500 NOtES ON THE LEECHt. 



expansion are very great. When fully extended it is like a fine cord, and its 

 point is so sharp that it readily makes its way through very small openings. 

 It is peculiar to those parts of Ceylon which are subject to frequent showers, 

 and is unknown in those districts Avhich have a long dry season. It is most 

 abundant in the mountains ; not on the highest ranges, where the tempera- 

 ture appears to be too low for it ; but on those which do not exceed two or 

 three thousand feet above the level of the sea. It delights in shady damp 

 places ; and is to be seen on moist leaves and stones, more frequently than 

 water. In-drj^ weather it l-etires into close damp jungles; and only in rainy 

 weather quits its cover, and infests the pathways and open parts of the 

 country. Those who have no experience of these animals, — of their immense 

 numbers, of their activity, keen appetite, and love of blood, — can have no 

 idea of the kind and extent of annoyance they are to tfavellers in the interior 

 of the island, of which they are the plague. In rainy weather it is almost 

 shocking to see the legs of men on a long march, thicldy beset with them 

 gorged with blood, and the blood trickling down in streams. It might be 

 supposed that there would be little difficulty in keeping them off, but this is 

 a veiy mistaken notion ; for they crowd to the attack, and fasten on quicker 

 than they can be removed. I do not exaggerate when I say, that I have at 

 times seen at least fifty of them on a person at a time. Their bites, too, are 

 much more troublesome than could be imagined ; being very apt to fester, 

 and become sores ; and, in persons of a bad habit of body, to degenerate into 

 very great ulcers ; which, in too many instances, have occasioned the loss of 

 limb, and even of life!" — Abridged from Davy's "Account of Ceylon."^- 

 J. Mc' Intosh, 



1.AND AND FRESH WATER SHELLS IN THE VICINITY OP 



OXFORD. 



Nomenclature from Oray's Turton. 



Having derived considerable assistance from the catalogues of land and 

 fre^h water mollusca, which, from time to time, have been published in The 

 Natubalist, I have compiled a list of what I have myself found in this 

 neighbourhood, for the most part within the last two months, thinking it 

 may be of use to any of your readers who now are at Oxford, or who intend 

 going there. 



I hope that the new collection of shells in the Ashmolean will give a x>ush 

 to studies of this kind. 



Neritina flxtviatilis. Comraoil. Wytham; on A. Cygneus, Ferry Hinksey, &c. 



