GARRULUS sordidus. _Dusky-bodied Jay._ ---- Family Corvidæ. Sub-family Garulinæ. _Nob._ _See Northern Zoology, 2. p. 288._ ---- SPECIFIC CHARACTER. _Above dusky blue, brighter upon the crown, wings, and tail; beneath grey; chin and belly whiteish; ears blackish; tail distinctly rounded._ Garrulus sordidus. _Swains. Synopsis, No. 66._ (_Phil. Mag. June 1827._) ---- The Jays, although allied to the Crows, have many peculiar characteristics. While the latter roam about and seek their food in all situations, the Jays confine themselves to thick woods, feeding upon fruits, insects, and eggs, and seldom perch upon the ground. In unison with that symbolical system which pervades all nature, we find a perfect representation of this group in the Bush-Shrikes of the new world. America seems to possess three Jays, closely resembling each other, but each (if they have been described correctly) having some peculiar distinction. As these have not been clearly stated, and as some confusion has consequently crept into the subject, we shall shortly state their distinctions. The Florida Jay of Prince C. Bonaparte, (G. Floridamus) which has been thought the same as ours, is a much smaller bird, being only 11½ in. long, and the back is "yellowish brown," not dusky blue, (See _Bon. Am. Orn. 2. p. 61._) The _Garrulus ultramarinus_ of the same noble and learned writer, appears to us from the following account, to be distinct from either. "Its principal characters may be found in its larger dimensions, but especially in the shape of its tail, which is _perfectly even, and not in the least cuneiform_, as it generally is in all the Jays," (_Am. Orn. 2. 62._) Now the tail of our species is _decidedly rounded_, the outer feather being full one inch shorter than the middle. The _Garrulus sordidus_ inhabits the table land of Mexico, from whence our specimen was received. Total length, 11 in.: bill, 1½: wings, 7: tarsi, 1-7/10: tail, 6½ in. * * * * * * [Illustration: SCAPHELLA _maculata. Sw._ _Olive Volute._] SCAPHELLA maculata. _Olive Volute._ ---- Family Volutidæ. Sub-family Volutinæ. _Nob._ GENERIC CHARACTER. Shell fusiform, invariably smooth and polished: spiral whorls gradually diminishing in size, the apex obtuse but rarely thickened or distorted: pillar generally gibbous in the middle, with from four to six thick and unequal plaits: margin of the outer lip thickened. TYPICAL SPECIES.--Scaph. undulata. Junonia, maculata, zebra. ABERRANT SPECIES.--Scaph. papillaris, elongata (?) ---- SPECIFIC CHARACTER. _Shell small, oval, fulvous, with longitudinal purplish-brown spots, disposed in three transverse bands: spire conical: pillar four plaited, not gibbous._ Voluta maculata. _Swains. Bligh. Cat. app. p. 11._ ----