D4 THE NAUTILUS. 



closing words of this quotation allude to Gray's opinion that the 

 operculum of the gasteropods was homologous or identical with the 

 second valve of a lamellibranch. 



( To be continued.) 



HELIX HORTENSIS IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 



BY T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



Mr. L. P. Gratacap has very kindly permitted me to examine a 

 dozen specimens of Helix hortensis which he collected at Little Codroy 

 river, Newfoundland, as reported in Nautilus, November, p. 78. 

 They are thin, and the dark bands when present are dull reddish- 

 brown, not black. Tlie forms represented are : 



(1) Clear yellow, bandless = lulea Moquin. Two. 



(2) Greenish-yellow, bandless = subylobosa Binney. One. This 

 seems to have been stained owing to the decay of the animal, and 

 may originally have been more nearly a pure yellow. 



(3) Yellow, five-banded = quinqueviltnla Moquin. Five. 



(4) Yellow, formula (123)45 = pauluceia Locard. One. 



(5) Yellow, all the bands united — bovchardia Moquin. Three. 

 In the British museum there is an example of the variation 



vallotia Moquin, from Labrador. It is yellow, with formula, 345 . 

 Mr. Gratacap has also permitted me to see the shells collected at 

 Seydisfiord, Iceland, as reported in Nautilus, p. 79. They are 

 Helix arbustorum, rather thin, but otherwise typical. 



NOTES. 



Oysters Carried by Seaweed Some lime ago an oyster- 

 breeder in Morbilian, France, named Martine, called the attention of 

 the French Academie des Sciences to the appearance of unknown algae 

 that threatened to ruin the oyster-beds established at the mouth of 

 the river Vannes. These algae (which the breeders called ballons — 

 balloons) assume the form of little brownish-green leather bottles or 

 wineskins, which stick to the oysters, and which, microscopic at the 

 start, very soon reach the size of a large hen's-egg. Formed of a 

 very thin, elastic and rather frail coat, these bottles, usually full of 



