130 THE NAUTILUS. 
pulchella, and Pupa contracta ; but they are more partial to swampy 
situations, and with other small species are found in great numbers 
in certain places farther back in the country. Just one dead shell 
of nitidus has been taken—near the water, and it would seem to bea 
splendid locality for them. The albolabris is worthy of special 
mention on account of the superior size to which they attain: very 
seldom are they less than 30 mill. in diameter, while one shell 
measures 36. The H. palliata also are very perfect. 
From the lower end of these woods to the ‘Vly’ is but a short 
distance; a long narrow strip of woodland lies on the north side of 
the causeway and forms the entire south shore of the cove. Here 
the conditions are much different; the ground is not over a foot or 
two above the high tides, and portions of it are occasionally 
inundated. ‘The soil is of rich black mould with clay substratum, 
and has produced a dense growth of trees, principally elm; and a 
luxurious, almost tropical, undergrowth of shrubbery, ferns, and 
weeds. 
Here lives and flourishes a colony of Succinea obliqua that is 
peculiarly interesting. During the warm months, May, June, July 
and August, they are wonderfully abundant. After the rains they 
are swarming over everything; feeding on the decaying rubbish, 
crawling on the weeds and bushes, going up the trunks of trees, and 
disporting themselves generally as if they really enjoyed their 
existence. Sometimes I have observed eighteen or twenty large 
fellows gathered around the foot of a tree as if on the point of a 
forward march of ascension. They never go very high however; I 
have not noticed them beyond five or six feet from the ground. Nor 
do they confine their attention to the woods; for in an adjacent large 
meadow many of them may be found traveling in the deep grass, some 
as much as a third of a mile away on the hillsides. So congenial are 
all the conditions surrounding them that they grow to surprising pro- 
portions; the best shells average 24 to 25 millimeters, often exceed- 
ing this. I have recently obtained one that is 28 mill. long. Mr. 
Pilsbry, to whom I sent a few specimens, says of them, “they are 
simply phenomenal in size.””, Mr. Binney tells me one rarely meets 
such large ones. The greatest length he mentions in his Manual of 
American Land Shells is 25 mill. Toward the latter part of 
summer the older ones die off rapidly, and late in the fall very few 
of them can be seen—but some of course survive the winter, while 
plenty of young will be left in the field for another year, which 
