60 THE NAUTILUS. 



immense amount of new information, not to be found in any of the 

 conchological manuals, will be offered. The work, it is believed, 

 will form a complete text book of the subject, and will be indis- 

 pensable to the student of land snails. 



Prof. Ralph Tate describes a number of interesting new 

 Australian gastropoda in the Tr. Roy. Soc. S. Au&tr. June, 1893. 

 Among them are the following Turhinidce and Trochidce ; AstraUmn 

 rutidoloma, Clanculiis consobrlnus, euchelioides, Thalotia negleda, 

 Cal/iostoma spinulosum, Euclielus fenestratus, pumilio, vixumhilicatus, 

 annectans, and E. (Hybochelus) ampuUus. He states that Euchelus 

 tasmanicus Tenison- Woods is the same as E. scabriusculus (Angas) 

 Fischer, the type of Pilsbry's subgenus Herpetopoma. A supple- 

 mental list of S. Australian mollusca is also given. 



Olfactory organs of Helix. Dr. A. B. Griffiths (Proc. Roy. 

 Soc. Edinb. 1892,) contends that Sochaczewer's experiments, by 

 which he showed that the tentacula of Helix pomatia are not 

 olfactory organs, were untrustworthy from his use of turpentine, 

 which gives off a vapor that is irritating to the sensitive tissues 

 generally. If snails are placed on flat slabs, the edges of which 

 have been smeared with eau de cologne, methyl or ethyl acetate, 

 liquids the vapors of which are not irritants, such as have the 

 tentacula removed gradually approach the edges of the slabs, while 

 those whose tentacles are uninjured turn away from the edges. He 

 concludes, therefore, that the tentacles are the seat of the olfactory 

 organs in Helix. 



The Mid- August number of the Zoologischer Anzeiger contains an 

 excellent portrait of J. Victor Cams, in commemoration of his 

 seventieth birthday. 



Mr. A. Belt, in writing of the moUusks of Dorset, (England) 

 gives the following interesting notes. It is well known that thrushes 

 in seasons of scarcity hunt for snails, and to extract the animal 

 break the shell by beating it against a stone. Stones that have 

 been used for this purpose, with the broken shells lying around 

 them are frequently noticed but I had never before found them in 

 such profusion as on the present occasion. A very large proportion 

 of the 576 specimens of Helix nemoralis and H. Iiortensis found 

 consist of these fragments. In fact, the birds had so thoroughly 

 worked the district that until a heavy fall of rain induced the snails 

 to come forth from inmost hiding-places, I did not find more than a 

 dozen live shells of these species. On one occasion I found 42 

 H. asjyer'sa, H. hortensis and H. nemoralis round one stone. 



