THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZLNE OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 14. FEBRUARY 1859. 



XI. — On the Land Shells of Lanzarote and Fuerta Ventura; with 

 Observations on the Molluscan Fauna of the Canary Islands in 

 general. By Professor A. Mousson. Translated (with Notes 

 and Observations) by R. T. Lowe, M.A.* 



A FEW years ago it was supposed that our researches had ahnost 

 exhausted the Land Mollusks of the Canaries. The investiga- 

 tions formerly of Maugef, the visit of M. D'Orbigny to Tene- 

 riffej at the commencement of his voyage to South America, 

 the prolonged residence of MM. Webb and Berthelot§, and 

 M. Despreaux^s more recent sojourn on several of the larger 

 islands, had contributed to form a list of sixty-six species and 

 good varieties, including seven of very doubtful origin. M. 

 D'Orbignyll considered this an extraordinarily rich and faithful 

 picture of the Molluscan fauna of these islands. This number, 

 however, falls extremely short of the abundant harvest which 

 the much smaller group of the Madeiras had afforded to the 

 researches of Mr. Lowe, and compared with the variety of forms 

 which is usually developed in archipelagos of larger islands. It 

 has accordingly proved more recently to have been very incom- 

 plete. A residence of five months (1851) by the late not less 

 zealous than acute Herr Blauner of Berne on the islands of Tene- 

 riffe and Palma alone sufficed to bring to light about forty-two 

 new^ species and varieties, some belonging to types of form 

 quite new to these islands. They were described by Mr. Shuttle- 



* From " Die Geologischen Verhaltnisse der Inseln Lanzarote und 

 Fuerta Ventura/' von Georg Hartung, 4to, 1857, Appendix, pp. 130-139. 



+ Embodied in the works of Ferussac and Lamarck. % 1826. 



§ Synops. Moll. Terr, et Fluv. &c., Ann. des So. Nat. 1833. 



II Histoire Nat. des lies Canar. ii. p. 45. 



1i Qu. new altogether ?, new to the Canaries ?, or new to Teneriffe and 

 Palma only ?—Tr. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. iii. 6 



