HELIX. 135 



litles such as the South Downs, Dartmoor, and Corn- 

 wall, they occur in endless profusion, so that the sheep, 

 when feeding upon the short grass, cannot possibly 

 avoid devouring them in vast numbers; the excellency 

 of the South Down and Dartmoor mutton -has conse- 

 quently, with much show of reason, been partly attri- 

 buted to the very nutritive food thus afforded to the 

 sheep. Some of the inhabitants, the shepherds espe- 

 cially, of the above-named localities, implicitly believe 

 that these snails descend in showers from the clouds, 

 and they are indignant when a stranger smiles in- 

 credulously on hearing their wondrous tale. This 

 notion owes its origin, no doubt, to the fact that, after 

 a shower of rain, the herbage on tracts of country 

 extending for miles, is suddenly, as if by magic, alive 

 with millions of the molluscs, which had previously 

 concealed themselves at its roots. 



H. virgata is very hardy and does not seem to 

 hibernate. Moquin-Tandon says that it lays from 

 thirty to sixty eggs during the autumn. 



Var. I. subaperta.—^\iei\ of a whiter hue; spire more de- 

 pressed ; umbilicus wider. Bath (Clark), B.C. 



Var. 2. siibglobosa.—'$>\\ei\ smaller with a double band above 

 the periphery, last whorl larger in proportion to the others, 

 umbilicus wider. Bantry Bay and St. Mawes near Falmouth 

 (J. G. J.), B.C. Black Rock, Tenby (G. Sherrifif Tye), J.C. 



Var 3. siibmaritima, Des Moulins.— Shell much smaller and 

 more deeply coloured, often with a violet tinge ; spire raised. 

 Braunton Burrows in North Devon, and Swansea Burrows 

 (J. G. J.), Isle of Wight (Pickering), B.C. Tenby (G. Sherriff 

 Tye), y.C. Clevedon (McMurtrie). 



Var. 4. carinata. — Shell yellowish-white, compressed above ; 

 periphery strongly keeled. Wingfrith near Wareham (Daniel), 

 B.C. 



