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The natives of the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, and the Feegee 

 group of islands capture this Nautilus, and use it as an article of 

 food. 



When at Erromanga (one of the New Hebrides group), I observed 

 about the fires of the natives shells of a small species of Harpa, 

 and remains of Nautili shells and their horny mandibles, as if they 

 had been used at a recent meal. A lady residing at the Isle of 

 Pines, at my request, sent me a fine specimen of N. macromphalus, 

 with the animal, which she informed me was readily procured for 

 her by the natives, who dive for them ; she soon after sent a second 

 specimen of the same species, but it was not in so perfect a state as 

 the first. They were both deposited in the Australian Museum. 



In 1857 the same lady, then residing at the Island of Aneitum, 

 one of the New Hebrides group, having removed there from the Isle 

 of Pines, when I wrote to her for a specimen of the Nautilus in the 

 shell, and asked whether she had observed them used by the natives 

 as food, and also if they had any method of capturing them, sent 

 me the following reply, accompanied by a specimen of N. pompilius 

 in the shell : — 



" I send you, as requested, a Nautilus containing the animal. I 

 was fortunate in procuring one so soon after I received your letter ; 

 it was cast on shore during a heavy gale, and found by one of our na- 

 tive servants. He was just in the act of putting it upon the fire for 

 a meal, when one of the native girls from the Isle of Pines, knowing 

 the value we set on them, stopped him. This will be an answer to 

 your inquiry. The natives sometimes take them in their fish-falls in 

 from three to five fathoms water ; the bait they use is the Sea-egg 

 {Echinus). They are very fond of them. In some of the islands 

 they make a kind of soup of them. These animals are very plenti- 

 ful at Ware, an island about thirty miles from New Caledonia ; and 

 I have noticed at that place some difference in the shell" (iV. ma- 

 cromphalus being found about that coast) " from the one we have at 

 this place. I am acquainted with a person who was wrecked at that 

 island, and used to have them curried frequently : he says they taste 

 like whelks when roasted. I once saw one floating past our resi- 

 dence near the beach at the Isle of Pines." 



The mode of capturing this animal by the natives of the Feegee 

 Islands was kindly communicated to me by my friend Dr. J. W. 

 Macdonald of H. M. S. " Herald," to the natives of which group 

 of islands, as at the Isle of Pines and New Hebrides group, it fur- 

 nishes an article of food. 



" The Feegeans esteem the Pearly Nautilus highly as an agreeable 

 viand, and their mode of capturing it, for the embers or for the pot, is 

 not a little interesting. When the water is smooth, so that the bot- 

 tom at several fathoms of depth, near the border of the reef, may be 

 distinctly seen, the fisherman in his little frail canoe scrutinizes the 

 sands and the coral masses below to discover the animal in its fa- 

 vourite haunts. The experienced eye of the native may probably 

 encounter it in its usual position clinging to some prominent ledge, 

 with the shell turned downwards, and preparations are accordingly 



