STELFOX: lIYCUOillA UUFESCENS, AUCT., IN IKKLANI). 291 



3. Its former absence from the Scotcli settlements in the north-east 

 is noteworthy, though it is now being rapidly disseminated over 

 this area from nursery gardens. 



4. Its extraordinary powers of adaptability render it extremely 

 liable to accidental dispersal by man. 



From many outlying districts which I have surveyed, in which 

 this species liad been unknowu previously, I have been able to obtain 

 a record by searching gardens, the precincts of a village rubbish-heap, 

 or the ruins of some old castle or mansion. Thus I have records from 

 the gardens of the castle on Lambay, co. Dublin ; the gardens of tlie 

 colony, Achill Island, West Mayo; in tlie villages on Inishmore, 

 Aran Islands, Clare ; in the village of Ventry, near the western 

 extremity of the Dingle Peninsubi, South Kerry ; and in similar 

 outlying districts in Ulster, in which it was unknown in the time of 

 Thompson. 



Writing in 1815, Captain Thomas Brown ^ says that it "is found 

 in all' dry places", but since practically all Brown's work was done 

 within the Pale this bald statement throws but little light upon the 

 subject. 



William Thompson helps us more, but he was evidently 

 unacquainted personally with the southern range of the species. He 

 says* that " this species is common to the southern two-thirds of the 

 island : as far north as Banbridge in the county of Down it has been 

 found, and on old walls at liostrevor [Co. Down also], 1848, by the 

 llev. G. Robinson". Thompson was a most accurate naturalist and 

 a keen observei", and he could not have passed over this species had it 

 then occurred in the gardens around Belfast, where it is now common. 

 It is evident that he de[)ended for bis information relating to the 

 southern counties mainly upon correspondents, and was thus led to 

 believe in its universal range in those districts. Its distribution, 

 however, is just as patchy in the south as in Ulster, and when 

 cultivated ground has been left behind, H. rufeacens vanishes also. 



To my mind there is but one fact in connexion with II. riifescens 

 in Ireland that is incompatible with the supposition that it was first 

 introduced into this island by the English settlers. This fact, which 

 I have kept until the last, is that in 1885 the late R. D. Darbishire 

 recorded^ it from the famous sandhill deposits at Dogs Bay, West 

 Galway, and that Mr. Standen in 1895 repeats the statement * that 

 the shell occurs there as a fossil. 



Even should these records — the accuracy of which I have grave 

 doubts — be proved to have been correct, the fact that H. riifescens 

 owes its wide range in Ireland to its 'artificial' dispersal by man 

 cannot be doubted for a moment. 



' "Account of the Irish Testacea " : Mem. Wern. Nat. Hist. See, vol. ii, 



p. 52.5. 

 " Natural History of Ireland, vol. iv, p. 292, 1856. 

 ' Journ. Conch., vol. iv, p. 317. 

 * Irish Naturalist, vol. iv, p. 270. 



