322 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



twice gathered quite a harvest of them in the course 

 of a few hours ; this sentence is specially dedicated to 

 collectors, whose cabinets are rich in all the other 

 British shells but this. 



The elegantly delicate and transparent minute 

 Needle Agate Shell (AcJiatina acicula], may not im- 

 probably in the transactions of future .Conchologists, 

 be recorded as anything but a rarity in the parish ; 

 but hitherto we have not been so fortunate as to dis- 

 cover its favourite habitat. It is presumed to be 

 chiefly subterranean in its habits, but it may occa- 

 sionally be found at the roots of grass, under stones 

 and decaying wood. The only specimen we ever n\et 

 with, a living one, was under a block of chalk resting 

 on turf at the foot of East Harting Down. 



The Common Amber Snail (Succinea putris) is 

 plentiful on plants growing near the ponds, water 

 courses and ditches in our lowland meadows, and its 

 thin deep-amber-coloured shell is really a very pretty 

 one. The Minute Sedge Shell (Carychium minimum} 

 occurs in abundance in the park under fragments of 

 chalk, among moss and moist decaying leaves. Our 

 Pond Snails are the Wandering Mud Shell (Limncea 

 peregrd) and Var. ovata, both found in the South 

 Gardens Middle Pond, the West Harting Great Pond, 

 and some of the water courses in the meadows ; the 

 Lake Mud Shell (Limncea stagnates), confined to the 

 Great Pond (of this species we possess a specimen 

 having a faint white band on the last whorl) ; the 

 Marsh Mud Shell (Limncea pahtstris), in some of our 

 stagnant waters ; the Small Mud Shell (Limncea 

 truncatuld), a very rare species here ; the Stream 

 Bubble Shell (Physa fontinalis), generally distributed ; 

 the River Limpet (Ancylus fluviatilis\ in the Great 

 Pond ; the Contorted Coil Shell (Planorbis contortus), 

 generally distributed ; the Flat Coil Shell (Planorbis 

 vortex), not common in the parish ; the Flattened Coil 

 Shell (Planorbis marginatus), common in all our ponds 



