272 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
same bank Helia cantiana (Mont.) and its white variety live in hun- 
dreds, I might almost say in thousands. One specimen of Succinea 
putris (Linn.) was found, a large quantity of Avion ater (Linn.) and 
Lehmann’s var. brunnea, with Limax agrestis (Linn.) [chiefly belonging to 
Draparnaud’s sylvatica] and Hyalinia cellaria (Mill.), Helia rufescens 
(Penn.), H. rotundata (Miill.), and H. hispida (Linn.). In company on the 
nettles with Helix cantiana live also H. hortensis (Mill.) and H. nemoralis 
(Linn.), but not in such great profusion. Of the former of these the yellow 
variety (Moquin-Tandon’s lutea), with the band-formula of 00000, are the 
most common ; there is also present the white variety with a band-formula 
of 12345 (Moquin-Tandon’s albida). Of the latter, the flesh-coloured 
variety (Roebuck and Taylor’s carnea) is the most common, and those of 
the band-formule of 00000, 00300, 128(45), 12345; others are also 
present, as the yellow variety (Risso’s libellula), with band-formule of 
00300, 00345, and 12345, and the tawny-coloured variety (Moquin-Tandon’s 
Petiveria), with band-formule of 12345 and 00000.—J. W. Wi~t1ams 
(Mitton, Stourport). 
The Basal Coloration of the Shells of Helix hortensis and H. 
nemoralis.—Shell-workers have no doubt observed, as I have ofttimes 
done, the difference in colour from the general body colour of the basal 
portion of the body-whorl in these two species. Thus, in the white variety 
of H. hortensis there is generally a basal coloration of light yellow, and in 
the flesh-colourcd variety of H. nemoralis (which Roebuck and Taylor have 
called var. carnea) there is generally a brownish basal coloration almost 
identical in colour with that forming the body-colour of the variety which 
Moquin-Tandon has called castanea. And not to mention other instances, 
which will occur to the reader, there is, even in the yellow form of these 
two species, a deeper coloration of yellow in the basal portion of the shell. 
These are of adult shells. But in young shells, and in those which have 
only recently become adult there is no difference of colour shade to be 
noted between the basal portion of the shell and the portion above and 
directly around the periphery. The basal coloration is then, I think, not 
congenital, but acquired, and I throw out the suggestion that it is due to 
the action of moisture, from the snail drawing that portion of its shell 
continuously over damp earth. And the ground I have for this suggestion 
is that I have observed the flesh-coloured variety of the shell of H. nemo- 
ralis become of that brownish tinge (which is found normally at its basal 
portion) from the unlimited action of damp in the course of two weeks. 
It will be remembered that the loved haunt of these snails is a nettle- 
covered hedge-bank, and it will be generally found that the soil in which 
nettles grow is of a soft, moist character.—J. W. Wui..tAms (Mitton, 
Stourport). 
