CONCHOLOGY. 



the specimen became the property of a very celebrated amateur, the 

 late Mr. Jennings : he purchased it at the sale for the sum of seven 

 pounds.* Mr. Jennings is since dead, and his collection being, like 

 the former, dispersed by public sale : we are no longer certain in 

 whose possession this very beautiful rarity now remains. 



Besides that this shell excels in magnitude every other known 

 example of its kind, the formation of the shell itself is extremely fine, 

 its perfection exquisite, the colouring of the richest and most decided 

 hues, and the marks and lines throughout, which so eminently 

 characterize the shell, definitely distinct ; we shall dwell no further 

 on the peculiar beauty of this shell, from a persuasion that the 

 drawing will be found so explicit and so satisfactory, as to render a 

 minute description needless: it was taken with peculiar care, by 

 permission of its proprietor, while it remained in the Leverian 

 Museum, and will not, we are convinced, be found defective in point 

 of accuracy, upon the most attentive comparison with the original, 

 should that ever be produced in competition with it. 



In the Linnasan arrangement of Conchology, the shells of this 

 kind constitute a species of the Genus Buccinum, the Buccinum 

 Harpa of that author. Previous to the time of Linnaeus, the best 

 Conchologists had considered those particular shells that possess the 

 essential characters of the Common Harp Shell, as a distinct genus. 

 Rumpfius so adopts it under the name of Harpa ; and Argenville 

 subsequently regarding that particular kind called Buccinum Harpa, 

 by Linnaeus, as the type of the genus, denominates it, by way of 

 eminence, Harpa Nobilis. By some inconceivable error it has been 



* Lot 75 of the fJOth day. July 2nd, 1806. 



