124 KILMARNOCK. 



The number of dead and bleached shells that lay 

 on the road hereabout, induced me to search for 

 living ones ; and I spent an hour or two in the 

 examination. Nor was the search unsuccessful: 

 beneath the loose stones on the hill-side, a little 

 within the forest, were several species in considerable 

 abundance, some of which I had not at that time 

 met with. Among the most conspicuous was Helix 

 Jamaicensis, which I now saw alive for the first 

 time; the surface of the foot was, in most of the 

 specimens, infested by a minute species of mite in 

 great numbers. This fine shell was still rare. A large 

 flattened species of much value (Helix Spengleriana) 

 occurred more numerously ; Cylindrella sanguinea 

 (and cylindrus were abundant ; and several species of 

 Achatina were found sparingly, such as the lovely 

 A. Philippianai A. venusta, A. Phillipsii, and others. 



The zigzag avenue of Bamboos afforded a grateful 

 shadow as we descended the mountain ; and the dis- 

 covery of a nest of the wild Guinea-fowl, with twenty 

 eggs, was an incident which enlivened a peculiarly 

 toilsome part of the journey, the passage through a 

 long but narrow water-course, now dry, filled with 

 masses of loose slippery stone, almost impassible for 

 a horse. In the midst of a thick tuft of grass, within 

 the wood beside this rocky path, the Guinea-hen had 

 deposited her numerous eggs. At length we arrived 

 at the bottom of the Cotta wood, and were again 

 sheltered from the burning sun till we arrived at 

 Content. 



