368 . MOLLUSKS OF THE GALAPAGOS STEARNS. 



Museum, was ciiriclicd by tlio ;i('<iuisiti<)u of sevci'iii examples of Helix 

 Vcatchii* Newcoiiil), that were collected by Dr. Veatcli on Cerros or 

 (Jedros Island off the coast of Lower California in IS,")!). The speei- 

 mens were given by Dr. Veatcli to Thomas ])ridj;cs, and upon the 

 death of the latter came into my ])ossession with the remainder of the 

 Bridges shells. One day u])()n a careful examination I discovered tliat 

 one of the specimens was apparently still alive, and placed it in a 

 box of moist earth; after a while it protruded its body from the shell 

 and commenced moving- about and seemed to be i.o worse for its long 

 fast of at least six years. H. Vcatchii, it will be observed, beat the 

 time of the famous British Museum example of //. descrtorum, which 

 lived without food within a few days of _/o«r years. \\\ March, 1873, 

 Prof. George Davidson, of the United States ('oast Survey, while at 

 San Jose del Cabo, Ijower California, collected a number of specimens 

 of Bulimus paUidior, and subsequently gave me a part of them, which 

 J put in a box, wher»> they remained undisturbed until Jnne 23, 1875, 

 when they were placed iu a glass jar with some chick-weed and a snuill 

 (quantity of tepid water. They soon waked up and begau to move 

 about api)areutly as vigorous as ever after their long uap of two years 

 two moitlts and sixteen days. In connection Avith the foregoing it 

 should be borne in mind -that at the commencement of hibernation 

 the land snails seal u\) the ai)erture of the shell with a closetitting 

 shield or epiphragm; this consists usually of thin transparent mucus, 

 at other times, and more esi)ecially with those fornis that inhabit arid 

 regions, of an opacpie meinl)ranaceous matter of the thickness of thin 

 card board; the animal piotects itself still further by other aiul inte- 

 rior epiphraguis, that, like so many partitions, still further protect 

 them against lu-olonged or excessive heat or aridity. It should also 

 be noticed that color also has sonu' place in this connection, for 

 although nu)st if not all of the land shells that inhabit hot, arid, or 

 sterile regions, seek protection from the heat by burrowing, the pre- 

 vailing color of such species is white or whitish, rather than dark or 

 black; the tirst reflecting the heat instead of absorbing it, as is the 

 case with the latter. It may be that sutticient or i)erhaps too much 

 space has already been given to these incidental or secoiulary matters, 

 nevertheless before leaving this aspect of the subject the following 

 from Woodward t is worth (juoting: 



FURTHER INSTANCES OF TENACITY OF LIFE. 



" The fresh-water molluscs of cold climates bury themselves during 

 winter iu the nuul of jmnds and rivers; and the land snails hide them- 

 selves in the ground or beneath moss and dead leaves. In warm cli- 

 mates they become torpid during the hottest and driest part of the 

 year. Those genera and species which are most subject to this ' bum- 



* Now regarded as a variety of H. areolata, 

 t Ket-ent .lud Fosfsil shells. 



