THE NAUTILUS. 115 



Alt. nearly 0.8, greatest diameter 1.7 mm. Another specimen is 

 slightly larger, diam. about 2 mm. 



Dripping Spring, Organ Mts., New Mexico, about 5,700 feet alt., 

 Sept., 1899, coll. by T. D. A. Cockerell. 



This species differs from all the minusculus group in being con- 

 spicuously though very minutely striate spirally, the stria? extending 

 to the very apex, as in the southern race of Zonitoides milium. It 

 differs from milium in wanting the peculiar wrinkle-sculpture so 

 characteristic of that form. Z. exiguus is evidently a nearer cousin 

 of the new form, having a similar svstem of spirals, likewise extend- 

 ing upon the nepionic whorl, but it is larger, with less broad umbil- 

 icus, and a conspicuously different coarser sculpture of oblique lam- 

 inae. Zonitoides neomexicanus may well go between exiguus and 

 milium in the list of species. 



FIELD NOTES AND REMINISCENCES. 



Mr. Simpson's entertaining account of Helicina Dysoni under 

 difficulties, in the June, 1897, Nautilus, is exceedingly entertain- 

 ing ; the shower of Helicinas that followed the stirring up with a 

 pole was decidedly unique, the first of the kind on record, for though 

 "raining cats and dogs" is an old story, a shower of snails, like 

 snailing with a pole, is a new departure. As an humble disciple of 

 Izaak Walton, I have in years gone by done considerable in the way 

 of fishing with a pole; the man that goes snailing with a pole will 

 bear watching — by the snails. The special habitat or station of H. 

 Dt/soni, roosting in the palms, brought to mind what my friend, the 

 late Henry Edwards, well known as a good entomologist, good actor 

 and a good fellow, told me about the habits and habitat of the cur- 

 ious Helix (Parypkanta) Bushyi collected by him in New Zealand. 

 (The specimens he gave to me are now in the U. S. National 

 Museum.) Helix Busbyi lives in the tops of the tall Kauri pines, 

 hiding in the axils where the birds "go for him." In order to sepa- 

 rate the soft parts, which they want, from the shell, which they do 

 not want, they seize the animal when protruded from the shell and 

 whack away to the right and left against the twig or branch they are 

 perching on until their purpose is accomplished, when the shell 

 drops to the ground, and is found generally in a battered condition. 

 The Maoris have a name for these shells which signifies that they 

 come from heaven, which is probably a mistake. 



