ON SOME LAND SHELLS COLLECTED BY DR. HIRAM 



BINGHAM IN PERU. 



By William IIealey Dall, 



Curator, Division of Moll usks, U. S. National Museum. 



During a recent mission to Pern Dr. Hiram Bingham, of Yale Uni- 

 versity, made a small collection of land shells in a little visited part of 

 Peru, which through his kindness and that of Dr. Leon J. Cole of thai 

 university were in part sent to me "for examination. Other portions 

 of the collection were presented by Doctor Bingham to Mr. Barbour 

 of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, who kindly lent them for 

 study, and Doctor Cooke of the Bishop Memorial Museum at Honolulu. 



Doctor Bingham thus describes the locality where the shells were 

 found, of which the accompanying illustration, from a photograph 

 taken by him, will aid in characterizing their habitat. 



We left Chincheros on February 17 about 10 o'clock in the morning, reaching the 

 battlefield of Bombon at 11.15 and having our first view of the Rio Pampas at L2. 15 

 ]). m. Its height above the sea at this point is about 6,000 feet. 



On its banks are mimosa trees and several varieties of cactus. The shells occurred 

 in great profusion both on the cactus and the mimosas which struck me as very odd, 

 as I had collected many land shells on the Hawaiian Islands and do not remember to 

 have ever seen shells in such profusion anywhere. Furthermore in the Hawaiian 

 Islands they very rarely live on either cactus or mimosa, preferring the indigenous 

 plants and trees. 



After reaching the level of the river our path followed it in a northerly direction 

 downstream for some distance amongst groves of mimosa trees and different kinds of 

 cacti. This is a famous place for mosquitoes, and there is said to lie a ureal deal of 

 malaria in the vicinity. 



The bridge over the Rio Pampas has long attracted the notice of travelers. There 

 are two pictures of it in E. (i. Squier'a book on Peru, and although wire rope has re- 

 placed the old caliles it is still a most unwelcome feat ure of the road from the point of 

 view of the mules. The bridge to-day is at the foot of perpendicular cliffs. The sur- 

 rounding scenerv is not so imposing as that of the valley of the Apurimac, but is never- 

 theless magnificent. The bridge is about 150 feet long and aboul 50 feet above the 

 river. After leaving the bridge we ascended a precipitous cliff by a narrow winding 

 path and found ourselves on a terrace where enterprising Peruvians had planted fields 

 of sugar cane. 



The trees and shrubs on which I found the shells were not more than 50 or 75 feet 

 above the river. I should judge from the presence of the mimosa and cactus that I he 

 region was not a very rainy one. The shells were placed so thickly on the trunks of 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 38 No. 1736. 

 Proc.N.M.vol.38— 10 12 177 



