OCCASIONAL NOTES. 261 
some twenty-five years ago, several specimens of Helix villosa which I had 
brought alive from Switzerland, and I know that they or their posterity 
were living in the same place ten years later. I sawa few weeks ago a 
couple of splendidly-grown Parmacella, which had been found in a garden 
near Newcastle, and which will doubtless, if they are properly fed, establish 
a colony in our neighbourhood. These, of course, must have becn intro- 
duced accidentally with plants; but many other species have been inten- 
tionally transplanted. A friend of mine, many years ago, brought a 
number of Helia lapicida from the South of England, and established 
them on some rocks on the banks of the Wear: they are now one of our 
recognized local species. I have also turned out Clausilias from Africa 
and from Syria, and various species of Helix from the latter country, 
in suitable localities in the county of Durham. But the latter perished 
the first winter : they could protect themselves against heat better than 
cold. Knowing how rapidly gasteropods modify under differing conditions, 
it may be interesting to note in what time, if in any, a change takes place 
in these new colonists. Fresh-water shells are transported, I believe, on 
the feet and tarsi of ducks and waders, in those cases—as in Physa, 
Limnea, &c.—in which the ova have a glutinous covering. I once shot a 
mallard a hundred miles away from water, in the Sahara, and noticed the 
ova of some mollusk—probably Succinea—adhering to one of its feet. 
I suspect it will not be very difficult to extend the catalogue of British 
Land Shells, just as it has been for three-quarters of a century swollen by 
the addition of Bulimus Goodallii—a common West Indian shell now 
acclimatized in our greenhouses.—H. B. Tristram (Durham). 
Breepinc Season or THE EpisLe Crap.—With regard to the time 
of year at which the Edible Crab (Cancer pagurus) spawns, I may observe 
that my friends at Porthgwarra, Messrs. Jackson, put female crabs into 
their large tanks there in December last, having the spawn developed under 
the apron; and on taking them out again, on 14th February last, found 
that all had shed their spawn. This agrees with the fact already known, 
that impregnation takes place with this crab about August and September. 
‘-—Tuomas Cornisu (Penzance). 
Logsrer Buryine its Prey.—Towards the end of February last we had 
occasion to empty a tank containing flat-fishes, and a flounder of eight inches 
in length was inadvertently left buried in the shingle, where it died. On 
refilling the tank it was tenanted by three lobsters (Homarus marinus), one 
of which is an aged veteran of unusual size, bearing an honourable array of 
barnacles ; and he soon brought to light the hidden flounder, with which he 
retired to a corner. Ina short time it was noticed that the flounder had 
disappeared. It was impossible the lobster could have eaten it all in the 
interim, and the handle of a net revealed the fact that, upon the approach 
of the two smaller lobsters, the larger one had buried the flounder beneath 
