Notices of the Land Shells of Cuba. 4S5 



ART. XLL — DESCRIPTIONS AXD NOTICES OF SOME OF THE LAND 

 SHELLS OF CUBA. By A. A. Gould, M. D. 



Within the last two years, I have received several par- 

 cels of shells, many of them containing the living animal, 

 collected by Mr. John Bartlett, on the island of Cuba, near 

 Matanzas, accompanied by careful memoranda of the habits 

 and stations of the animals. A few of them were briefly 

 noticed on the cover of the first number of the present vol- 

 ume ; most of these I have since ascertained to have been 

 described by Dr. Pfeiffer, in " Wiegmann's Archiv fur Natur- 

 geschichte," for 1839-40, a work which had not then 

 reached this country. As however, the study of concho- 

 logy no longer consists in observing the external config- 

 uration and marking of shells, but embraces the study of 

 the animals producing them also, it may not be amiss if I give 

 a list of the shells, with such observations as were noted by 

 ]Mr. Bartlett, and such as I have made upon the animals 

 which reached me alive ; all that relates to them as existing 

 in Cuba, is, of course, derived from him. 



The principal localities mentioned are La Carolina, Retiro, 

 Mount Vernon, St. Cecilia, and Santa Ana, which are coflfee 

 estates, (cafetales) in the district of Sumidero, and in the 

 neighborhood of Coliseo post office, a distance of twenty to 

 twenty-five miles south east of Matanzas. San Jorge is a 

 sugar plantation on Sagua la Grande river, about one hun- 

 dred and fifty miles east of Matanzas. 



Coffee trees are planted about six feet apart, and on a 

 portion of most estates plantain trees grow in the spaces. 

 When too exuberant manv of the smaller ones are cut down, 

 and when the fruit is mature the old trees are cut close to 

 the ground ; being full of sap they moisten the earth where 

 they lie. Under these are found some of the Helices, and 

 most of Helicina and Glandina, attracted, no doubt, by tiie 

 shelter and moisture thus aflforded. 



