214 HELICID^E. 



large and deep, exhibiting all the volutions ; base paler 

 than the upper surface, with a colored band more or less 

 perfect, the colored bars, where they exist, narrow, and 

 converging into the umbilicus. 



Greatest transverse diameter about one inch. 



GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. Inhabits the North- 

 eastern and Middle States, and the Western States from 

 the eastern end of Lake Superior to Arkansas. It will 

 probably be found to exist in the whole territory of the 

 United States. 



REMARKS. In New England, this is perhaps the most 

 common species of the genus. It abounds in the forests, 

 and is not uncommon in the open country in moist situa- 

 tions, where it can find shelter under logs and stumps. It 

 seems to be more gregarious than other species ; at any 

 rate, numbers are more frequently found in the same 

 retreat. It does not bear a change from a moist to a 

 dry situation so well as many other species. In captiv- 

 ity it remains buried a great part of the time under the 

 moist earth, with the body half protruded. If removed 

 to the surface, it withdraws within the shell, protects its 

 orifice by three or four coverings, and soon dies unless 

 supplied with moisture. 



The foot of the animal is smaller, and the tentacles 

 shorter, than in either of the other species possessing so 

 large a shell ; it is also flatter and thinner. The collar 

 is deeply tinged with the coloring matter which orna- 

 ments the shell, and which is sometimes secreted in such 



