Mr. E. L. Layard's Rambles in Ceylon. 305 



gottefl the Trincxjmalee rock-pigeon, Columba lAviOi ^riss., which is 

 the pigeon of that place, breeding in thousands in some rocks ia the 

 sea, near the shore. ' ' 



,- But let me get back to Balcadua Pass. I have got many good 

 shells here. Helix Waltoni is abundant in the early morning along 

 the sides of the road ; the moUusk is a fine shining black. A large 

 variety of HcEmastoma is common on the coffee bushes. I have a 

 minute little Vitrina ', new to me, and a small Helix^ with a multitude 

 of close-set whorls, also new. H. citrina^, or a shell that poor 

 Gardner gave me as such, is not uncommon about the rocks under 

 decaying vegetation ; and the curious H. Rivolii, Desh., lies in every 

 direction, calcined by the burning of the forest for planting, and yet, 

 curiously enough, I cannot find a single hve specimen. Achatina oro- 

 phila* and another larger species * whose name I do not know are 

 abundant under dead leaves and at the roots of trees, and in the latter 

 place I found a new Carocolla, but unfortunately lost it by my col- 

 lecting-box falling from my pocket while jumping over a chasm, be- 

 neath which the river ran foaming and roaring. This Httle mountain 

 stream has supplied me with Paludomus nigricans. Reeve, and two 

 others*, neither of which I can identify with any figured by Reeve ; 

 but the larger bears a striking likeness to P. conica, R., which I have 

 received from Sylhet. In the Mahawilla Ganga, on my road from 

 Kandy hither, I procured P. globulosus, R.', not on the stones, but 

 on sand only ! and there are some others, which I have left at Ma- 

 telle, gathered hastily on my road down. A little tributary to this 

 stream has furnished me with some strange varieties of Melania ele- 

 gans and M. pyramis^, very stunted in growth and tinged with sul- 

 phate of iron, with which the water is strongly impregnated. I must 

 not forget to tell you, I have also procured here Cyclostoma zeyla- 

 nicum, Pfeiffer. There is also a Pterocyclos", much larger than another 

 species, from a cave at Tondemanaar in my district, which has a 

 curious spiral operculum. 



Our Cyclostomacea are, as far as I know, very' little worked out 

 as yet. 



Cycl. cornu venatorium, the largeish dark brown species '*' with a 



[The following notes have been supplied by W. H. Benson, Esq. — Ed.] 

 ' Vitrina membranacea, Bens. MSS. 

 " Helix Puteolus, Bens. MSS. 



^ The only shell resembling H. citrina in form and size among the spe- 

 cimens received, is a pale H. Juliana, Gray, with a narrow brown band. 



* Achatina Orophila, Bens., is A. Ceylanica, Pfr. 



' Probably A. inornata, Pfr., which is in the coUection. 



' Paludomus abbreviatus,'Ree\e, P.Z.S. ined. is one of these species; the 

 otlier appears to be a somewhat smooth variety of P. sulcatus. Reeve. 



' Paludomus globulosus has not been received. P.dilatatus, Reeve, P.Z.S. 

 ined. may have been intended. 



* Melania elegans is M. spinulosa, Lamarck, and Melania pyramis is Af. 

 tuberculata, Miill. 



' Pt. Cingalensis, Bens., Annals, vol. xi. p. W5. 

 '" This is Cycl. [Aulopoma) Itieri of Guerin. 



