164 HELICID.E. 



upper tertiary fossils. On the Continent it ranges from 

 Russia to the Pyrenees^ and the variety nitens extends 

 also to Sicily. 



It is a shy animal and delights in dark places, being 

 sometimes found underground at a depth of some inches 

 where the earth is loose. Its flesh is of a rather firm 

 consistency, and its slime is watery and abundant. It 

 does not emit any ofiensive smell. 



The sheU. differs from that of Z. cellarius in being 

 smaller, and in having one whorl less, the spire more 

 raised, and a much larger and deeper umbilicus. Its 

 surface is also much less glossy. 



I cannot recognize anything more than a varietal 

 distinction between the Helix nitidula of Draparnaud and 

 the H. nitens of Michaud, which are regarded by Conti- 

 nental authors as different species. This last is not the 

 H. nitens of Gmelin or of Maton and Rackett. The 

 variety Helmii is H. nitens, var. albina, of Moquin-Tan- 

 don, which I have found near Lausanne. 



4. Z. pu'rus *, Alder. 



Helix pura, Aid. Cat. Northumb. Moll. p. 12. Z. purus, F. & H. iv. 

 p. 37, pi. cxxi. f. 5, 6. 



Body j-eUowish-grey or whitish, with fine black specks and 

 close-set tubercles, slightly transparent : tentacles very long 

 and nearly cylindiical ; bulbs small : foot very narrow, slightly 

 pointed in front and rounded behind. 



Shell compressed, rather more convex above than below, 

 very thin, not very glossy but semitransparent, light horn- 

 colour, with a yellow or reddish tinge on the upper side, ex- 

 quisitely sculptured transversely by numerous curved striae, 

 and spirally by still finer and almost microscopic lines, the 

 intersection of which gives the surface a reticulated appear- 

 ance : epiderinis thin : wJiorls 4, convex, but dilated laterally, 



* Clear. 



