uly, 1900.] 163 



ABNORMALITIES IN THE SHEIvL OF HELIX 



NEMORALIS. 



BY R. WELCH. 



[Read before the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, December, 1S99.] 



(Platk 5-) 

 Of the comparatively few and much prized specimens of 

 reversed Helices that are to be found in public museums, or 

 in the cabinets of private collectors in the British Islands, 

 probably the majority are of Helix neuioralis, and of these the 

 greater number, if localised at all, will be found labelled 

 " Bundoran, South Donegal." Visitors to that well-known 

 health resort find old peasant-women selling, for a few pence, 

 long necklaces made of the dextral forms of either H. acuta, 

 H. cf icetoncj/i or H. nemoralis ; the last, being more plentiful 

 and more ornamental than the others, is the species generally 

 used. These land-shells are collected on the great sand-dunes 

 that stretch from the cliffs at the Fairy Bridges, Bundoran, 

 almost to Ballyshannon, and along the Erne River to its 

 mouth. So far, the old women only use the empty shells that 

 may be found in thousands in the dune hollows, and the 

 stock there seems sufficient to supply the local demand for 

 long years to come, without touching the living ones. 



With theseoccurafew beautiful scalariform shells (Figs. 12-19) 

 which are doubtless recognised in the collecting, and suitably 

 cared for ; the less rare sinistral (Figs. 1-8) and malformed 

 specimens being likely noted and laid aside as the mass of 

 shells are pierced for use. 



Although abnormal shells like these are occasionally 



recorded in the scientific journals from other places, the total 



finds of reversed and scalariform specimens of this species 



from the whole Kingdom during this century, are probably 



far below those found at Bundoran alone in the last twenty 



years. During this period about 900 of the former have been 



received by members of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, 



mainly by Messrs. Gray and Svvanston, who have passed most 



of them on to collections in various parts of the United 



Kingdom, a smaller number having also been obtained by 



visitors to the district from the old women themselves. For a 



A 



