The Zoologist— July, 1867. 687 



end of this pond stood a large weeping willow, originally brought in the pocket of his 

 friend Sutton's great coal: the age of the tree was measured by the life of the donor, 

 for, worn out, rotten and hollow in the trunk, it fell the same year that the worthy 

 Doctor died. — Freeman's ' Life of the Rev. William Kirhy,' p. 494. 



Helix obvoluta and Clausilia Rolphii. — Tn the April number of the 'Zoologist' 

 (S. S. 760) Mr. Halting gives Harting as a new locality for these Mollusca. About 

 twenty years ago two ladies collected many specimens there for me, and amongst 

 those to whom I remember to have then given duplicates were Mr. T. V. Wollaston, 

 Mr. Pickering, Mr. VV. K. Bridgmau, and Mr. R. T. Logan : I cannot therefore 

 admit that the locality is new. Both species, I believe, may be found all along the 

 northern escarpment of the chalk downs through Sussex, Hampshire and South Wilt- 

 shire. Beech woods and their vicinity are not generally regarded as prolific collecting- 

 grounds by either botanists, entomologists or conchologists, and hence, in my opinion, 

 the paucity of recorded localities for these two species. The Harting specimens of 

 Clausilia Rolphii are rather smaller than those from Charlton, of which I possess 

 some from the collection of the late Mr. Daniel Cooper. This species is found fossil 

 in the pleistocene formation at Copford, Essex: it is singular that its present neigh- 

 hour, Helix obvoluta, does not, as far as I am aware, occur in that deposit, nor does 

 our largest chalk species, Helix pomatia. Collectors in the South of England used to 

 be thought to have a great advantage over those in other pails of the United Kingdom, 

 from the fact that about one-fourth of the British terrestrial and fluviatile Mollusca 

 were considered to be peculiar to the southern counties. Possibly more diligent 

 research may have altered this proportion. It would be interesting if Mr. Weaver 

 would send you a list of his local species, and explain why, as a resident on the borders 

 of Hampshire, and not far from Surrey, he has restricted his collection to Sussex 

 specimens. — William Thomson ; 4, Adelaide Road, Penge, S.E. 



Clausilia biplicala.— This snail used to occur plentifully in Battersea Marshes, in 

 the osier-bed on the banks of the Thames, below the " Red House." Have any of 

 your correspondents met with it since the formation of Battersea Park ? — Id. 



Fleas in Southern India.— Observing in the 'Zoologist' (Zool. 9739) a note 

 remarking on the decrease of fleas of late years, it may interest the writer and others 

 to hear that in this neighbouthood, on the contrary, they were never, to my knowledge, 

 so numerous as at the period referred to: I remember to have heard great complaiuts. 

 I am not aware whether fleas breed and multiply on our shores, though in the 

 South of India I have found them among the sand-hillocks skirting the sea in countless 

 numbers; for instance, on one occasion, when passing a few days (in the year 1832) 

 at a bungalow on the shores of the Gulf of Manar, I could not stroll on the beach of 

 an evening without being covered with fleas from head to foot, so that my white dress 

 was completely dotted and spotted with them. Fortunately, being of a sluggish kind, 

 they could be brushed off by hundreds ; however, I was eventually driven back to my 

 head-quarters at Rainnad, finding the flea-plague even worse than the plague of 

 musquitoes, on the scorching sandy plains around the fort. — Henry Hadfield ; Veninor* 

 Isle of Wight. . 



