164 HELICIDJE. 



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 offensive smell. 



The shell 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 Hebnii is H. nitens, var. albina, of Moquin-Tan- 

 don, which I have found near Lausanne. 



4. Z. PU'RTJS*, Alder. 



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

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



BODY yellowish-grey or whitish, with fine black specks 

 and close-set tubercles, slightly transparent : tentacles very 

 long and nearly cylindrical ; 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 in- 

 tersection of which gives the surface a reticulated appearance: 

 epidermis thin : whorls 4, convex, but dilated laterally, the 



* Clear. 



