought to my parlour which 

 was shot here; it was given me as a new addition to the British 

 Fauna ; at first sight I thought it a quail, a bird I never saw. I ex- 

 amined it by Shaw's ' General Zoology,' and from some of the habits, 

 which I have learnt from the sportsman since I received it, I am 

 willing to accord in the nomenclature applied to it by the sportsman, 

 the Maryland Partridge of Pennant's ' Arctic Zoology.' It is not, 

 however, such a novelty as my neighbour conjectured ; I have a 

 specimen previously set up ; it was brought to me last year, when I 

 contented myself with a bird's-eye view, and joined other students in 

 natural history in having hitherto confounded it with the quail. 

 It is now quite a colonized creature, and numerous are the covies, which 

 report says that the poachers cannot destroy, its manners are so 

 watchful and shy of man. It was too much shot for preservation, and 

 therefore I not once thought of sending it to Norwich. If your 

 museum should deem it a desideratum, that is, if it has not a speci- 

 men, I have no doubt I can procure specimens for it, myself and 

 other friends." 



Whether the bird is scarce or not in the same neighbourhood now I 

 cannot tell, having myself been absent nearly eighteen years from 

 Norfolk. 



Phil. Hall, Leeds, March 25, 1844. Henry Denny. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF VOLUTA. 



VoLUTA RETICULATA. Vol. tcstd elonguto-ovatd, Icevigatd, pallid'^ 

 fulvd, fusco vel spadiceo-fusco per totam superficiem subtilissime 

 trigono-reticulatd, reticuld bifasciatim confusd; anfractibus flam- 

 mis brevibus spadiceis longitudinalibus, prominentibus , prope sutu- 

 ras vivide pictis ; aperturce fauce spadiceo-fuscd. Long. 3^ in. ; 

 lat. li. 



Hab. Coast of New Holland, north of Swan River Settlement. 



This beautiful new Volute somewhat resembles the Valuta pallida 

 in form, and is of nearly the same ground tint of colour ; here, how- 

 ever, the resemblance ceases, it being entirely covered with a fine 

 brown net- work, with two broad bands formed by a rich amalga- 

 mation of the net- work. The most striking feature of the shell is 

 in the upper part of the whorls being vividly ornamented with a 

 close-set row of undulating flames of rich brown running down from 

 the sutures, and the enamelled lining of the aperture is of the same 

 uniform rich brown. Of the two specimens just imported in H.M.S. 

 Beagle, one is in the collection of Thos. Norris, Esq., of Redvalves; 

 the other in that of J. Dennison, Esq., of Woolton Hill. There is a 

 bad specimen of this Volute in the British Museum, and another in 

 the collection of William Metcalfe, Esq. — Proc. ZooL Soc. Nov. 28, 

 1843. 



