HELICID^. 161 



of an inch in diameter, and at others not one third of 

 that size : in colour, being sometimes pellucid white 

 and bandless, and generally opake and very distinctly 

 banded ; and, from the number of its bands, it offers 

 an almost endless variety of banding ; sometimes the 

 colouring which forms the bands is suffused over 

 the whole shell, making it brown, or even nearly 

 black. 



It also varies sometimes in shape, and slightly in 

 the elevation and depression of the spire, and in the 

 size of the umbilicus ; from its abundance, it is very 

 liable to the usual distortions. 



Distorted specimens of this shell are sometimes 

 found with the whorls reversed, or more commonly 

 produced out of their usual course. It was a specimen 

 of this monstrosity that was called Helix elegans by 

 Brown (Wern. Trans, vi. 528. t. 24. f. 9.) and H. dis- 

 juncta by Turton {Conch. Diet. 61. f. 63.). 



Mr. Alder says that a very small variety of this 

 shell is found on the coast of north Devon, which is 

 probably the Helix maritima of Draparnaud. I have 

 not been able to see this variety. It is also referred 

 to by Jeffreys (Linn. Trans, xiii. 335.), but the con- 

 tinental authors do not mix them together. 



In the autumn, these shells are often suddenly ob- 

 served in such great numbers as to give rise to the 

 popular notion of their having fallen from the clouds ; 

 and in very hot weather, the young both of this spe- 

 cies and the H. cingenda may be found in clusters 

 adhering to the stalks of various plants, with the 

 aperture closed by a thin pellicle (epiphragm), except 

 where it is in contact with the plant. 



