Foreign to the United States. 223 



Additional note on the genus AMPHIBULIMA. 



Since our paper "On The Relations of Certain Genera 

 of Terrestrial Mollusca of, or related to, the Sub-family Suc- 

 cininse, with Notes on the Lingual Dentition of Succinea 

 appendiculata Pfr. " (pp. 198-207) was printed, we have re- 

 ceived, through the kindness of Dr. W. J. Branch of the 

 island of St. Kitts, two specimens of Am])hibulima j)aiula 

 with the animals, preserved in glj^cerine, and can in conse- 

 quence offer a decided opinion as to the generic relations of 

 the species. 



Finding a note among the papers of the late Mr. Rol)ert 

 Swift to the effect that " S. patula Brug. is found at St. Kitts 

 on Bayford's estate on the wild plantain which grows on 

 the banks of a small water-course," Bland wrote on the 21st 

 November last, requesting Dr. W. J. Branch, a correspond- 

 dent of Mr. Swift and also of Governor Eawson, to obtain 

 specimens, if possible, for examination. To this request Dr. 

 Branch most kindly responded. We subjoin a copy of his 

 interesting letter, which accompanied the specimens. 



" I went a few daj-s ago to Bayford's to look for the 8. patula but, 

 after a long and fatiguing search, found only two small (young) speci- 

 mens. When I was in the place several years since, the bushes on each 

 side of the little river were covered with snails * (a striped BuUmus, a 

 species of Hdicina and the S. patula), but the other day I saw only three 

 arboreal snails. The present scarcity of these creatures in St. Kitts is 

 probably due to the hurricane which visited the island in 1870. Many 

 trees, some of enormous size, were torn up by the roots, others lost all 

 their branches, and scarcely a single leaf was left on any tree. The sup- 

 ply of water to the estates was cut off or much diminished by the drying 

 up of the numerous streams from the mountains. This was, no doubt, 

 caused by the want of foliage to protect the moisture, which collects on 

 the slopes of well- wooded hills, from the sun's heat. So the poor snails 

 have come to grief from the actual violence of the hurricane itself, and 

 the subsequent cutting off of their supplies both of meat and drink. 



You will see that both the snails sent are completely tucked into their 

 shells, but I do not think that they often, or perhaps ever, draw in either 

 the head or the posterior part of the foot during life. ' Their flesh is partic- 



* B. multifasciatus Lam. and H. fasciata Lam.(T. B.) 

 Januakt, 1873. 16 Ann. Ltc. Nat. Hist., Vol, x 



