The Nautilus. 



Vor,. XIV. NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 7. 



LAND SNAILS OF CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY. 



BY HENRY A. P1LSBRY, 



The littoral of Southern New Jersey is perhaps as unpromising 

 collecting ground for the land shell hunter as can be found in the 

 Eastern States. The general physical features of the region are well 

 known, now that the whole coast has become a great summer play- 

 ground; but it may be said that the land snails are nearly or entirely 

 confined to the occasional patches and strips of cedar scrub on the 

 islands and along the shore, usually within a couple of hundred yards 

 of the beach, and often separated from it by a narrow strip of shifting 

 sand dunes. Between these littoral cedar groves and the mainland 

 proper, wide stretches of salt marsh intervene, intersected by inlets, 

 and inhabited by myriads of Melampus lineatus, Litorina irrorata and 

 Modiola plicatula. 



Such situations occur at frequent intervals from Atlantic City to 

 Cape May. At the latter place the salt marshes are reduced to a 

 minimum ; but in common with the more northern localities, the 

 shore strip is insulated, so far as the land snail fauna is concerned, 

 by the pine belt of the interior. There are, however, many deciduous 

 trees and a rich soil at Cape May, while at the more northern locali- 

 ties the. deciduous trees are wanting, except where imported, and the 

 dark soil is a mere film over nearly pure sand. 



The snails are everywhere, so far as my own experience goes, con- 

 fined to the cedar groves. At Cape May Point there is a dense 

 growth of cedar, oak, dwarf plum, bay, with more or less holly and 

 prickly pears. It need not be mentioned to a New Jersey naturalist 



