PLATE XXVIII. 



Malleus PtfACULATUS: testa arcuata, lobo basis unico sub-recta 



abbreviato flavo-rufesccnte fusco nebulosa macu- 

 lata pimctisque. 



The singular object now before us, a shell no less remarkable 

 for the peculiarity of its form than rarity of occurrence, is one of the 

 most choice productions of the seas surrounding the Friendly Isles. 

 The discovery of this shell, like that of many others, resulted from 

 the assiduities of that eminent Naturalist and promoter of scientific 

 knowledge, the late Sir Joseph Banks, and of Dr. Solander, who 

 accompanied him in that memorable voyage of Captain Cook to the 

 Southern Hemisphere, in which the Friendly Isles were discovered. 

 The fine example of this shell, in particular, from which the drawing 

 in our plate is taken, it may be also added, was one of those which 

 were brought to this country by Captain Cook upon the return of 

 the expedition, and which being shortly after presented to Sir Ashton 

 Lever, remained in the Museum of that distinguished amateur from 

 that period to the time of its dissolution in the year 3806. 



When we consider the very remote situation of those islands, 

 so distant from the usual track of all navigators, we cannot be 

 surprised, admitting the species to be local in those seas, to find it 

 has remained a very rare shell from the period of its discovery to the 

 present time. In the course of many years only a few specimens have 

 occurred to our observation, and while it has remained scarce with 

 us, it appears to have been still more uncommon in the continental 

 cabinets : very few of which, if we are informed correctly, were lately 

 in possession of it. 



