1880.] LAND-SHELLS OF MENTON. 10!) 



when he obtained more than a dozen magnificent specimens, 

 thougli I was most anxious to increase my knowledge of what were 

 the undoubted associates of this remarkable mollusk. A proper and 

 thorough investigation of this deposit at Cape Mortela still remains 

 for some future naturalist. It was a little too far for my now very 

 limited powers of walking, but is not so for any one in fair ordinary 

 health, hving in the East Bay. I am convinced this species has 

 nothing to do with the subgenus Macularia, with which, at first 

 sight, it shows some affinity ; I think it nearly certain it was a true 

 Tachea. I could discover no trace of this species in deposits A 

 to F. 



Alt, 29, diam. 4 If. A common depressed form from Cape 

 Mortela. 



Alt. 34, diam. 46. Cape Mortela. 



Alt. 31i, diam. 41| ; apert. alt. (cum perist.) 23|, (sine perist.) 

 19, lat. (cum callos. colum. ac perist.) 25^^^ (sine pra3ced.) 18 

 millim. 



This specimen, from Cape Mortela, has two broad brown bands 

 (the lower one the broader) on the two antepenultimate whorls, four 

 (apparently more or less interrupted) on the last whorl ; the two 

 apicals are unusually developed and prominent, horn-colour, and 

 perfectly smooth. 



Helix (Tachea?) mentonica, n. sp. 



Helix vermicularis, Issel, Con. Cav. Ossif. Liguria, figs. 7, 8, 

 1867, not of BoneUi. 



Testa ad " Helix vermiculariam, BoneUi," et " H. paretiauam, Issel," 

 affiiiis : imperforata, subgloboso-conoidea, vix solida, oblique irre- 

 gulariter striata, ultimo anfractu valide malleato ; albida, zonulis 

 pervariis ciixumcincta interrtiptis aut contitmis, sape perspicuo- 

 ribus prope peristoma ; spira plus minusve conico-elevata, apice 

 obtuso, Icevigato ; anfract. 5^, convexi, regulares, sutura distincta 

 separati, ultimo majore, tumido ac rotundato, ud aj^erturam abrupte 

 descendente ; apertura ampla, obliqua, subovalis, marginihus callo 

 castaneo ac valido junctis ; peristoma castaneum, percrassum, 

 expansum, intus incrassatum ; margo columellaris leevis, ad- 

 pressus, late reflexus. 

 Diam. 32 j, alt. 23^ ; aperturse lat. (cum peristomate ac callo colu- 



mellari) 19, alt. 17^- millim. 

 Subvar. minor. Diam. 29g, alt. 21 ; apert. lat. 17, alt. ICg millim. 

 This species abounded in deposits A, B, D (in especial), and E, 

 mostly in very bad condition, so much so that out of many hundred 

 sjjecimeus which 1 obtained and carefully examined I have only ob- 

 tained a few perfect specimens. It is undoubtedly the Helix ver- 

 micularia of Issel, typical specimens of which I examined at Genoa, 

 but differs so much from typical Turin specimens of the true H. 

 vermicularia, BoneUi, that I am unable to accept the identification. 



The species varies enormously, as, I find, do most moUusks of 

 which large series occur in a circumscribed space. It is not closely 



