LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLDSCA. 365 



Helix aculeata, Muller. — Not plentiful ; amongst moss and dead 

 leaves in copse and woods ; copse at Sunningwell, Wytham Wood, 

 and according to Mr. Whiteaves in Stow Wood. 



H. pomatia, Linn. — Very local; in woods and copses, and 

 along the railway-bank near the village of Stonesfield, where it is 

 plentiful. Mr. Whiteaves gives Wychwood Forest as a locality. 

 The variety albida has been found near Charlbury and in Wych- 

 wood Forest (Whiteaves). A specimen of this variety is to be 

 seen in the University Museum. A large colony of this snail is 

 now thriving in the Botanic Gardens at Oxford, the descendants 

 of specimens introduced from Stonesfield many years ago. In a 

 large bed of foreign composite plants they are especially abundant, 

 feeding on the lower and decaying leaves, for being an earth-loving 

 species they hardly ever attempt to ascend the stems of the plants. 

 During the genial weather of May and June they are busily engaged 

 in laying their eggs, which are deposited to the number of fifty to 

 eighty in a circular hole, excavated two or three inches deep for 

 that purpose. A nest that I had under my observation contained 

 fifty-eight eggs of a whitish colour, of the size of peas, laid on the 

 10th June. The somewhat opaque whiteness of the eggs, by the 

 third week from deposition, had turned yellowish, and the fry 

 emerged between the 8th and 18th July following, furnished with a 

 smooth, transparent, fragile and somewhat globular, horn-coloured 

 shell of one whorl and a half to one whorl and a quarter. For two 

 or more days after emergence the young snails fed on the remnants 

 of the egg-tests, but afterwards took readily to lettuce-leaves, of 

 which they ate at first only the epidermis. The transparent horn- 

 colour of the shell soon became more opaque, and colouring 

 matter, in the shape of blotches and rudiments of brown bands, 

 made its appearance by about the fourth week. The shells were 

 added to during the whole period from their emergence from egg- 

 state until just before they burrowed in earth for hybernation, in 

 the first week of November, at which time between two and three- 

 quarters and three whorls had formed. They remained dormant 

 till the beginning of the following April, when they again became 

 active and commenced making further additions to their shells. 



H. aspersa, Muller. — Plentiful everywhere, though more 

 abundant on the calcareous soils. A scalariform monstrosity 

 from Summertown, is in Mr. Whiteaves' collection in the 

 University Museum. 



