Zoological Society. 233 



Tlie usual ground colour of this very pretty shell varies from a 

 pale yellowish brown, through orange brown, to dark chestnut brown ; 

 some of its varieties are of a nearly uniform colour, others are very 

 elegantly varied, with narrower or broader, and more or less nume- 

 rous interrupted bands of opaque white epidermis (which are trans- 

 parent when wetted), and which gives them a very brilliant and 

 captivating appearance, to which it is indeed impossible in words to 

 do justice. 



This species is usually about the same size as Helix Pomatia, dif- 

 fering from that, however, very greatly in form and proportions, and 

 varying, moreover, greatly in size. It is nearly orbicular, somewhat 

 globose, with a slightly depressed obtuse spire. It is of a thin sub- 

 stance, and its surface is dull. Its volutions are four and a half, of 

 which the first is rounded, and the last is very large, being four times 

 as long as the rest, and very ventricose ; they are smooth, being 

 closely covered with the very slender lines of growth ; the suture is 

 very distinct, inasmuch as that the posterior part of the next volution 

 is nearly horizontal, and the anterior part of the last volution nearly 

 perpendicular to it. The aperture is large (not so large in propor- 

 tion as Deshayes's Helix Cailliaudi, Mag. de Zool., 1839, * Mol- 

 lusques,' PI. 5.), of a rounded semilunar form, and white within : 

 the peristome is rather broad and thick, rounded and reflected ; in 

 some varieties it is quite white, in others it is delicately coloured of 

 a rose tint, and sometimes of a brownish red : the columella is dilated 

 and rather flattened, usually quite white, though occasionally tinged 

 with rose. 



The following are the twelve principal varieties which have oc- 

 curred to Mr. Cuming, viz. 



Var. a. General colour dark chestnut brown ; apex brownish scar- 

 let; edge of the peristome purplish crimson ; body covered with 

 broader and narrower white interrupted bands, set nearly close to- 

 gether. 



Var. b. The same, only not having so many of the white bands, 

 the ground colour is seen in broader bands. 



Var. c. General colour dark chestnut brown, with numerous in- 

 terrupted bands of light brown epidermis ; apex brownish scarlet ; 

 edge of the peristome purplish brown. 



Var. d. Ground colour orange brown, with numerous white inter- 

 rupted bands ; peristome white. 



Var. e. Dark chestnut brown, with only three or four light- 

 coloured interrupted bands, so that the dark brown ground colour 

 appears in broad bands. 



Var. /. Light yellowish brown, with the apex red, and the edge 

 of the peristome rose colour ; numerous close-set, interrupted, nearly 

 white bands ornament this variety. 



Var. g. The same ground colour as the last, with a light buff^- 

 coloured edge to peristome, and a singie white scarcely interrupted 

 band, forming the circumference of the shell. 



Var. h. With a chestnut brown ground colour, a red apex, and 

 orange-coloured edge to the peristome, and one white band, forming 

 the circumference. 



