234 



HELICIDJE. 



HABITAT: Downs and sand-hills on the sea-coast, 

 from Durness in Sutherlandshire (where it has been 

 found by the Rev. Walter Grigor) to the Channel Isles, 

 as well as throughout Wales and Ireland. The variety 

 bizona is remarkably pretty, and has been found in lona 

 by Messrs. Lowe and Berkeley; at Abergelly, near 

 Conway, by Mr. Gibbs ; near Cork by Mr. J. D. Hum- 

 phreys ; and at Tenby, and Portmarnock in Dublin Bay, 

 by myself. The variety inflata occurs with the typical 

 form, but merges insensibly into it through intermediate 

 gradations. It somewhat resembles the B. ventricosus 

 of Draparnaud. The present species is common in the 

 granitic, as well as calcareous districts ; but the only 

 authority for its being found anywhere except on the 

 sea-coast is that of the late Mr. Thompson of Belfast, 

 who says it " occasionally occurs inland." It is a very 

 doubtful member of our upper tertiary list, Mr. Picker- 

 ing having only found a fragment of a shell, which he 

 believed was this species, in the deposit at Copford. The 

 circumstance of this not being a northern form makes the 

 identification more questionable. Abroad it seems also 

 to be confined to the coast-line, and ranges from France 

 to Algeria and Sicily. Hartmann is said, however, to 

 have found it near Romanshorn in Switzerland. 



It is rather an active, but irritable creature, and with- 

 draws itself into its shell on the slightest touch. These 

 snails may be seen in the daytime clinging to the stalks 

 of grass and other herbage in countless numbers ; and 

 this attachment is effected by means of a pellicle secreted 

 in the same way as the epiphragm. The popular idea 

 that sheep feed on and are fattened by snails relates to 

 this kind as well as to Helix virgata ; and, as Montagu 

 very justly observes, " it is, indeed, impossible that those 

 animals should browse on such short grass as clothes 



