274 
N4UTIL0IDEA. 
has relied upon d’Orbigny’s descriptions of the Chalk Nautili, in 
which the definition of Nautilus elegans departs so widely from 
Sowerby’s, as to show that d’Orbigny’s fossil ’ was distinct from the 
latter. 
Before noticing other authors who have described and figiired the 
present species, or what they believed to be such, I desire here to 
record once more my great indebtedness to Dr. Paul Fischer, of the 
Museum of Natural History, Paris, who sent me the original speci- 
men figured by d’Orbigny under the name Nautilus elegans (Pal. 
Frang., Terr. Cret. 1840, tom. i. p. S7, pi. xix.), thus enabling me 
to show the difference between the latter, as interpreted by d’Orbigny, 
and the true Nautilus elegans of Sowerby (see fig. GO, p. 272). 
Along with the figured type of Nautilus elegans^ d’Orbigny 
{=N. Atlas^ AVhiteavcs), kindly lent to me by Dr. Fischer, is one 
which, though sent as an example of that species, differs materially 
from d’Orbigny’s shell, its form being much more compressed, and 
the sutures closer together and more curved than those of the latter. 
These characters unite it with the true N. elegans of Sowerby, and 
it is interesting to find this species occurring in France. The French 
specimen is from the Cenomanien (Lower Chalk), as I am informed 
by Dr. Fischer. 
Pictet and Campiche * give no figures of N. elegans^ but they re- 
capitulate its characters (p. 117), saying, however, that its umbili- 
cus is “ tres-grand,” whereas Sowerby describes it as “ small, per- 
haps closed.” On the same page of their work these authors, 
referring to Mantell’s figure of N. elegans^ say that it probably 
represents a different species ; but it is in truth a figure of the same 
specimen as that which formed the subject of Sowerby’s figure in 
the ‘ Mineral Conchology,’ and it was very probably copied from 
Sowerby’s plate. 
Turning to German authors, we find that Dr. Clemens Schliiter% 
in describing a new species of Nautilus, which he designates N. 
Sharjoei, remarks upon the distinctness of the Nautilus elegans of 
d’Orbigny and Sharpe from the N. elegans of Sowerby. 
Stoliezka ‘‘ says of the Indian Cretaceous specimens, identified by 
Blanford as Nautilus elegdns, that they “ agree well with the Euro- 
^ D’Orbigny’s N. elegans will now be known as Nautilus Atlas, a name pro- 
posed for it by J. F. Whiteaves (see infra, p. 292). 
^ Descr. des Foss, du Terr. Cret. des Environs de Sainte-Croix (Pal. Suisse), 
pt. i. 1859, pp. 117, 136. 
^ Cephalopoden der oberen deulscben Kreide, Abth. ii., Palaeontographica, 
1876, Band xxiv. p. (51) 171, Taf. xlvi. ff*. 5-7. 
^ Mem. Geoi. Surv. India — Palaiont. Indica — i. Cretaceous Cephalopoda of 
Southern India, 1866, p. 209. 
