CARYCHIID^. 299 



grass, in the loose earth between the stones/^ The epi- 

 phragm is very thin and ghstening. The eggs are said 

 to be large in comparison with the size of the shell. 



This is the Bucciyium terrestre of Montagu; bnt it 

 can scarcely be the Helix octona of Linne (as some au- 

 thors have supposed), because that shell is described as 

 having eight whorls and a roundish mouth. The last 

 species is common in the West Indies, but in former 

 times found its way into collections of British shells, 

 omng to Dr. Pulteney having mistaken it for the Limncea 

 glabra, or Helix octona of Pennant. 



Family IV. CAEYCHIID^. 



Body long and spirally coiled : mantle covering the front or 

 anterior part : snout prominent : tentacles 2 (besides rudiments 

 of a second or lower pair), contractile : eyes at the base of the 

 developed tentacles and somewhat in their rear : foot oblong, 

 distinct from the rest of the body. 



Shell spiral, oval-oblong, enveloping the whole body : 

 mouth somewhat ear-shaped, furnished mth columellar folds 

 and a tooth-like tubercle on the outer hp : umbilicus narrow 

 and indistinct. 



This family forms part of an incongruous assemblage 

 of Mollusca, which Lamarck called Auricula or Auricu- 

 lacea, the type of which is the Bidimus fibratus or Auris- 

 Midce. As, however, Miiller had long previously indi- 

 cated the characters of the present family by his de- 

 scription of the genus Carychium, it would seem to be 

 an act of common justice to the memory of that great 

 naturalist that the patronymic or family name should 

 be taken from that of his original genus, and not from 

 Auricula, which was subsequently founded. A few am- 

 phibious Mollusca which belong to this family, and to 

 the genera Mela^npus (or Conovulus) and Otina, being 



