Land-snails 3 6 1 



The Wrinkled Snail {H. capcrata) may be regarded 

 as a smaller edition of the Banded Snail in which the 

 spiral lines have got broken up ; though in typical 

 specimens the principal band, just above the ^^eriphery, 

 is well defined. Its ground tint is not white, but a 

 pale fawn colour, and it is without the gloss of the 

 three previous species. This last character is due to 

 the growth lines across the whorls being here very 

 prominent, as indicated in its names. It is also much 

 depressed, and its umbilicus is relatively larger than 

 that of H. virgata. The mouth is the same shape as 

 in that species, and the animal has much the same 

 trick of showing its abundance after rain. It 

 inhabits the same situations as virgata, but is also 

 frequently found in woods, on the trunks of beech- 

 trees. Some forms are as conical as virgata, whilst 

 others are as depressed as ericetorum. 



Some of the varieties closely resemble varieties of 

 virgata, but those of caperata can always be 

 distinguished b}'^ the wrinkles. The var. ornata is 

 smaller, with broader and darker bands, and the 

 Kev. S. S. Pearce some years since, in the Journal of 

 Conchology, explained why this variety is found 

 almost exclusively on downs where sheep are 

 pastured. Occurring with the ordinary mottled form, 

 he argued, ornata was far more conspicuous, and 

 therefore the sheep could avoid them, whereas the 

 less conspicuous mottled forms were eaten, leaving 

 more of the dark form to live and propagate their 

 beneficent variation. Now this reasonino- would be 

 satisfactory, but for one thing: it proceeds on the 

 assumption that sheep object to snails and wish to 

 avoid them ; whereas, as we have shown in the case 



