Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/111

Rh and dead wood and amongst the roots of grass in open places.

"Not abundant, but found both in the Weald and on the South Downs."—B. This minute species, inhabiting a transparent shell with a high polish, together with the. Top-shaped or Fulvous Snail, to be next mentioned, is found under stones and moist decaying leaves in the upland and lowland covers, hedgerows, gardens and pastures in the neighbourhood of Harting.—W. On the Downs at Lewes it is said to be not uncommon, in company with Helix pulchella, amongst earth at the roots of grass.—U. It has been met with also at Brighton (M), and in the vicinity of Eastbourne (G).

Zonites fulvus. The Tawny Snail.—Found in similar situations to the last named.

Helix aculeata. The Prickly Snail.—The distinguishing character of this little shell, which measures about the tenth of an inch in breadth, is that the epidermis with which it is clothed rises at frequent and regular intervals in the middle of each whorl into sharp teeth or points, so as to present under a lens the. appearance of a very elegant spiral of bristles. It is met with not uncommonly under fragments of chalk and among decaying leaves under beech trees.—W. Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys has observed that it walks with its shell erect, carrying it in the most graceful manner, and often ascends trees, particularly the alder. In the autumn it is said to use the falling leaf as a locomotive to reach the ground.

Helix pomatia. The Edible Snail.—In a copse upon the Downs in West Sussex, not far from Petersfield, one or two dead shells have been found, from which it may be assumed that this species formerly existed in that neighbourhood, but no living examples have been met with in recent times. A friend in that neighbourhood, however, turned out fifty or sixty live specimens, but the experiment to establish them in the new locality failed.—H. Mr. W. Jeffery, of Ratham, near Chichester, writing to the Editor in January, 1874, says:—"Many times have I searched for Helix pomatia on our Downs, but always without success. Some five or six years ago I had between thirty and forty sent me from the Surrey Downs, a part of which I turned down in my garden, and the remainder on a bank of light soil near. Of those on the bank I saw no more, but those in the garden seemed to do pretty well for a time, and at least one brood of young were hatched, some of