POEL: 63 
and in Venice and other parts of the Continent I have 
seen baskets-full collected for this purpose. The taste 
is insipid, and the animals are apt to be tough if not well 
boiled. As nourishing food, however, they rank with 
calfs-foot jelly, oysters, etc. The “band formula” may 
be used for this species as for . nemoralts. 
Though it has a wide distribution throughout the 
British Isles, it is thought by some to have been intro- 
duced not earlier than the time of the Romans. 
It is a pity that Dr. Jeffreys and others described some 
of their varieties as having more than one characteristic. 
The form ¢exuzor, for instance, is not always ‘‘ dwarfed,” 
nor is the var. conoidea always “thinner.” Of course, it 
may be objected that a full-sized individual with a very 
thin shell is not the v. zezwzor, at any rate of Shuttleworth, 
or a conical individual with a thick shell the var. conotdea 
of Jeffreys ; but in all probability if these conchologists 
had seen more examples they would have left out the 
secondary characters, which for practical purposes may be 
disregarded. The form wzzicolor represents what is usually 
known as vy. grisea (Mog.). Lxalbida is local, but often 
not uncommon where it occurs, especially in the west ot 
England and in Kent. 
Var. I. globésa (Mog.). Larger, globular. 
Size. War. Wl. minor (7ic.). Sialler. A) 22mm. B, 
(maj.) 28mm. (mi2.) 23mm. 
Texture. Var. III. zenzéior (Shutil.). Thin, dwarfed. 
Shape. Var. IV. conoidea (fic.). Conical, thinner. 
