227 



the same province of distribution. Occupying a loftier situation than the 

 species before mentioned, they have, as in Venezuela, stouter shells, but 

 are still comparatively small and sombre. On the mountain slopes, where 

 the Flora, represented by the rhododendron and juniper, is of a subarctic 

 character, the genus inhabits a much colder temperature in elevation than 

 it reaches in either hemisphere in latitude. Two species, B. arcuatus and 

 nivicola, are found in the Liti Pass at an elevation of 14,000 feet on ju- 

 niper bushes among patches of snow at the hottest period of the year. 

 This is the only locality in which the genus approaches the snow-line. 

 The physical conditions of India below the Emodic or Alpine region of 

 vegetation are not calculated to favour the growth of Bidimi. In the plains 

 there is a scarcity of wood and forest, such as we have noticed to serve so 

 materially for the, production of these snails in South America ; and the 

 burning of the thickets in the hill countries for the pasturage of cattle, 

 offers the same obstacles to their growth and increase as the clearing away 

 of the virgin forests in Brazil. 



8. The Malayan Province. 



The Malayan province of the genus, which comprises the islands of the 

 Indian Archipelago, commences on the south-western corner of the Asiatic 

 continent, where it is represented at Burmah by B. Sylheticus and in Siam 

 by B. atrieallosus. These species are of a totally different type from any 

 of the Bidimi of Hindoostan, and agree precisely with that characteristic 

 Malayan type which appears at Java, Timor, Celebes, and Amboyna in B. 

 citrinus, Icevus, contusus, cldoris, and sinistralis, at Borneo in B. Adamsii, 

 at Ceylon in B. Ceylanicus, and at Mindanao, the most southern of the 

 Philippine Islands, in B. maculiferus. B.fulguratus and malleatus, hav- 

 ing an inflated shell with a winding plait upon the columella, represent a 

 type peculiar to the Peejee Islands. B. miltocheilus, with a wax-like fusi- 

 form shell and brilliant vermilion lip, from Christoval Island, one of the 

 Solomon's Group, is unique as a type. B. fibratus and Caledonicus, with 

 large robust shells of dark chestnut-brown colour, red internally, represent 

 another very distinct type in the island of New Caledonia, but this appears 

 again twelve degrees further south at Auckland, North Island of New 

 Zealand, in the only species inhabiting that group, B. Shongii. It is 

 worthy of notice, that this large, stout, tropical-looking Bulimus is under 

 the same latitude of the eastern hemisphere, which is characterized in the 

 western hemisphere by the delicate species of the dry, sandy countries of 

 Chili and Buenos Ayres. 



The Bulimi of the Philippine Islands, which are very numerous and of 

 large size, belong chiefly to one type, represented by B. pybhogaster, bi- 

 coloratus, lignarias, fidgetrum, uimbosus, and others. The shell of this 

 type is not so much distinguished by colour, as by the presence of a double 



