228 



membranous epidermis, to which the different species are indebted for 

 their characteristic patterns. B. Cumingii, Leaii, and a few others, belong 

 to another type of which the shell is inflated, and mostly shining white, 

 with only a very slight single epidermis. About eighty species of Bulimus 

 have been collected in the twenty-two islands of the Philippine group, all 

 extremely local in their range of habitation. With the exception of about 

 half-a-dozen of the eighty, each species is confined to its particular island. 

 The equable climate of these islands, the excessive rains, and woody cha- 

 racter of the vegetation, combine materially to favour the growth of snails. 

 They live some on the branches of the trees and in shady recesses, and 

 others among light thickets on the outskirts of the woods. The large 

 species are strictly arboreal, and deposit their eggs standing on end in 

 parallel rows upon a leaf. The transparent, horny, ground-burrowing type 

 which appears at Hindoostan in B. cereas and gracilis, and at Java in B. 

 Achatinaceus, is here represented by B. elongatulus and Panayensis. 



The only species collected in China are B. decorticatus, belonging to the 

 ground type, which is universal, and B. Cant&ri, from the environs of 

 Nanking. They belong to the Caucasian type, which reaches the islands 

 of Ty-pin-san and Koo-kien-san of the Meia-co-shimah group of the 

 Yellow Sea in B. Anglicoides found under decayed leaves among the loose 

 stones which surround the tombs. 



Of the Bulimi of Australia little is at present known. One species, B. 

 atomatus, with a large, dark-coloured inflated shell, has been collected at 

 Port Macquarrie, one small species, B. trilineatus, at Port King George, 

 and two, B. Kingii and injlatus, of which the precise locality is unknown. 

 Two species with thin, dusky shells, B. melo and Dufresnii, inhabiting 

 Van Diemen's Land, constitute the southern limit of the genus in the 

 eastern hemisphere. 



9. The African Province. 



The African province includes all that explored portion of the continent 

 below Senegal on the west side, and Zanzibar, including the islands of 

 Mauritius and Madagascar, on the east. In the intertropical area along 

 the west coast of Africa, extending from latitude 15° S. to 15° N., the 

 Bulimi are replaced in great measure by a group of large Achatina, which 

 inhabit principally the hot and swampy districts on the banks of the Gambia, 

 Nun, Gaboon, and Niger rivers, and reach in a modified form to the sandy 

 plains of Loanda. The shells are large, inflated, and richly dark-painted, 

 and the shells of the few Bulimi that are associated with them belong to 

 the same characteristic type. The two genera meet at this point. Bulimus 

 lorridus of Liberia and Achatina Saulc>/di belong to the same natural type, 

 notwithstanding that they are referred to different genera. B. Adansoni, 

 Africanus, tenebricus, turbinatus, flammeus, Numidicus, and interstinctus 



