56 



THE CONCHOLOGIST, 



MANCHKSrER CONCIIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



September 3/v/.— Mr. R. D. Darbishire 

 presided. Mr. E. H. Turner of Chorlton- 

 cum-Hardy, was elected a member. 



Mr. Standen, the honorary secretary, read 

 reports of the society's excursion to the 

 Peak I'^orest Canal on July iStli, and to 

 Lathkill Dale, Derbyshire, on August Bank 

 Holiday. Shell-hunting in the canal had 

 not jiroved very proiluctive, the water for a 

 long distance being very foul. With the 

 exception of Spluciiuin rivicv/d, all the 

 commoner freshwater shells usually met with 

 were very scarce, and the specimens ])oor. 

 Some very small Spluerium ovale were found, 

 but this fine species appears to be vanishing 

 from the several localities around Manchester 

 where it formerly abounded, which is easily 

 accounted for by the increasing [pollution of 

 the canals. Several species of land shells 

 were found in the little woods alongside the 

 canal, the most notable being Zonites nitidits 

 and Zonites excavatus. Altogether twenty 

 species of Mollusca were observed. In 

 Lathkill Dale some very fine varieties of 

 Helix neinoraUs and H. arhiistonini were 

 found, but not in as great quantity as 

 might have been expected, probably owing 

 to the presence of many hen-pens placed 

 along the valley, the inmates of which no 

 doubt pick up and devour the larger 

 Helices. Helix lapicida was common on 

 the walls, rocks, and trees, and Helix 

 ericeiorum occurred on a grassy slope. 

 Several species of Zonites were taken, also 

 Carychium, Helix rupestris. Helix acukata. 

 Helix pygmcca, and others. Clausilia lami- 

 iiata was plentiful on the trees, and 

 specimens of Vertigo edentula were found 

 on dead sticks in the woods. The day's 

 collecting gave a total of twenty-eight species. 



Mr. Thomas Rogers showed some H. 

 iiemoralis and H. aspersa from Tipperary, 



Ireland. A specimen of Anodonta cygnea, 

 seven inches in length, from a pond at 

 Baguley, was exhibited by Mr. Henry Hyde. 



Mr. Darbishire showed specimens of U/iio 

 inargaritifer from Teith River, Scotland. 

 Messrs. W. Moss and R. Cairns exhibited 

 a fine series of Helix nemo rails and 

 varieties from the Isle of Man, and the 

 latter gentleman showed a reversed, or 

 sinistral, Helix aspersa ; also a scalariform 

 example of the .same from the Isle of Man. 

 Mr. Moss reported the finding of Vertigo 

 pygmcca in an old quarry at Beerley, near 

 Ingleton, where it lives in great numbers, 

 and he showed about 200 specimens which 

 he had collected there in a few hours' time. 



]\Ir. J. C. Melvill exhibited a sinistral 

 Helix 7iemoralis from Chichester ; a magni- 

 ficent specimen of Tin bo splendidulits from 

 Mozambique, a recently named and most 

 interesting addition to the genus Turbo : 

 and some rare anil remarkably beautiful deep- 

 sea shells. 



Mr. W. E. Hoyle exhibited a large 

 number of the small New Zealand Helices, 

 preserved with the animals in spirit, many 

 of them being extjuisitely sculpturetl and 

 very beautiful. 



At the conclusion of the formal meeting, 

 Mr. Melvill threw oi)en the doors of his 

 cabinets of Land Mollusca, and the members 

 enjoyed the privilege of looking through 

 his drawers of beautiful and rare collections 

 of Helix, Bnlimus, Clausilia. Achatinclla, 

 C\clostoma, and other genera. He also 

 showed his extensive collection of the genus 

 Mitra, which contains many unique types 

 of species and is remarkably rich in colour 

 forms of these much-admired shells. 



