The naturalists' miscellany, or, Coloured figures of natural objects; drawn and described immediately from nature

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with smali seathers, through Whicli the se in , whicli isos a bluisti colour in that pari, is just visi ble. The Wings are perfectly uselesis for fit glit, and at the tip of

each is a smali, sharp, crooked spur or claK. The legsare Very strong, of a blackisti colour, and of a serrated appearance on the hinder pari. The beak is of nearly the fame colour With the leg8.

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ARGONAUTA ARGO.

ARACTER GENERICUS. Animal Sepia. Tesa univalvis, spiralis, involuta, membranacea, uniloculariS. Lin. 68s. Nat. p. 1161. CHARACTER SPECIFICUS, yc. ARGONAUTA carina utrinque subdentata.

NAUTILUS sulcatUS.

Mela. ostr. t. I. f. 3.

Rum . muf. t. 18. f. 1. q. A. B. Utcunque inter animalia ejusdem familiae eadem fere sit formae partiumque similitudo, pauca tamen proferri possunt exempla, in quibus a norma sua insigniter aberrare solet natura; praecipue Vero in classe testacea. Testarum enim univalvium ut dicuntur) incolae, generi Limacis simillimi sunt; bivalvium contra generibus Tethyos et Ascidiae. Formae hujus anomalae nullum notabilius argumentum possit seligi quam in genere Argonautae; vel Nautili qui papyraceus dicitur: ab omnibus enim aliis ejusdem divisionis adeo discrepat animal

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animal hanc testam inhabitans, ut illius verum esse et genuinum incolam non mirum sit si aegre credatur. Linnaeus igitur de hac re scribit, Domunculam alienam, quemadmodum Cancer Diogenes seu Berntiar-dUS, .intrasse Sepiam, cum non connexa sit testae, sibi adeo alienae, qui non crederet, nisi tot testes nobis obstringerent, qui propriis oculis viderunt Argonautam velificantem p VExtra testam visus Argonautae habitator sepiae speciem, sepiam praec ipue octopodiam admodum refert: nec sane ab ea forma generali differt, nisi quod ad extremitates

brachiorum duorum membranas OVatas habeat, qUaSCUm super mare pacatiam naVigat, erigit, reliquis sex brachiis remigans. Fieri non potuit ut miranda res hominum oculos effugeret: ideoque a variis auctoribus descriptam legimus; nullis elegantius quam Plinio. Inter praecipua autem miracula est, qui Vocatur Nautilos, ab aliis Pompilos. Supinus in summa sequorum pervenit, ita se paulatim subrigens, ut emissa omni per fistulam aqua, velut exoneratus sentina, facile naviget. Postea prima duo brachia retorqUens, membranam inter illa mirae tenuitatis extendit; qua velificante in aura, caeteris subremigans brachiis, media Cauda, Ut gubernaculo, se regit. Ita vadit alto, Liburnicarum ludens imagine, et si quid pavoris interveniat,

hausta se merons aqua. Cavendum est hanc testam, quae verus est Argonauta, cum Nautilo communiter dicto, seu Nautilo concamerato ConfindamUS, qui generis est omnino distincti. Crescit Argonauta Argo ab una Uncia ad sexvel' etiam octo. Mare Mediterraneum nec non Indicum incolit. l

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ARGONAUT,

PA PER NAUTILUS.

I HE PAPER NAUTILUS. NAUTILLE PAPIRACE.

genU. t. 5. Notiuithstanding the generat similarity of struetiare hicli prevatis amongst animais of the fame tribe, thereare yet some remarkable deviations from it. This is nowhere more conspicuous than in the testaceous tribe, in whicli the inhabitants of most of the Univalves bear astrong assinity to the genus Limax, or Slug, While thoseos almost ali the Bivalves are distinguimed by a strikingsimilari ty to the genera os Tethys and Ascidia. Amongst the instances of deviation stoin the generat plan may be

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he adduced the very remarhable and curious genus Argonauta or Paper-Nautilus, whicli is inhabited by an animal os an appearance so widely removed frona those of most of the Univalves, as almost to make doubtilthe reality of iis being the genuine and proper inhabitant of the meli in whicli it resides. Linnaeus accord- ingly has weli observed, that unlesis the evidence of somany eye-witnesses had ens orced belles, it might have been reas nably imagined that an animal se unlike therest of the tribe, Was only a usurper of the meli; in the same manner as the Cancer Diogenes and a feoothers, which take possession os sicli vacant melis ashappen to fuit their convenience. The inhabitant of the Argonauta, is seen delached from iis meli, might passi for a real Sepia, and bears so great a resemblanceto the Sepia octopodia or eight-armed Cutile-fish, that

the principat difference consists in iis being furnis hed atthe extremities of two of it armS With a pair of mem-hranes of an ovat form, whicli, during iis occasionalnavigations on the surtace of a calm sea, it raises up-

right and expan is to the gale; While by the assistance of the fix remaining arnis it rows itself along. It seems imposissible that so curious a spectacle could have escapedihe particular observation os mankind. Accordinglywe find it described by various authors : by none hoWeVer more elegantly than by Pliny, Whose mori and heautiful description, has generalty been quoted by mo

But amongst the principat miracles of nature is the animal called Nautilos or Pompilos. It ascends to thesurface of the sea in a supine posthare, and graduallyraising itself up, sorces out by means of iis iube ali the

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rance of danger, takes in the water and descends.

We must be caresul not to conseund this meli, whichis the real and proper Nautilus, with the chamberedor pearly Nautilus, which belongs to a very distinctgenus. The Argonauta Argo is found of various siges, Dom one to sit x or eight inches in tength, or evenlarger. It is a native both of the Mediterranean and Indian seas.