Part 3

There was a variety of this insect, pretty nearly but not exactly according with this in the collection of an old and well-known entomologist, the late Mr. Drury, a figure of which appeared shortly after the publication of the Fabrician writings as the true Papilio Pyramus. It was not precisely the same as it appeared to us from an inspection of the specimen in the cabinet of Mr. Drury. This insect is to be found represented in the 23rd plate of the third volume of the Exotic Insects of that author, published in the year 1782.

CONCHOLOGY.

PLATE IV.

VOLUTA SCAPHA var NOBILIS, NOBLE CHINESE VOLUTE.

UNIVALVE.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Animal a limax. Shell uniocellar, spiral; aperture without a beak and sub-effuse: pillar twisted or plaited: generally without lips or perforation.

* Ventricose, spire papillary at the tip, or terminating in an obtuse rounded eminence.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER AND SYNONYMS.

_Var_ NOBLE CHINESE VOLUTE: Shell smooth clouded with zig-zag brown lines, pillar blueish and four plaited: lip subulate.

VOLUTA SCAPHA (var, NOBILIS) testa lævi nebulosa; lineis angularibus fuscis columella caerulescente quadruplicata, labro subulato.

VOLUTA SCAPHA: testa rudi nebulosa: lineis angularibus fuscis columella cærulescente quadruplicata, labro subulato.—_Gmel. Linn. Syst. Nat. t. 1. p. 6. 3468. 121._ _Hist. Conch. t. 799. f. 6._ _Kircher 3. f. 10._ _Bonanni, c. 3. 113. f. 10._ _Klein Ostr. t. 5. f. 94._

* * * * *

The fine example from which our figure of this rare and interesting Volute is taken, once held a distinguished place in the Conchological department of the celebrated museum of Sir Ashton Lever. The length of this shell is four inches and one eighth, its greatest breadth two inches and three eighths; the colour a kind of buff with an olivaceous tint, and the whole surface traversed with a number of irregularly undulated or zig-zag lines of dark brown, disposed longitudinally throughout: the peculiar character of which will be conceived more readily from the delineation than from any explanation that can be conveyed by words. These longitudinal lines are numerous upon the back or superior surface of the first wreath of the shell, and extends also on the lower surface as far as the dilated space of the columella or pillar lip; which latter is of a pure white and destitute of any markings. The mouth or aperture with the interior of the shell is also white, and the plaits of the pillar, which constitutes one of the most essential characters of the genus Volute, are prominent and well defined.

This species of Voluta has long retained its reputation as a shell of distinguished rarity; it was very rare in the time of Kircher and Bonanni, and it has continued scarce even to the present period. At the sale of the Leverian collection, the example of which the delineation is now before us, produced the sum of five guineas and a half: since that time other specimens of the same species have occurred occasionally to observation, but which have still maintained an equal price in proportion to their excellence or perfection. The Leverian shell was a most select example, and has not been surpassed in point of beauty by any of the specimens we have since seen. At the dissolution of that inestimable museum, which happened in the year 1806, this admirable shell passed into the possession of the worthy secretary of the Linnæan Society, A. Mc. Leay, Esq. and it still constitutes a part of the fine Conchological collection of that very eminent naturalist.

The late Dr. Solander, as it appears from his manuscripts preserved in the library of the late worthy President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. had designated this kind of Voluta by the name of Nobilis; it is a fine shell and not unworthy of that distinguished appellation. It is however certain, that it is no other than a variety of Voluta Scapha of the Linnæan school[4], and as the changing and transposition of names that are sufficiently explicit and well understood can only tend to create confusion instead of aiding the pursuits of science, we can have no hesitation in retaining it under its former designation. As a variety, we admit this shell to be distinct and well defined, and to be so far prominent as to merit a definitive appellation; and it is under this persuasion the term Nobilis, assigned but by Dr. Solander, is subjoined to the specific name Voluta Scapha.

This very rare kind of Voluta Scapha is from China, the variety more coarse in its general appearance that constitutes the type of this species, is a native of the Cape of Good Hope.

Among the older definitions by which this shell was known among the early writers, we may mention that of the learned Kircher, whose museum of curiosities, extant in the beginning of the last century, contained a shell of this kind, which Bonanni thus describes:—“_Conchylium ea parte latius qua in turbinem desinit sine aculeis, et tuberculis, foramen non rotundum, ut in Purpura et Buccina, sed longum._” Musaei Kircheriani. classis iii. 10. 450. et Bonan. 113.

It may not be amiss to observe, in conclusion, that amidst all the improvements which modern naturalists have made in the science of Conchology, Voluta Scapha still remains a Volute among the most approved writers of the present day, while most of those species considered by Linnæus as appertaining to the same genus are removed to other newly-constituted genera.

The character of the true Volute, as it is at present laid down, consists in the shell being of an oval form, more or less ventricose, or swollen, the summit obtuse and ending in a kind of papilla, or teat, the base of the shell cut off or somewhat truncated: without canal, and the pillar charged with plaits or folds, of which the inferior ones are the largest and longest. The precise contrary of this is observable in the new genus MITRA, of which _Voluta Episcopalis_ is considered as the type. In this last mentioned shell, the body instead of being ventricose is subfusiform, the spire pointed at the summit, and the lower plaits upon the pillar smaller instead of larger. The contrast between these two tribes will, it is conceived, sufficiently illustrate the characteristic peculiarities of the genus Volute, as it is at present constituted.

Footnote 4:

This shell, though sufficiently intelligible among the figures of Kircher’s shells, engraved and published by Bonanni, and also in the works of Lister and some others, escaped the notice of Linnæus. So late as the tenth edition of Systema Natura it does not appear. Gmelin describes this shell with much accuracy in his edition of the last mentioned work, under the specific name of Scapha.

ORNITHOLOGY.

PLATE V.

TROCHILUS PELLA, TOPAZ HUMMING-BIRD.

PICÆ.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Bill subulate or awl-shaped; filiform, tubular at the tip and longer than the head; upper mandible forming a sheath for the lower. Tongue filiform, the two threads coalescing, and tubular feet formed for walking; tail composed of ten feathers, in general.

* Bill incurvate.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER AND SYNONYMS.

Red; middle tail feathers very long; body red; head brown; throat golden green; rump green.

TROCHILUS PELLA: ruber rectricibus intermediis longissimis, capite fusca, gula aurata uropygioque viridi.—_Linn. Syst. 1. p. 189. 2._ _Gmel. t. 1. p. 1. 485. 2._

TROCHILUS PELLA: curvirostris ruber, rectricibus intermediis longissimis, corpore rubro, capite fusco, gula aurata uropygioque viridi. _Lath. Orn. 1. p. 302. 2._

Polytmus Surinamensis longicaudus ruber.—_Briss. 3. p. 690. 15._

Falcinellus gutture viridi.—_Klein, Av. p. 108. 15._

Le Colibri topaze.—_Buff. 6. p. 46._—_Pl. Ent. 599._

TOPAZ HUMMING-BIRD.—_Lath Syn. 2. p. 746. 2._

* * * * *

There is not, throughout the very ample range of the creation which the feathered tribes present to our consideration, a race of beings more deservedly admired for their beauty than the Humming-Birds. Natives of the warmer climates of the globe: of countries where the fervour of a tropic sun calls forth the spontaneous productions of the earth bedecked in gaiety unexampled in other regions of the earth, these little beings seem to participate in all its genial influence. With forms the most pleasing for symmetry and elegance they combine a brilliancy of colours the most splendid; their golden hues, their sapphirine tints, the lustre of the emerald, the ruby, garnet, amethyst, and topaz, with which their plumage is adorned, is not surpassed in brightness by the valued gems whose hues they borrow, and whose splendours emulate; as though, in this much-favoured race we beheld the richest gems of earth inspired with life, and endowed with powers of activity and will. The flowers whose nectareous juices afford them sustenance, are moreover the liveliest and most luxuriant among those that adorn the surface of the teeming earth:—in a word, the Humming-Birds, poised and fluttering upon the wing, or flitting from flower to flower, in search of food beneath the fervid illumination of a cloudless tropic sun, present a spectacle of the works of nature upon a scale of miniature the most pleasing and most brilliant.

Owing to the slender structure of the bill, the Humming-Birds have some difficulty in obtaining their support; the luxuriant fruits of the tropic world afford them no repast: their bills are much too feeble to penetrate their rind to derive subsistence from their fluids. It is the rich juices of the flowers and not the fruits that afford them food; the fluids which they find secreted in the nectaria of flowers, the nectaria of those plants in particular which have the flowers long and tubular, and in which those repositories of mellifluous fluid lie in the bottom of the corolla are the favourite objects of their resort. About the flowers of this kind the Humming-Birds are seen hovering like bees, and like those industrious creatures extracting at the same time those juices of the flowers by means of their elongated tongue. The construction of the tongue in this tribe of birds is singular and deserving of explicit mention; it consists of two tubular filiform threads, which coalesce throughout their whole length, excepting at the tips, where they are divided, or bifid; this organ, which is remarkable for its extreme length, it inserts deeply down into the corolla of the flowers, and is thus enabled to obtain the nectar nearly in the same manner as the insects of the sphinx genus. The Humming-Birds, when on the wing, are observed to emit a humming noise, like that of the bee, and it is apparently from this circumstance that this class of the feathered race have derived the appellation of Humming-Birds.

As the different species of the Humming-Bird, though uniformly small, vary much in magnitude, from the bigness indeed of the wren and others of our smaller warblers to a size more diminutive than several of the larger kinds of the bee tribe, the nests of these birds, as may be conceived, are found to vary materially according to the size of the species to which they appertain. These little local habitations of the infant brood are all comparatively small, are usually of a roundish form, lined with the softest downy leaves, and each in general contains two little eggs, scarcely exceeding the size of peas, and of a pure white colour without any spots.

The slenderness of the bill and weakness of the legs in this tribe of birds sufficiently demonstrate that they are inadequate to any contests with other kinds of the feathered race; they are nevertheless observed among themselves to be rather of a pugnaceous disposition. Their usual contests are for their mates or for the possession of some favourite flower, and are observed to take place while on the wing. Their mode of attack is by striking with violence against each other, for they never attempt to assault each other with their bill and their feet are much too small and feeble for conflict.

The species of Humming-Bird now before us is one of the larger kinds, its length being about six inches from the tip of the bill to the extremity of the tail, exclusive of the two elongated feathers which extend beyond the true tail about two inches; the bill is long, slender, and slightly incurvated, and of a whitish colour with the tip black. The most characteristic peculiarity is the large space of topazine or golden green immediately beneath the chin, and which expands over the whole surface of the throat. The head is blackish purple, and the same colour descending along the sides of the neck passes in a kind of crescent round the breast, thus constituting an abrupt separation between the vivid green space of the chin and throat, and the vivid lustre of the abdomen, which is a fine crimson or ruby colour from the breast nearly to the vent, where it becomes interspersed with a few white feathers; the feathers of the thigh are white also. The back and wing coverts are brown with tints and shades of greenish, and glosses of a golden yellow. The greater quill feathers are fuscous, the tail coverts are fine green; the tail orange, except the two remarkable elongated candal feathers, which are black. The legs pale.

Notwithstanding the very decisive character which this species of Humming-Bird displays, and which considered individually can leave us little reason to distrust its identity as a species, we are not to overlook the very near approximation of this kind with some others that are described as specifically different, such as the Sapphire Humming-Bird, and that distinguished by the appellation of the Sapphire and Emerald Humming-Bird. The near approach of these and some others to the species now before us appears to be sufficiently obvious to induce a persuasion that in a less mature state one kind may sometimes have been mistaken for another, and this becomes the more probable when we recollect that the Humming-Birds in general, like many of the larger tribes of the feathered race, do not arrive at their full perfection of plumage till the second and more commonly till the third year.

ENTOMOLOGY.

PLATE VI.

FIGURE I, I.

PAPILIO MARCELLINA. MARCELLINA’S BUTTERFLY.

ORDER LEPIDOPTERA.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Antennæ thicker towards the tip and generally terminating in a knob: wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.

* DANAI CAND.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER AND SYNONYMS.

Wings entire, rounded, yellow, each of them beneath with a geminous or double silver spot.

PAPILIO MARCELLINA: alis integris rotundatis flavis: singalis subtus puncto gemino argenteo.—_Fabr. Spec. Ins. 2. 49. n. 214._—_Ent. Syst. t. 3. p. 1. 209. 654._—_Cram. 14. t. 165._

* * * * *

Papilio Marcellina is a butterfly of peculiar simplicity and beauty in its general effect. The upper surface is of a fine yellow with a singular subocellate spot or stigma of a reddish brown in the centre of the anterior wings, and a series of double spots of the same colour, disposed towards the exterior margin both of the anterior and the posterior pair. The lower surface, as we perceive from the Butterfly at rest, with the wings erect in the upper part of the plate, is rather more of an orange or fulvous hue, and instead of having the disk immaculate like the upper surface, except the stigma in the anterior wings, are sprinkled with reddish brown. The centre of the wings, as well the posterior as the anterior pair, are marked with two silver spots, and which, from their near approximation, may be denominated, according to the language of Fabricius, a geminous or double spot of silver.

This elegant insect is figured from a specimen in the collection of the celebrated Dr. Hunter, the individual example described and referred to by Fabricius in his _Species Insectorum_ and _Entomologia Systematica_ as expressed among the synonyms above recited.

The Papilio Marcellina has appeared already in the costly work of Cramer, upon the Papiliones tribe, we are nevertheless induced to present a figure of the species to our readers, in order to point out the very close affinity that prevails between this insect and another much more frequent species named Papilio Sennæ. This latter mentioned Butterfly is figured by Sloane, Merian, and Seba; Papilio Marcellina by Cramer only. These insects resemble each other, but are nevertheless distinct; the specific character of Papilio Sennæ consists chiefly, according to Linnæus, in having the double spot in the centre of each wing of a ferruginous colour, while in Papilio Marcellina that characteristic mark has the exact appearance of two approximating spots of molten silver. The tips of the wings in Papilio Sennæ are sometimes spotted as in Marcellina and are sometimes destitute of spots.

Both these analogous species are natives of Surinam; Sloane describes Papilio Sennæ, in his Natural History of Jamaica, as an inhabitant of that island.

FIGURE II.

PAPILIO AGAVE. AGAVE BUTTERFLY.

ORDER LEPIDOPTERA.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Antennæ thicker towards the tip, and generally terminating in a knob; wings erect when at rest. Fly by day.

* DANAI CAND.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER AND SYNONYMS.

Wings entire rounded yellow; anterior pair at the tip black above, beneath sanguineous brown.

PAPILIO AGAVE: alis integerrimis rotundatis flavis: anticis apice supra nigris, subtus brunneis.—_Fabr. Ent. Syst. t. 3. p. 1. 193. n. 599._

* * * * *

This very scarce and pretty species of the Papilio tribe is an inhabitant of Cayenne, and may possibly occur also in other parts of South America. It was unknown to Fabricius when he published the work entitled _Species Insectorum_; he afterwards observed a species of it in the cabinet of Von Rohr, and inserted a description of it between the two species P. Hecabe and P. Cardamines in his subsequent production _Entomologia Systematica_.

The upper surface of this Butterfly is entirely yellow, without any marks, excepting only the apex of the anterior wings, which are black in that portion of the tip which appears red on the lower surface, or as Fabricius terms it, somewhat erroneously brown.

This fly, so uniformly simple in the aspect of its superior surface, appears to peculiar advantage when in a resting position as it is depicted in the lower part of the plate.

ORNITHOLOGY.

PLATE VII.

EMBERIZA CIRIS PAINTED BUNTING.

ORDER PASSERES.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Bill conic: mandibles receding from each other from the base downwards, the lower with the sides narrowed in; a hard knob within the upper mandible.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER AND SYNONYMS.

Head blue, abdomen fulvous, back green, feathers green brown.

EMBERIZA CIRIS: capite cæruleo, abdomine fulvo, dorso-viridi, pennis viridi-fuscis _Act. Stockh. 1750 p. 278 t. 7. f. 1._—_Linn. Syst. Nat. 1. 179._—_Gmel. Syst. 1. p. 885._

Friagilla Tricolor, _Catesby Car. 1. p. 44. t. 44_. _Klein. Av. p. 97. 7._

Chloris ludoviciana, Papa, _Briss. 3. p. 200. 58. t. 8. f. 3_.

Fringilla Mariposa, _Scop. Ann. 1. No. 222_.

Le Pepe _Buff. 4. p. 176. t. 9_.—_Pl. Enl. 139. f. 1._

China Bulfinch, _Albin. 3. t. 68_.

PAINTED BUNTING, _Lath. Gen. Syn. 3. p. 206. 54_.—_Supp. p. 159. Ind. Orn. T. 1. p. 416. 61._

* * * * *

The varieties of the very beautiful species now before us are rather numerous, as may be imagined from its moulting twice in a year, and not arriving, as it is pretty generally believed, at its full state of plumage till nearly the third year. These are the progressive changes of the male bird, and it may be also added, that the female undergoes several mutations of the same kind, as well as the male bird.

When its plumage has attained its full perfection, there are few birds of more striking beauty than the male of this species. Its size is scarcely inferior to that of our common Hedge Sparrow, the length between five and six inches. The head and neck of a fine blue purple, with a circle of red round the eyes. The whole of the underside, including the chin, throat, breast, and abdomen, is a fulvous, or rather a vivid scarlet; the back green, below which is a space of yellow, and the rump scarlet, like the abdomen. The wings are greenish, being shaded with brown, and having the edges of the feathers of a delicate green: the greater wing coverts in our specimen are of a pale rose colour, and which in the general conformation of the plumage constitutes a roseate band across the wings. The tail, like the wings, are brownish, having the edges of each feather green; the bill and legs dark.

In some of the varieties of this bird, occasioned as before observed, through the moulting of the feathers, the blue purple of the head and neck is more generally extended along the back, and sometimes appears in patches upon other parts of the plumage. Sometimes, also, the dark spots that appear upon the scarlet space of the chin, throat, breast, and abdomen, are more diffused, and in other states of moulting the abdomen becomes yellow or yellowish. The abdomen has also, in some instances, been known to change white, leaving only a rounded spot of red upon the breast.

Catesby describes this species as a native of Carolina. It is an inhabitant of all the warmer parts of America, extending from Mexico and Peru, as far as Canada, in the milder seasons of the year. It is rather a hardy bird, insomuch, that some attempts have been made by the Dutch to naturalize the species in Europe, like the Canary; but not, however, with the same success, although they may be kept alive for some time after being brought into the less genial climates of the Continent of Europe.