12s proceedings of the academy of [feb., 



Somerset Road Colony. 

 This is a small colony 2h miles from Mandeville at the turn in 

 the parochial road to Somerset, between the 2 and 3 mile posts. It 

 consists of small roadside exposures of limestone in little quarries and 

 borrow pits along the base of a rocky wooded hill. The limestone is 

 principally the marly variety, and while not weathered to the porous 

 character which this stone acquires on hill-tops, the soil is nevertheless 

 rather dry. The woods are not very dense, but the ground is covered 

 by a layer of some inches of leaves which furnish enough food to support 

 a good population of P. acuta goniasmos and many smaller snails, as 

 Colobostylus jai/anus rufilabris. The collection here was made in about 

 100 yards of the wood, mostly near the road. The entire patch of 

 woodland was perhaps a couple of acres, but it was only partly isolated 

 from much larger tracts of forest in the adjoining hills to the west. 

 The elevation was somewhat below that of Mandeville, probably 1,900 

 feet above sea level. In all directions except to the southwest this 

 point of hill is isolated from the lower ground by open pastures. It 

 is about half-way between Mandeville and the Somerset estate, some 

 3 miles from each, and nearly as far from the Kendal Road colony. 

 Larger forms, such as P. acuta goniasmos, could undoubtedly travel 

 during the wet season into this locality from the neighboring wooded 

 hills to the west, southwest and south, but the forms living to the 

 north and east would be completely isolated by cleared land. 



Kendal Road Colony. 

 In collecting out this road 3+ miles from Mandeville, but few large 

 stretches of untouched woodland were found that were favorable for 

 collecting and that reached the post road. The hills were generally 

 wooded; sometimes the forest was practically virgin, but pastures or 

 cultivations isolated them from the road. After passing down the 

 steep zigzag part of the road, in the lower ground, a few pieces of 

 favorable woodland were met with, and along the roadside exposures 

 at one of these places some specimens of Pleurodonte were taken. 

 They must have lived in the few acres of woodland, for here the 

 cultivation is more intensive, and this colony would have been com- 

 pletely isolated by open country from any others. It was very 

 noticeable here, an old cultivated district, that the old weathered 

 shells were very different in form from those that were in new, fresh 

 condition. The wood was not entered, so no living forms were taken. 

 The fresh shells collected were from those that had crawled down into 

 the road during rains and been destroyed by ants, the older ones 

 were from shell accumulations in the fissures in the rocks. 



