450 Lt.-Colonel II. H. Godwin-Austen on 



sideration and it has occurred to me as possil)le that shells 

 of a species hatched in a very wet hot season, when food is 

 abundant, will present a generally more tumid shape than 

 those of the same species produced during a year of drought. 

 The collector soon notices that species of many genera vary 

 locally, even at distances of only 100 miles, even less, 

 geological formation having much to say to the change, or 

 the more or less wooded character of the country. 



Taking any large place, say Maritzburg in Natal, it would 

 be most difficult to define what was the extent of bush or 

 jungle when the earlier European settlers came there. Stilt 

 more difficult in its immediate neighbourhood to strike the 

 spot where the earliest conchologists obtained their typical 

 shells. Stations in India tell this story in an equally strong 

 way, and I am led to give an examj)le or two. The virgin 

 forest m which Darjiling was once buried is gone. Slopes 

 of the hills facing Peshawur, which, in 1854, when I was 

 there, had a fair amount of scrubby growth in the valleys, 

 must now be bare. Wood brought in by men and on donkeys 

 was coming into the cantonment day by day, for the con- 

 sumption of a large garrison ; this has gone on ever since 

 — one can imagine what a change in the fauna and flora must 

 have been produced iu the interval of sixty years, in a flora 

 not to be compared with the richness of that of Darjiling. 

 Where a clean sweep has been made of the mountain slopes, 

 invertebrates have not a chance of survival over thousands 

 of acres. 



Unfortunately no description has been made from life of any 

 of the animals of the species placed iu my hands, some are so 

 white and unspotted they give one the idea of being bleached 

 in the preserving liquid. In others, again, every speck is 

 preserved. The distribution of the black-and-white spots, 

 blotches, and bands is very constant in all the batches I 

 have had to examine, and may be considered a reliable 

 character, although, possibly, a local one. It would be more 

 conspicuous in life or shortly after preservation. 



In the following s[)ecies the examples were all alike : — 

 Peltalus trotteriand, 5 examples ; Ktrkophoras phcedinms, 5 ; 

 melviUijO ; pocjjjjiyi,5 ; viia/ts,6] leuco.sjjira, 10; bicolor,'^ ; 

 toni/aulensis, 12 ; one example white throughout, no mottling, 

 another .similarly white, with slight mottling. 



Where sc\cial species are met with in the same locality, 

 we nuiy expect to find a certain number of hybrid forms. 



Before giving the results of this cxaininaticni, I must offer 

 my sincere thanks to Dr. Dohrn for so kindly entrusting these 



