10 THE NAUTILUS. 



numerous dead snail shells lying on the soil-covered surface. The 

 species is very abundant about nine miles east of Meeker, on a Lower 

 Mancos shale slope, with \gabbiana. We have but one reversed 

 specimen of the species. 



These records show that cooperi is much more generally dis- 

 tributed than any other Oreohelix in Colorado, with its variety minor 

 a close second, and depressa third. 



OREOHELIX COOPERI MINOR Ckll. 



I recently found dead shells very abundant, including one reversed 

 specimen, on the exceedingly dry slopes of a gulch where the red 

 Carboniferous sandstones were almost barren of soil and vegetation, 

 except dwarf cedar and pinyon pine, altitude 7,200 feet. There are 

 thin limestone bands in the formation. By 15 minutes' search 37 

 live ones were obtained, the majority being, to my surprise, under a 

 small pinyon log and the cones which had lodged against it, the bal- 

 ance two or three at a time under small cedar logs. This form also 

 occurs on a similar slope about two miles distant, and I found no 

 other species of Oreohelix there. A few were found on a steep Nio- 

 brara slope southeast of Sulphur Springs. A very fine colony occurs 

 on a steep, rather dry terrace south of White River, about two miles 

 southeast of Meeker, under Amelanchier, etc., and another four miles 

 southwest of Meeker. These were by no means as unfavorable lo- 

 calities as the McCoy and Sulphur Springs colonies of minor occupy, 

 and seemed much better suited to snail life than the flourishing 

 Muddy Creek colony of cooperi, and as well suited as the big de- 

 pressa-cooperi colony at Steamboat Springs. My first impression 

 was that perhaps minor was merely an ecological form of cooperi, 

 dwarfed by unfavorable environment, but more careful consideration 

 of the facts of distribution and an examination of our large series of 

 both, seem to render that supposition untenable. Four dead speci- 

 mens are from Placerville, San Miguel county, and twelve from 

 Montrose, were collected by Mr. E. R. Warren, the well-known 

 mammalogist. We have a lot from near Ohio City, Colo. (Frank 

 Rohwer), and ten dead ones from Johnson county, Wyoming (N. 

 DeW. Betts). This form has been likened to 0. s. concentrata Ball 

 (NAUTILUS, XVI, 106-107), but I have compared it with authentic 

 concentrata received from Dr. Dall and find it quite distinct. I 

 should say that minor is a dwarf variety of cooperi and concentrata 

 perhaps a dwarf form of depressa type. 



