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II. Contributions to the Knowledge of the Animal of Nautilus Pompilius. 

 By J. Van der Hoeven. 



Read January 8, 1850. 



1 HERE are hitherto but three original figures of the animal of Nautilus Pompilius. 

 The first is that of Rumphius, in his ' Amboinsche Rariteitkamer' (No. xvii. at p. 62) ; 

 the second that of Professor Owen in his accomplished ' Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus ' 

 (London, 1832, pi. 1) ; the third, drawn by M. Laurillard, was given by Professor Va- 

 lenciennes in the ' Archives du Museum d'Hist. Natur.,' ii. 1841, pi. 8. 



The figure of Rumphius could only be deciphered after the discovery of a new speci- 

 men. As Professor Owen has observed, the animal is represented in that figure in an in- 

 verse position. Guided by that observation, it is possible to explain some parts in that 

 enigmatical figure, but many obscurities still remain, and the whole gives the impression 

 of a drawing made by recollection, and after the doubtful suggestions of a discomposed 

 memory. This seems still more probable, because the text informs us (p. 61) that the 

 figures to which the indications of the description allude, have been lost. 



The animals represented by Professors Owen and Valenciennes were detached from 

 the shells before they were presented to those distinguished cultivators of comparative 

 anatomy and structural zoology. This circumstance explains some imperfections in the 

 figures given by both. Professor Owen, for instance, gives an incorrect form to that pro- 

 duction of the mantle which covers the convex part of the shell's circumvolution pro- 

 jecting in the aperture, or to the part which the author calls " the dorsal fold " (see his 

 pi. 1 6) ; the superior free margin of the mantle is lower than it ought to be, as it con- 

 ceals in the natural state a great part of the funnel and the inferior half of the eyes. In 

 regard to the last circumstance, the drawing of Laurillard given in M. Valenciennes' 

 paper is more correct ; but in other particulars it is deficient, chiefly because the soft 

 part of the integuments which forms the visceral sac was torn off and wholly wanting. 

 It ought to be observed also, that those two figures represent the animal replaced in a 

 shell of the same species indeed, but not its own. 



I suppose then that it may be perhaps of some interest to publish some drawings I 

 made, chiefly after two specimens, one of which was kindly presented to me in 1848 by 

 Professor Reinwardt ; the other I received lately from our settlements in the East, by the 

 kind exertions of His Excellency Mr. T. C. Baud, formerly His Majesty the King of 

 the Netherlands' Minister for the Colonial Department. 



The first figure (1) represents the animal from the left side in its own shell, which 

 has been opened with a file at such a height, that the whole last chamber was visible, 



VOL. IV. — PART I. B 



