34 LAND AND FRESH WATER MOLLUSKS 



Circinaria vancouverensis Lea. 



Helix vancouverensis Lea, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc, vi, p. 87, pi. xxill, fig. 



72, 1839. 

 Helix vellicata Forbes, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1850, p. 75, pi. ix, fig. i. 

 Macrocyclis vancouverensis Tkyou, Am. Joum. Conch., 11, p. 245, pi. m, fig. 



6, 1866. — BiNNEY, Land and Fw. Sh. N. Am., i, p. 54, figs. 90-93, 1869. 

 Selenites vancouverensis Binney, Third Suppl. Terr. Moll. pp. 163-6, 1892. 

 Circinaria vancouverensis Pilsbry, Class. Cat. Am. Landsh., p. 24, 1898. 



Range. — In the moist and wooded region of northern California 

 and northward to the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska, between the 

 Cascade Range and the sea. 



Vancouver Island ! Quatsino Sound, Broughton Strait, Malcolm 

 Island, Johnstone Strait, Harbledown and Pender Islands, Skidegate, 

 Graham Island, and Cumshewa Inlet, Moresby Island, Queen Char- 

 lotte Islands ! Union Bay ! and Comox ! British Columbia. In Alaska 

 at Annette Island ! Killisnoo, Sitka ! Lynn Canal, throughout the Alex- 

 ander Archipelago, and northward along the mainland shore to Lituya 

 Bay. 



The typical form of this species is readily recognizable by its ample 

 whorls, the last nearly smooth, its large size and greenish yellow color. 

 It grades, however imperceptibly, into the smaller and more strongly 

 sculptured C. sportella Gould, from which cause a large number of 

 varieties have arisen and been named. In the moist mountainous 

 region of the Columbia drainage some of these forms penetrate to the 

 eastward nearly to the headwaters of this river in western Montana. 

 They are all depauperate, however, compared with the typical well 

 nourished forms of the coast. These animals are carnivorous, voracious 

 and cannibalistic. It is unsafe to keep them living in the same recep- 

 tacle with other living snails, as they will rapidly destroy and consume 

 the soft parts. 



A fine sinistral specimen was collected at Sitka. 



A variety of a dark chocolate brown color, otherwise like the ordi- 

 nary form, was found rather commonly at Sitka. For this the varietal 

 name chocolata would seem appropriate. 



Specimens of this species were received with a label indicating that 

 they had been collected on the Alaska Peninsula opposite Kadiak 

 Island, but, knowing the habits of this animal, I regard this as an 

 error of labelling. The collector having died, I was unable to untangle 

 the confusion, but I have never found it far distant from the wooded 

 region where Ariolimax and Polygyra Columbiana occur, upon which 

 it chiefly feeds in Alaska. It does not occur, so far as I was able to 

 discover, on the shores of Cook Inlet, where there are suitable forests, 



