267 



NOTE ON VOLUTA ROADNIGHT^, McCoy. 

 By Mrs. Agnes Kenton, 

 Bead IZth January, 1899. 



In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Yictoria for May, 1898, 

 it is stated that the type-specimen of Valuta Eoadniffhtce is preserved 

 in the National Museum, Melbourne. Since this, though doubtless 

 printed in good faith, is an inaccurate statement, I thought it might 

 be of interest to recall exactly how many specimens have been 

 found, where they were obtained, and where they are now preserved. 



The first and type specimen of this rare and beautiful Yolute came 

 to light in a very curious and unexpected manner, as it was 

 discovered by chance by the late Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, 

 the Government Botanist for Victoria, who, when holiday-making 

 at the Lake's Entrance, Gippsland, south coast of Yictoria, happened 

 to notice a shell which was being used for the purpose of propping 

 up his bedroom window at the hotel. Although in a broken and 

 mutilated condition it appeared new to him, and he therefore obtained 

 possession of it, and ascertained that it had been found by Mrs. 

 Eoadknight, the landlord's mother, some years previously, in the 

 vicinity of the Red Bluff on the Ninety-mile beach. Upon his 

 return to Melbourne, he placed the shell in the hands of the late 

 Sir Frederick McCoy, Director of the National Museum, who 

 described it under the name of Voluta RoadnigUce} This specimt^n 

 was, I believe, sent to Germany. 



The second example was discovered by a somewhat similar chance 

 in 1880 by Mr. Butler, a solicitor of Portland, who, at Kentbruck, 

 near Cape Bridgewater, noticed this shell lying on a mantelpiece, 

 and was told that it had been found on the beach between Cape 

 Bridgewater and Cape Nelson, south-west" of Yictoria. The shell 

 was given to Mr. Butler by the farmer who found it, and 

 subsequently passed into the possession of the Melbourne Museum, 

 June, 1881. Early in the same year, Mrs. Butler found a broken 

 specimen (the third) on the Narrawong beach, a few miles from 

 Portland, and some time afterwards presented it to the Museum. 

 In 1893 a fourth and larger, but water-worn and impei-fect, specimen 

 was obtained by Mr. Worcester, at Corner Inlet, Gippsland. 



The fifth specimen, which is also water-worn and imperfect, was 

 found in 1894 by Mr. May, near Maria Island, on the east coast 

 of Tasmania. A sixth example, also found on the east coast of 

 Tasmania, near Swansea, by a Mr. E. 0. Cotton, in 1895, is likewise 

 in a broken, water-worn, and fragmentary condition. The seventh 

 and finest specimen, both in size and markings, obtained in 1897, is 

 from the same locality as the first and fourth specimens, namely, 

 Ninety-mile beach, Gippsland, where the lately discovered V. Rossiteri 

 and V. Kenyoniana were found. Unfortunately it is damaged near 

 the aperture. Its dimensions are, alt. 8, lat. 5 inches, and it 

 exceeds in size the only entire specimen in the Melbourne Museum. 

 The seventh and fourth specimens are in the collection of the writer. 



1 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. v, vol. viii (1881), p. 88. 



