THE NAUTILUS. 



VOL. XXV. SEPTEMBER, 1911. No. 5 



AN INCIDENT IN CUBAN COLLECTING. 



BY JOHN B. HENDERSON, JR. 



In the course of a number of collecting trips to the Antilles for 

 land shells I recall various instances of possibly more than average 

 interest to those who know the delights of a field naturalist. When- 

 ever some particular out-of-the-way locality was visited, often there 

 would be some one species sought and desired above all others, gen- 

 erally a species of very local distribution, and which on account of 

 rarity or beauty inspired us to greater efforts to find. So was it in 

 the case of that splendid big and lusty Pleurodonte gigantea at La 

 Ferriere in Haiti, and of PL cognata in a little valley in extreme 

 western Jamaica. Cuba is full of such preferred and desirable game, 

 but probably the special hunt for Urocoptis elliotti and its near ally, 

 U. dautzenbergiana, proved to be the most strenuous of all similar 

 experiences. 



Mr. Charles T. Simpson was with me at the time in Havana, and 

 we were planning for a dash somewhere into the interior when our 

 excellent friend, Dr. Carlos de la Torre, a perfect encyclopedia of 

 Cuban mollusks, suggested we try for that remarkable pair of Uro- 

 coptid twins that are reported to live on two mountains near Guane, 

 and which had eluded all search since they were originally found by 

 some fortunate collector many years ago. We lost no time in get- 

 ting to Guane. Besides our special reason for going there, we well 

 knew the region to be rich in that splendid fauna of the inner range 

 of the Sierra de los Organos. There occur the lovely Eutrochatella 



