I''. K. \TKK\A I. SHKLL. 



detached IVoiu the shell by the accident. Tin- vela of tin- A 

 naiit. by clasping and enveloping the shell, hud evidently pre- 

 vented the loss of this f moment. It is obvious, also, that the 

 new deposit of testaceous m.-itt.er was secreted from the part of 

 the animal within tin shell, and not from the vela, since tlie, 

 edges of the original shell around the fracture appeal-exclusively 

 on the outside. <'. l>. ADAMS. Am. Jour. *SV/.. ~2 ser., vi. l.'J*, 

 L848. 



Madame Power has seen the fractured shell of an Argonaut 

 partially repaired by membrane in less than six hours. 



The subjoined notes of an accurate modern naturalist altbrd 

 conclusive evidence of the non-parasitism of the Argonaut. 



On our passage home across the South Atlantic, I enjoyed 

 numerous opportunities of observing the animals of Ar>ioii(n't<i 

 an/it and gondola in the living state, specimens having been cap- 

 tured by us in large numbers by means of a trawl, as the}' came 

 to the surface of the water at the decline of day in calm weather. 

 In company with Carinaria, Hyalsea, Firola and Cleodora. My 

 observations all tend to prove, as might have been expected, the 

 accuracy of Madame Power's observations on the cephalopodic 

 origin of the shell, and the fanciful nature of the statement- 

 Pliny. Poli, and the poets. 



It is (|iiite true that the female -Argonaut can readily diseu- 

 herself from the shell, when the velamentous arms become col- 

 lapsed, and Moat apparently useless on each side of the animal ; 

 and it is equally certain that she has not the power, or. more 

 properly, the sagacity tO re-enter her nest and resume the guar- 

 dianship of her eggs. On the contrary, she herself, if kept in 

 confinement . a Her darl ing and wounding herself against t he sides 

 of the vessel in which she is confined, soon becomes languid, 

 exhausted, ami very -hortly dies. Numbers of male Argonauts 

 were taken by us. at the same time, without any shells, and this 

 being the season of ovoposilion may account for the females, in 

 such a number of instances, being found embracing- their calca- 

 reous shell-nests, which. s () ingeniously formed by the instinct of 

 the mother for the protection of her eggs from injury, resemble, 

 in some measure, those nidimental capsules secreted by manv 

 mnrine gasteropods for the pivsen at ion of the immature embryo. 



