32 INTEODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



and tlie Eastern world. Magnificent specimens were col- 

 lected by Mr. Cnming in the Philippines, in Sumatra also, 

 and other islands of the Oriental Ai'chipelago, 



The range of the Helix putris is considerably extended, 

 and comprises a great variety of soil and climate, from dark 

 Norwegian forests to sunny Italy, creeping at its slow and 

 stealthy pace throughout the United States and Newfound- 

 land, Jamaica, Tranquebar and the Marianne Islands. The 

 margin of pools and streams, where aquatic birds resort to 

 bathe and dress their feathers, are his favourite haunts; 

 hence the dispersion of the H. putris is readily accounted 

 for. The eggs being generally affixed to the stems and leaves 

 of water-plants become attached to the feathers of such birds 

 as resort among them, and are in consequence widely disse- 

 minated. 



The H. aspersa, one of the most common among our 

 larger land shells, is dispersed in like manner through places 

 the most dissimilar. St. Helena and the foot of Chimborazo, 

 in South America, reveal its olive-coloured shell, as also 

 the citron groves of Cayenne. But with tliis difference, 

 it is conjectured, that the species being considered nutri- 

 tious, were imported from casual ships; their power of 

 sustaining life without air or nourishment during the longest 



