A Second Recent Shell of Helix Lowei, FSrussac. 79 



X. — A Second Recent Shell of Helix Lowei, FSrussac. 

 By Canon A.M. Norman, M.A.j D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.,&c. 



1831. Helix portosanctana, 0. gigantea, Lowe, Cambr. Phil. Soc. Trans. 



vol. iv. p. 46, pi. v. fig. 16. 

 1835. Helix Lowei, Ferussac, Bull, de Zool. p. 89. 

 1854. Helix Lowei, Albers, Malacograpkia Maderensis, p. 82, pi. xvii. 



figs. 11, 12. 

 1878. Helix Lowei, Wollaston, Testacea Atlantica, p. 90. 



Wollaston writes : — " The If. Lowei (the larger examples 

 of which measure upwards of 2 inches across the broadest 

 part) stands pre-eminent amongst the Madeiran Helices for 

 its gigantic stature." But Wollaston need not have re- 

 stricted his comparison to the shells of Madeira, for the only 

 species in the whole Palasarctic region which equal or very 

 slightly exceed H. Lowei in diameter are Helix Codringtoni, 

 Gray, and H. Pouzolzi, Mich. ; but in total balk H. Schlcefli, 

 Mouss., and H. lucorum, Linn., are unsurpassed. 



This very fine species is abundant as a fossil in the cal- 

 careous beds of Porto Santo. It was long regarded as 

 extinct ; but at length a living specimen was discovered by 

 Signor J. M. Moniz, a collector of Mollusca in Madeira. 

 Mr. J. Yate Johnson thus tells the tale: — " One red-letter 

 day an active naturalist, who was in the habit of prying 

 into out-of-the-way corners, happened to turn over a heavy 

 stone in the islet of Cima, off Porto Santo. Imagine, 

 brother naturalists ! — for you alone can — his mingled astonish- 

 ment and delight when he saw secreted beneath it a living 

 individual of Helix Lowei I To compare small things with 

 great, it was as if a traveller in the wilds of Africa were to 

 discover a pterodactyle fluttering like a bat in the obscure 

 depths of some previously unexplored cavern. The prize was 

 conveyed to Funchal with the greatest care, and there it lived 

 for some time, anxiously tended by its discoverer. Perhaps 

 it was too much indulged in the good things of this world, 

 for its life is supposed to have been shortened by a surfeit of 

 cabbage (Brassica oleracea), a luxurious article of diet to 

 which it had never been accustomed in its frugal home on a 

 barren rock. It died sine prole, the last of its ancient race; 

 but its shell is fondly preserved by its still disconsolate 

 owner" (J. Y. Johnson, ' Madeira, its Climate and Scenery,' 

 1885, p. 211). 



A second example, however, is now known. In 1892 

 Herr Rolle, the dealer in shells at Berlin, wrote to me 

 offering certain shells, among them a Helix Lowei. In 



