136 HELICIDJE. 



darker, often bluish black on the neck and sides, with paler 

 foot, tail, and tentacula. Mr. Spence Bate thinks that he 

 has made out some differences in the shapes of the lingual 

 teeth. The animal of the intermediate form is often of a 

 hyaline violet hue, or greenish. All the varieties live in 

 wet places, among herbage on the banks of rivers, and by 

 the side of pools and lakes. They seem to be distributed 

 indifferently throughout the British islands. Our friend, 

 Mr. Pickering, who has paid much attention to the distinc- 

 tive features and habits of British land and freshwater 

 shells remarks on some specimens of the two leading varie- 

 ties taken in the neighbourhood of Hoddesdon, Herts, 

 that putris occurs " on the grass in damp meadows ; 

 gracilis, on aquatic plants and mud by the sides of streams 

 and ditches ; the former ma}^ occasionally be met with in 

 the same situations as the latter, but I have never met 

 with gracilis in those in which putris is usually found, 

 i.e., in damp meadows. The difference of habitat and 

 the widely different form and character of the two shells 

 induce me to consider them as distinct species, having the 

 same affinity to each other as Limnaus auricularius and 

 pereger. I have frequently met with gracilis on the plants 

 growing in brackish water in which Assiminea and Rissoa 

 congregate, but never amphibia.'''' Mr. William Thomson 

 informs us that he finds the slender variety on the stems 

 and leaves of plants at Battersea, which are immersed 

 at every tide. M. Bouchard-Chantereaux observes that 

 the young of Succinea putris attain their majority by the 

 end of their first year. The eggs are globular, yellowish 

 and hyaline, and are found adhering to plants and stones 

 in agglutinated masses. 



