CONCHOLOGY. 



Dr. Solander''s constitutes several distinct species among the number 

 of those Harps, which other writers, and GraeHn among the rest, 

 regard as varieties only of the common kind. In the manuscripts of 

 Dr. Solander the very beautiful Harp shell now before us stands as 

 a distinct species from Buccinum Harpa, under the name of Buccimim 

 testudo. Some of the French Naturalists have called it Harpa 

 testudinaria : it was placed under that name, and its synonymous 

 appellation Vecaille de Tortue in the once celebrated Museum of 

 Mons. de Colonne, the French Minister of State, under Louis the 

 XVI : the definitive English name of Tortoiseshell Harp was 

 assigned to it by Mr. George Humphrey, and from his known 

 authority in thes tudy of shells, this variety has been since distin- 

 guished among collectors in our country by that appropriate appel- 

 lation. All these names, it will be scarcely necessary to add, are 

 devised in allusion to that resemblance which its peculiarly beautiful 

 variegations of colour are conceived to bear, to those of tortoiseshell, 

 when transparent and exposed to light. 



We have been at some pains in our endeavours to reconcile our 

 mind to the idea of introducing this Tortoiseshell Harp as a species 

 distinct from the Buccinum Harpa, in conformity with the opinion of 

 Dr. Solander. We have compared our shell with the acknowledged 

 type of the Linnaean species, with every attention, and are compelled, 

 in truth, to allow, that however distinct it may appear upon the first 

 glance of inspection, we cannot implicitly accede to the persuasion of 

 its being specifically distinct. Placing this remarkable variety with 

 that particular shell, the true Buccinum Harpa, the less iiiformed 

 Conchologist would assume as certain that the difference existing 

 between the two removed them sufficiently from each other. Arrange 

 these, however, with those varieties and transitions of the Common 



