259 



NOTES ON WEST AUSTRALIAN LAND-SHELLS. 

 By C. Hedlet, F.L.S., etc. 



Read March 8fh, 1895. 



The zoological student finds his subject grouped cither fauna by fauna, 

 or family by family, and if choice, or chance confine his attention to 

 one region, he will obtain information more easily from reports 

 arranged geographically than from systematic ones. Local lists are, 

 therefore, particularly acceptable, and the excellent account of the 

 Land-Shells of "Western Australia which recently appeared in these 

 Proceedings (ante, Vol. I, pp. 84-99), from the pen of Mr. E. A. 

 Smith, is a boon to Australian naturalists. So great is the ever- 

 increasing mass of published observations, that no one cast of the 

 net can ever sweep together all the obscure references afloat in the 

 sea of periodic literature. Glancing over some notes accumulated 

 on Australian snails, I find a few such stray references which have 

 escaped Mr. Smith's attention. Our information about the animals, 

 though scanty, is not quite confined to Quoy and Gaimard's notice 

 of B Kingi and B. melo. Semper treated of the latter in the Reise 

 im Philipp. ; W. G, Binney has described, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Pliiladelphia, 1875, p. 251, pi. xxi. fig. 7, the dentition of II. comicta, 

 and I have given some account of the anatomy of H. perinjlata, Proc. 

 Hoy. Soc. Queensland, vi, p. 250, pi. xv. 



The Elder Exploring Expedition gathered two species of land- 

 shells in Western Australia which may be added to Mr. Smith's 

 list. Between Victoria Spring and Eraser Range a new species was 

 collected, H. fodinalis, Tate, Trans. Roy. Soc. South Australia, 

 vol. xvi, pt. i, p. 64, pi. i, figs. \a, li, \c. H. permflata occurred 

 firstly at the Cavenagh Range, secondly about three miles south of 

 Camp 58, and thirdly between Eraser Range and Yilgarn Gold-field. 

 Besides the illustration given [op. cit. pi. i, fig. 6) by Mr. Bednall, 

 there is an unquoted figure in Cox's Monograph of Australian Land- 

 Sliells, pi. XX, fig. 2 of this species. I have also seen specimens of 

 H. ferinflata from Coolgard!e. 



Mr. Smith has unfortunately overlooked the figures and descriptions 

 published by Dr. Cox in the Proc. Linn. Soc. New South "Wales, and 

 reproduced by Mr. Pilsbry, Man. Conch , ser. II, vol. viii, pp. 279, 280, 

 pi. Iviii, figs. 20, 21, 25, and 26, of R. Oscarensis and R. Derhiji. It is, 

 I think, evident that he has re-described the former as H. inconvicta. 

 Smith, and the latter as II. Derhyana, Smith. The locality for the 

 last should be not Burner, but Barrier Range, which, also known 

 as Napier Range, extends north of the Lennard River in about 

 17° S. lat. by 124° E. long. It is particularly unfortunate that the 

 mistake should be perpetuated in II. Barnerensis. This information 

 I owe to Mr. W. "W. Froggatt, who collected these three species, and 



