548 TEST ACE A ATLANTIC A. 



Auris vulpina, Chemn., Syst. Conch, xi. 287. t. 210. f. 2086, 



87 (1795) 



Melania Nonpareil, Perry, Conch, t. 29. f. 4 (1811) 

 Voluta auris-vulpina, Dillw., Cat. i. 503 (1817) 

 Helix auris-vulpina (Cochligena), Fer.,Prodr. 445 (1819) 

 Pachyotus alopecotis, Beck, Ind. Moll. 56 (1837) 

 Bulimus auris-vulpina, Pfeiff., Mon. Hel. ii. 93 (1848) 

 Melliss, St. Hel. 121. t. 22. f. 2 



(1875) 



Habitat versus borealem insulse, semifossilis ; in terra arida 

 (prsecipue in prseruptis inter montes ' Sugarloaf ' et 'Flagstaff') 

 sepulta, a circa 1400' s.m., hinc inde abundans. 



The extreme variability of this large subfossil Bulimus 

 renders it desirable that I should characterize it afresh, in order 

 to point out which it is that I believe to be the exact form from 

 which Chemnitz's description was compiled, and which was sub- 

 sequently recorded by Pfeiffer. It is possible indeed that more 

 than a single species may be indicated amongst the many 

 examples which are now before me ; nevertheless since every 

 feature appears to be more or less inconstant, I think that it 

 will be the safest plan to treat the three modifications under 

 which they would seem, on the whole, to distribute themselves 

 as but phases of a plastic type. Judging from Pfeiffer's diag- 

 nosis, I should conceive the normal state to be the one in which 

 the longitudinal striae are coarsely expressed, in which the um- 

 bilicus is not altogether closed over by the reflexed columellary 

 edge of the peristome, and in which there are no traces of a 

 large tubercle-like nodule within the aperture on the middle 

 of the ventral wall. From which it follows that the specimens 

 in which this inner gibbosity is developed, and in which the 

 umbilicus is sealed up by the recurved margin of the columella, 

 (and in which also, I may add, a few obtuse and remote spiral 

 costse are more evidently visible,) represent an aberrant state, 

 and one which corresponds with my ' var. /3. subspiralis ' as 

 above enunciated. A certain number of individuals, however, 

 although agreeing in other respects with the var. /S., have their 

 peristome much less thickened, with the right margin less 

 internally-sinuate, and their whorls less decidedly prominent 

 (or subangulated) anteriorly, i. e. behind the suture ; and it is 

 these that I have defined as the ' var. 7. obliteratusS 



This large and curious Bulimus was supposed originally to 

 be a marine form, and was characterized as such ; but it is never- 

 theless truly terrestrial, belonging in a great measure to a type 

 (Pachyotus, Beck) which has exponents in South America and 

 in certain islands of the Pacific. Indeed it has been stated to 

 occur, in a living condition, in China; but there can be little 



