60 THE NAUTILUS. 
immense amount of new information, not to be found in any of the 
eonchological manuals, will be offered. The work, it is believed, 
will form a complete text book of the subject, and will be indis- 
pensable to the student of land snails. 
Pror. Ratpa Tarte describes a number of intepesiti new 
Australian gastropoda in the Tr. Roy. Soc. S. Austr. June, 1893. 
Among them are the following Turbinide and Trochide; Astralium 
rutidoloma, Clanculus consobrinus, euchelioides, Thalotia neglecta, 
Calliostoma spinulosum, Euchelus fenestratus, pumilio, vicumbilicatus, 
annectans, and E. (Hybochelus) ampullus. He states that Euchelus 
tasmanicus Tenison-Woods is the same as E. scabriusculus (Angas) 
Fischer, the type of Pilsbry’s subgenus Herpetopoma. <A supple- 
mental list of S. Australian mollusea is also given. 
OLFACTORY ORGANS OF HeEtrx. Dr. A. B. Griffiths (Proc. Roy. 
Soc. Edinb. 1892,) contends that Sochaczewer’s experiments, by 
which he showed that the tentacula of Helix pomatia are not 
olfactory organs, were untrustworthy from his use of turpentine, 
which gives off a vapor that is irritating to the sensitive tissues 
generally. If snails are placed on flat slabs, the edges of which 
have been smeared with eau de cologne, methyl or ethyl acetate, 
liquids the vapors of which are not irritants, such as have the 
tentacula removed gradually approach the edges of the slabs, while 
those whose tentacles are uninjured turn away from the edges. He 
concludes, therefore, that the tentacles are the seat of the olfactory 
organs in Helix. 
The Mid-August number of the Zoologischer Anzeiger contains an 
excellent portrait of J. Victor Carus, in commemoration of his 
seventieth birthday. 
Mr. A. Belt, in writing of the mollusks of Dorset, (England) 
gives the following interesting notes. It is well known that thrushes 
in seasons of scarcity hunt for snails, and to extract the animal 
break the shell by beating it against a stone. Stones that have 
been used for this purpose, with the broken shells lying around 
them are frequently noticed but I had never before found them in 
such profusion as on the present occasion. A very large proportion 
of the 576 specimens of Helix nemoralis and H. hortensis found 
consist of these fragments. In fact, the birds had so thoroughly 
worked the district that until a heavy fall of rain induced the snails 
to come forth from inmost hiding-places, I did not find more than a 
dozen live shells of these species. On one occasion I found 42 
H. aspersa, H. hortensis and H. nemoralis round one stone. 
