426 Mr. L. Lindinger on 



Dimensions of the type : — 



Head and body 353 mm. ; tail 65 ; bind foot 74 ; ear 70. 



Skull: greatest length 73'5; basilar length 55; greatest 

 "breadth 3G ; nasals, length diagonally 33, breadth 17 ; inter- 

 temporal breadth 13"7 ; breadth of palatal bridge 5*5; 

 diastema 19'5j palatal foramina 18 x 8'5. 



JIah. Nha-tiang, Annam. Sea-level. 



Ti/pe. Adult female. Original number 16. Collected 25th 

 December, 1905, and presented by Dr. J. Vassal. 



This very interesting little hare, which I have much 

 pleasure in naming alter its discoverer, is widely different 

 from any of the Burmese and Siamese species, and is only 

 related to that of Hainan, from which it differs by its 

 conspicuously paler colour. 



LIX. — Spinning Slugs and Snails. By L. Lindinger *. 



In observing land- and water-raollusks I was struck by a 

 faculty apparently widely spread among these animals, which 

 appears to be known to but iew malacologists, namely the 

 power of drawing out threads of mucus which harden, and by 

 means of which the creatures are able to let themselves down 

 from firm objects. 



1 could find but few statements in literature. Almost all 

 notices n)ention slugs of the genus Limax (and Agriolimax). 

 Thus Schilling {' Grundriss der Naturgeschichte'') states 

 with regard to Agriolimax agrestis : — " From the slime on the 

 surface of the body it forms threads, by which it is able to 

 let itself down from the branches to the ground.'-' Geyer 

 (* Unsere Land- uud SiissAvasser-Mollusken/ 1896, p. 13) 

 is acquainted with the same tact in the case of Limax arborum. 

 Precise statements as to the nature of the spinning and as to 

 experimental observations on the length of tiie thread in the 

 case o£ Agriolimax agrestis are given by IVJ . Ballerstedt in 

 the ' Naturwissenschaftliche Wocheuschnft' (Neue Folge, i. 

 pp. 463-465). This author isolated the subjects of his 

 experiment upon a leaf, which was attached to a thread. 

 The leaf was then exposed to the sun, which caused the 

 animals to change their temporary sojourning place ; they 

 did not, however, crawl up the thread supporting the leaf, 

 but descended from the latter by means of their mucus which 



* Translated bv E. E. Austen from the ' Zoologischer Anzeiger,'xxix. 

 Bd., No. 19 (,20th December, 1905), pp. 605-610. 



