452 On the Land and Fresh Water 



ARTICLE XXXI v.— On the Land and Fresh Water Mollusca of 

 Lower Canada, with thoughts on the general geographical 

 distribution of Animals and Plants throughout Canada. By 

 ■J. F. Whiteaves, F. G. S., Honorary member of the 

 Ashmolean Society of Oxford, ko,., &c. 



{Read before the Natural History Society of Montreal.) 



Our knowledge of the land and fresh water mollusca inhabiting 

 •Canada generally, is very limited. The papers published by Mr. 

 Bell and Mr. D'Urban in the Canadian Naturalist, together with 

 another in the Canadian Journal by Mr. Williamson, contain all 

 the published information on this subject. Daring the past summer, 

 (1861) I have given the whole of my time to the investigation 

 ef these creatures in Lower Canada, and have obtained some ad- 

 ditional information respecting them, which I propose bringing 

 before the public in this paper. 



The result of about five months collecting, principally in the 

 neighbourhood of Quebec and Montreal, has been the discovery 

 of nineteen species previously unknown in Lower Canada. They 

 are for the most part ^vell known New England species, 'which 

 had not previously been detected so far north as Canada. Four of 

 these are land, and fifteen fresh water shells. Of the land shells, 

 the first is, it would seem, an indubitable alien, — the Helix rufes- 

 cens of Muller, a small snail, common enough in Great Britain, but 

 which has not hitherto been found on the American continent. 

 During my stay at Quebec, I found it living in abundance on that 

 part of the plains of Abraham, known as the Cove Fields. 



On the island of Orleans, another rare and beautiful little snail 

 occurred to me, also alive, — the Helix capsella of Gould, which 

 has been hitherto only found in the state of Tennessee. Living 

 about decayed logs, under small pieces of timber washed ashore, 

 on trunks of smooth trees and under stones, — observed only by 

 the prying eye of the naturalist,— occur sundry little snails, with 

 cylindrical shells, the apertures of which are generally armed with 

 teeth. Owing to the general resemblance of these shells to a 

 small chrysalis, they have received the generic name of Pupa. 

 Of this group two species (Pupa simplex, Gould, and Vertigo 

 Gouldii, Binney) were previously known to inhabit Lower Cana- 

 da from the researches of Messrs. Bell and D'Urban. To this num- 

 ber I can add two species, Pupa armifera. Say, which lives in 

 quantities under stones on the plains of Abraham, and Pupa con- 

 tracta, Say, which I found on the island of Orleans. The extremes 



