252 THE DISPERSAL OF SHELLS. 



brambles." He admitted, however, that the specimens 

 originally found had possibly been accidentally intro- 

 duced with some plant from the Continent, for after 

 considerable inquiries he had not been able to hear of 

 the finding of any other specimens, either in the same 

 locality, or elsewhere. Forbes and Hanley (1853) g^ve 

 the creature as a '''spurious " British species, and Gray 

 in the *' Turton " of 1857 referred to it as a shell intro- 

 duced into the fauna by mistake. The statement in 

 this edition that " a few living specimens were set free 

 on the New North Road, near Hampstead, by Mr. G. 

 B. Sowerby ; but they did not propagate themselves," 

 is somewhat puzzling, and probably wrong. Mr. G. B. 

 Sowerby, grandson of the finder or liberator, is in- 

 clined to think that the statement in the edition 

 of 1840 is correct, but he has no note of the facts. 

 Jeffreys, we find, noticing the species in 1862, even 

 thought that it might possibly be " rediscovered in 

 this country and have its claim to admission as a 

 British species recognized."^ 



Helix lactea Mull. A living specimen of this fine 

 Mediterranean snail was once found, by Mr. Kindon, in 

 a field near the railway at Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire, 

 and was forwarded, still alive, to Mr. Taylor of Leeds. 

 It had probably been carried, as Mr. Taylor supposes, 

 with shingle brought by rail from the coast, and the 

 finding by Mr. J. H. Salter in the following year of a 



' Alder, " Mag. Zool. Bot.," ii. (1838), p. 106 ; Gray's " Turton," 

 1840, pp. 34, 53, 143.4; 1857, PP- 293-4; "Forbes and 

 Hanley," iv. (1853), p. 85; "Jeffreys," i. (1862), p. 192. 



