84 THE NAUTILUS. 



NOTES. 



Plague of Huge Snails. — A plague of snails on the coast of 

 Ceylon is assuming serious proportions. Millions of snails are to be 

 found, and some of them weigh as much as one pound. The snails 

 have begun feeding on the young cocoanut trees, and it is feared 

 that they may attack the young rubber trees. The government is 

 taking measures to check the devastation. — London Daily Chronicle, 



The Virginia Colont of Helix nemoralis. — In a recent 

 letter from Mrs. John M. Brooke she says : '* Of Helix nemoralis I 

 have seen very little of late, uiy home having been in Washington, 

 D. C, for about three years. On my return to Lexington, Va., in 

 August of this year there seems to be no diminution, however, in 

 numbers that came out after a rain, the prevailing colors being the 

 plain lemon-yellow and the regular five-banded form, but I have 

 made no careful selection. We have had a terrible drouth, and they 

 keep under shelter in dry weather, so 1 am unable to give you any 

 connected observations. Only after a rain do they come out upon 

 the rocks and fences in numbers." — C. W. J. 



Sir Charles Eliot is the author of a supplement to Alder and 

 Hancock's well-known work, " The British Nudibranchiate Mol- 

 lusca," published by the Ray Society. - Important chapters on 

 bionomics, classification, anatomy, etc., precede the descriptions of 

 genera and species. Eight colored plates, partly from drawings left 

 by Hancock, iliusLi-ate the work. 



We learn with deep regret of the death on September 25th of Dr. 

 Oskar Boettger, of Frankfort a. M., equally known for his work in 

 malacology, palaeontology, and herpetology. 



Messrs. Ferriss, Pilsbry and Daniels have returned from 

 their camps in Arizona, where about ten weeks were spent in the 

 Santa Rita, Baboquivari, Santa Catalina and Dragoon mountains, 

 and in the Hachita Mts., N. M. About twenty-five new species of 

 land shells are among the spoils of the expedition. 



