3 56 Shell Life 



mouth is never ribbed. The umbilicus is narrow and 

 shallow. Its habitat is on the downs along the coasts 

 of Devon and Cornwall, and in the Channel Islands, 

 where it buries itself deeply in winter and dry 

 weather. 



The Dusky Snail {K. fusca) in point of size and 

 shape is much like H. revelafa, but the shell is 

 yellowish brown and it is not hairy. It is so thin as 

 to be transparent; it is glossy, and the five and a half 

 whorls are strongly wrinkled across. The umbilicus is 

 extremely narrow. Though widely distributed this is 

 a local species, and its habitat is among nettles and 

 doc/s-mercury, under the leaves of young alders, and 

 on ferns. It appears to endure a much lower tem- 

 perature than most of its congeners, and has been 

 found active in winter when the thermometer 

 registered several degrees of frost. 



The other members of the genus Helix are all 

 comparatively large. The Kentish Snail (H. can- 

 tiana) owes its name to the fact that 

 specimens from Kent were first observed 

 to be different from H. rnfescens, and 

 it was then thought to be peculiar to 

 Kentish Snail that couuty. Altliough uiost plentiful in 

 the south of England its range extends 

 as far north as Northumberland. It has a somewhat 

 globular shell, thin in texture and semi-transparent ; 

 the colour yellowish white, tinged with ruddy-brown 

 towards the mouth and on the under-side, often with 

 a narrow white band extending half-way or more 

 round the body-whorl. Adult specimens have a thick 

 white rib just inside the slightly expanded mouth of 

 the shell. The umbilicus is narrow but deep. Young 



