NOTE ON HELIX YATESII Cooper. 



BY HENRY HEMPHILL. 



There seems to be an erroneous impression prevailing among our 

 conchologists in regard to the habits of this interesting httle mol- 

 kisk that needs to be corrected. The fact that the five dead speci- 

 mens — two perfect and three imperfect ones — from which Dr. Cooper 

 drew his descriptions of the shell and his genus Ammonitella, were 

 found in the cave at Cave City, Calaveias County, California, has 

 led some of the writers on our West Coast shells to regard this 

 mollusk as a rare, isolated cave dweller, that prefers the shadow and 

 gloom of caverns in which to pass its existence, rather than the light 

 of the outside world. This, however, is a mistake which any intel- 

 ligent or close observing collector can easily determine by a visit to 

 the cave, and a short ramble over the hills in its vicinity. 



Several years ago I visited Calaveras County for the purpose of 

 collecting this and the other shells of that region, and to my surprise 

 I found this little mollusk near Murphy's, seven miles away from 

 the cave, ^estivating under stones on north hillsides, while numbers 

 of dead shells lay bleaching in the sunshine, where they had fallen 

 in the struggle for life. 



Around the entrance and on the slopes of the hill in which the 

 cave is situated, and also on the adjacent hills, it occurred plentiful- 

 ly, and it is not a rare shell in these localities. 



On entering the cave I found but few specimens inside. Most of 

 these I took from the crevices in the rocks on each side of the 

 entrance within the cave, a few only being found on the floor, and 

 none beyond a distance of fifty feet from the entrance, although I 

 searched closely for this and other species with the aid of a good 

 light. 



When fairly within the cave, and looking towards the entrance, I 

 could see the daylight through the crevices between the rocks on 

 each side of the opening through which we entered, which at once 

 revealed to me the mystery of the presence of this mollusk within 

 this cool and shady retreat. 



To those acquainted with the habits of land snails it will be 

 readily seen how these creatures, in seeking safe and convenient 

 places in which to hibernate and pass the long, dry and hot sum- 

 mer season and cold winter months, would naturally crawl into 



