28 LITTORINID^E. 



HABITAT : Coralline zone everywhere ; especially com- 

 mon in trawl- refuse at Plymouth. The 1st variety was 

 dredged by Mr. Barlee at Exmouth and in the Hebrides, 

 and by myself in the estuarine river Roach in Essex ; 

 the 2nd, although widely distributed, seems more to 

 frequent the Dorset coast ; and the monstrosity is from 

 the west of Scotland (Barlee) and Aberdeenshire (Daw- 

 son) . Mr. Robertson has found this species in a post- 

 tertiary deposit at Crinan ; the late Dr. Woodward enu- 

 merated it as a fossil of the Norwich Crag ; and Profes- 

 sor Sars records it from a post-glacial bed in Norway, 

 at a height of 50 feet. It inhabits the Norwegian coast 

 as far north as Oxfjord in the laminarian zone (Sars), 

 Christianiafiord (J. G. J.), the south of Sweden (Malm), 

 the Cattegat (mus. Copenhagen), north of France (Mace, 

 Cailliaud, and Tasle), Gulf of Lyons (Martin, fide Petit), 

 Dalmatia (Brusina) , Spezzia (J. G. J.), Corsica (Susini), 

 and Algeria (Weinkauff ) . A species very closely allied 

 to this, if not a dwarf or southern variety of it, was 

 obtained by Mr. M f Andrew off Teneriffe. 



This may have been the Turbo albus of Adams (T. 

 albulus of Maton and Rackett, not of Fabricius), R. 

 Bailies of Thompson, and R. maculata of Brown ; but the 

 specific name inconspicua is in general use, and must be 

 retained. I regard the 2nd variety as a stunted form. 

 If I had contented myself with examining a few speci- 

 mens only, I should probably have arrived at the same 

 conclusion that Herr v. Mohrenstern did, and made 

 this variety a separate species ; but the comparison on 

 an extensive scale of both forms and of intermediate 

 specimens has convinced me that such a distinction can- 

 not be maintained. The shell described or rather sha- 

 dowed forth by Adams as Helix variegata may not 

 even have belonged to the present genus. All the species 



