48 THE NAUTILUS. 



inches in length. Attached to shells and stones were a few Amni- 

 cola It'mosa. Under an old board I found a colony of Pyramidula 

 striateUa associated with Zonitoides arboreus. In the salt marshes 

 east of the station Mehnnpus lineatus was in great numbers, together 

 with a few Litorina rudis var. lenebrosa. 



My first stroll along the beach at Chatham was at high tide. Com- 

 ing upon some lobster pots I found quantities of animal life strewn 

 about. Among them were beautiful specimens of Politnces heros, but 

 the animals wers dead, and were left behind because they took up en- 

 tirely too much room for their size ; they were like some specimens 

 a friend once described as " dead, but not gone, and unwilling to be 

 forgotten." The next day, at low water, in the little bights between 

 the several bars which extend out from the beach south of the inlet, 

 were to be seen hundreds of specimens of P. heros of all ages, from 

 the size of a pea to one nearly four inches in length, while the nidi- 

 mental bands were unusually large, and owing to the coarse san'd ex- 

 ceedingly handsome. 



Amono 1 the other interesting shells were the Areas of the New 

 England coast. Area transversa and A. pexata Say, or as we must 

 now call it A. campechensis Gmel. Is not this northern form worthy 

 of a varietal name ? As Say's description covers both, can we not 

 restrict his name to this form as described and figured by Gould ? 

 Scattered along the outer beach we found upwards of twenty single 

 valves of Area ponderosa Say, several with portions of the ligament and 

 epidermis in place. To find so many of this species at the extreme north- 

 ern limit of its distribution was a surprise; it seems even to be more 

 plentiful here than on the New Jersey coast. Mesodesma arcuatum 

 was very common ; a few valves of Cochlodesma leanum, Astarte 

 castanea and two valves of Divaricella quadrisulcata were also found. 

 In a heap of scallop shells Pecten gibbus var. borcalis Say (Pecten 

 irradians of authors), I obtained some very interesting examples of 

 Crepidula fornicata, many of the specimens in adapting their shells 

 to the surface of the scallop becoming strongly ribbed. 



A rainy day had its advantages; it not only gave me a chance to 

 attend to all the material I had collected, but it brought out the Helix 

 hortensis in great numbers along the steep bank near the light-houses; 

 they were all of the light-colored, bandless variety. I am not aware 

 that this species has been recorded from this place which adds 

 another locality to the mainland records. 



