100 LAND AND FRESHWATER 
tentacula clubbed or forming a button at the tips, retractile; body 
elongate, with a hooked process on the extremity or tail, pointing 
backwards ; from the right side of the animal proceed two narrow, 
flat, gradually-pointed filaments or tentacula, which, when the 
animal is in motion, are kept constantly playing over the surface of 
the shell, and in all probability give it the high polish it possesses. 
“ Shell. Thin, fragile, pellucid, with a small pillar-cavity, not 
discovering the previous whorls; whorls six or seven in number ; 
colour pale brownish; shell very glassy, with fine smooth polish ; 
aperture lunated, margins edged and disunited, being interrupted 
by the body-whorl; diameter about one inch; spire flattened, as 
are also the sides of the shell more or less. 
“T have placed a mark of doubt to the generic name, because I 
do not find in the description of the genus Helix any allusion made 
to the process on the tail of my specimen, nor to the two tentacula 
proceeding from the right side of the animal. I found specimens of 
these shells, dead, in dry ravines and on the banks of the Ganges. 
“« They live, however, in rocky situations, so that their being 
found in the above-mentioned places must be owing to the moun- 
tain-streams having carried them off during the rains. 
“1 procured living specimens at Tara, in the range of rocky hills 
near Mirzapore, in the month of August 1832. In wet weather, 
or, more properly speaking, during the rains, they sally forth from 
their retreats in quest of food, which consists chiefly of vegetable 
matter. They prefer the early hours of morning to feed in, before 
the sun has sufficient power to become distressing to them. They 
appear to require a great deal of moisture while in motion, without 
which the slimy matter, which exudes plentifully from their bodies, 
becomes so thick as to impede the progress of the animal. I ob- 
served this to be the case with several which I kept alive for some 
time ; when a few drops of water were sprinkled upon it the animal 
put itself in motion and continued so to do until the slimy matter 
became too thick to allow it to proceed without evident exertion. 
I never found these shells in motion except on very wet days; and 
the above circumstance may probably be the reason. At the close 
of the rainy season they deposit their eggs in the ground, and re- 
tire to some secure retreat, where they remain during the cold and 
dry seasons of the year, protected from the weather by the dark 
caves or blocks of stone, among which they conceal themselves, 
shutting up the aperture of the shell with a viscous fluid, which 
soon hardens, and, becoming like a thick coating of gum, effectually 
excludes the external air. 
*«The ova are deposited in long strings, and are white.” 
MacrocaHiamys spLENDENS, Hutton. (Plate XXII. figs. 4, 4a.) 
Nanina splendens, Hutton, J. A. 8. B. vol. vii. pt. 1 (1888), 
p. 215 (form of the shell-lobes not alluded to; they possibly are 
absent). 
Helix splendens, Pfr. Mon. Helic. vol. i. p. 73, vol. iv. p. 124. 
Nanina splendens, Gray, Cat. Pulm. p. 89 (1855). 
