ACHATINELLA SWIFTII. 307 



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inaiiy shades of dull brown and purplish-gray, sometimes with 

 a yellowish cuticle. Streaks predominate, often interrupted 

 by light or dark bands or lines ; but the banded patterns are 

 not definite or sharply contrasted as in some related species. 

 I have not seen uniform blackish or white specimens. New- 

 comb's description of the coloration applies to but a small 

 group in the species; other patterns have given occasion for 

 the definition of several supposed species. 



A. swiftii differs from A. apexfulva by the shorter, less 

 drawn-out embryonic whorls, which moreover are usually 

 tipped minutely with gray. A. decora has special color-pat- 

 terns, not like those of swiftii. A. valida has the summit more 

 slender and pointed. A. turgida never has a gray tip, and the 

 lip is usually darker. In A. leucorraphe the dark tip is much 

 more distinct, and the color-patterns mostly different.. In 

 general, A. leucorraphe is a shell of high elevations, while A. 

 swiftii inhabited the lower forests. While the various forms 

 of swiftii described by Mr. Gulick seem to have been common 

 in the Fifties, they are now nearly or quite extinct, with the 

 forests they adorned. Such as remain are mostly unlike the 

 old lots, being no doubt from places further in the back coun- 

 try. A. swiftii is so prolific in color-mutations, so variable in 

 shape, that no definition covering its several forms would 

 serve to exclude the adjacent species. The best that can be 

 said is that with a fair series from any locality, I find no ser- 

 ious difficulty in determining the species. 



The supposed species albospira, innotabilis, neglecta, versi- 

 color, flavida, coniformis, tuberans and polymorpha were based 

 upon selected patterns, most of them known to be out of lots 

 having other patterns which connect all in an inextricable tan- 

 gle of pattern-combinations. Before me are Gulick 's and part of 

 Smith's types, and a series of several hundred shells, mainly 

 collected and named by Gulick. I have gone over them with 

 utmost care ; and have been quite unable to find basis for 

 subspecies. Part of the type-specimens are not even common 

 color-forms in the lots they were selected from. So far as I 

 can see, Gulick might as well have divided his material into 

 twenty species instead of eight, since none of them rest upon 



