PLATE VIII. 



asserted that Lamark was the first author who separated the famil}^ 

 of Harps from the genus Buccinum ; this is evidently a mistake, as we 

 perceive from Rumpfius and Argenville, and as we are now proceed- 

 ing to shew from the " Catalogue Systematique et Raisonn^^'' of the 

 once celebrated cabinet of M. de Davilla; besides which, some others 

 might be added, were it material to notice them. 



As we have introduced the subject of Davilla*s CaHnet, it will, 

 perhaps, afford some pleasure to many of our readers if we mention a 

 few of those very beautiful varieties of this natural family of the 

 Harps, which were once concentrated in that costly collection. 

 These, collectiveh^, appear to have presented a series of the most 

 choice and interesting of the varieties at that time known. The 

 distinctions are taken from the number of the prominent ridges with 

 which these shells are longitudinally traversed, and these, it hence 

 appears, varied from thirteen to fourteen and fifteen in number. 

 ' One of these, a very fine shell, and deemed the type of the Harpe 

 tribe, was the Harpa Nobilis of D' ArgenviUe : it had fifteen ribs, was 

 very regularly marked with alternate zic-zac lines of brown and 

 white, or rather of brown lines disposed upon a white ground, with 

 a small intermediate incurvate line of grey traversing the middle of 

 each of the white lines, in the same direction as those of brown ; a 

 disposition of marking, very similar to the zic-zac lineations upon the 

 shell represented in the annexed plate. There were two other Harps, 

 in which the number of ribs, or ridges, amounted to no more than 

 fourteen, so that the sides were larger; and they were also more 

 inclined than in the preceding. These were marbled, and marked 

 with streaks and dashes of rose colour, yellow, white, and chesnut, a 

 large intermediate and rather deeper coloured zone, or band, passed 

 round the middle of the shell, and two large spots of brown appeared 



