376 TEST ACE A ATLANTICA. 



such differences as these are scarcely -svorth noticing in a species 

 which is so eminently unstable as the H. lineata. 



As for the H. canariensis and herhicola (both of them mere 

 manuscript names of Shuttleworth), I cannot conceive that they 

 represent more than the most ordinary local modifications of 

 this naturally variable shell ; and considering that even the 

 author himself was so little convinced of their stability that lie 

 did not venture to publish so much as a diagnosis of them, one 

 cannot but regret that so eminent a conchologist as Mousson 

 should liave thought it desirable to do so, and thus to add (on 

 confessedly imperfect evidence) two more ' species ' (so-called) 

 to the perfect chaos which already exists around the lineata (or 

 oiiaritima, Drap.), the variabilis, and the virgata.^ 



Helix conspurcata. 



Helix conspurcata, Drap., Hist. Nat. des Moll. 105. pi. 7. 



f. 23-25 (1805) 

 Theba conspurcata, Risso, Hist. Nat. iv. 74 (1826) 

 Helix conspurcata, Pfeiff., Mon. Hel. i. 170 (1848) 



„ „ Mouss., Faun. Mai. des Can. 36 (1872) 



Habitat Teneriffam ; in aridis apricis (vel inferioribus vel 

 intermediis) hinc inde, prtecipue in cultis, congregans. 



The somewhat insignificant, European H. conspurcata, 

 Drap., occurs in Tenerifife, — where it is occasionally abundant, 

 in certain sunny spots of a low and intermediate elevation. It 

 has been found near Sta. Cruz, and more plentifully around 

 Laguna (where it was obtained by Mr. LoAve, in 1861, in the 

 Barranco del Drago) and at Souzal. At first it a good deal re- 

 sembles the H. armillata, Lowe, of the Azorean, Madeiran, and 

 Cape Verde archipelagos (and which exists also, under a rather 

 more strongly striated phasis, in Morocco, — from whence it was 

 re-described inadvertently by Mr. Lowe as the ' H. eummus ') ; 



' I say ' confessedly,' because Mousson, in speaking of the IT. cananensis, 

 saj's : 'M. Shuttleworth a designe sous le nom de H. canadensis une coquille, 

 qu'il n'a pas diagnosee, sans doute parce qu"elle rentre par j-apport ii sa forme 

 dans le chaos des moditications de la vai-iaMlis, Drap. Si done nous donnons 

 une description, ce n'est pas dans le biit de leriger en esjD^ce, mais pour ne 

 pas admittre un nom sans definition.' And, again, in his notice of the 

 H. herhicola, he writes : ' Encore une esp^ce difficile a placer, et non decrite 

 par I'auteur ; ' and, after stating that the three features which seem to dis- 

 tinguish it from the lineata are its more depressed spire, its just appreciably 

 more angulose basal whorl, and its slightly less opake surface, he fiu'ther 

 adds : ' D'aiitres individus, raijportes par M. de Fritsch, sont un peu plus 

 eleves, quoique toujours obtus, moins anguleux, et moins polls. De nouvelles 

 observations sur les rapports de vie de ces deux formes pourront seules 

 decider sur leur reunion ou separation.' With only such data as this, one 

 cannot but think that it would have been better not to have taxed such a 

 terribly confused group as the present one with two more 'new species,' 

 which by his own admission were by no means absolutely necessary. 



