PREFACE. 



IN discussing the African ACHATINID^E the Author enters 

 an unfamiliar field. The great Powers of Europe, England, 

 Germany and France have made a large part of African soil 

 their own; and the molluscan spoils gained by soldier, ex- 

 plorer and missionary have been made known to science by 

 English, French and German conchologists. Many of the 

 more recently described species have been collected but once, 

 and are to be found in a single museum. Under these cir- 

 cumstances it will be understood that in the treatment of 

 species the views of such masters of the science as Eduard von 

 Martens, Edgar A. Smith, J. R. Bourguignat, Arthur More- 

 let and others have been adopted, and their works freely 

 quoted. In larger matters of classification the author has felt 

 upon more familiar ground, and several reforms, notably the 

 dismemberment of the genus Achatina, are submitted for the 

 consideration of malacologists. The attention of those ob- 

 taining African material is earnestly directed to the fact that 

 only two or three genera of African Achatinida are ade- 

 quately known anatomically, and almost nothing is known 

 of some of the commonest West and South African genera. 



H. A. P. 

 (iii) 



