708 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIIJTY, Vol. XXL 



let him touch the ground, so did not , discover how mucli longer he migh 

 have made his thread. 



Maei-oclilamys fedina (Bens.), one of the commonest Bombay snails, is 

 also carnivorous. I have seen them engaged in a cannibal feast over dead 

 comrades crushed in the road, and have also seen one busy on the half- 

 emptied shell of Ariophanta loivipes (Mull.). 



I regret that I did not pursue these investigations further. Specimens 

 of M. platijchlamys were scarce, and I was more interested at the time in 

 collecting good specimens of the shells than in observing the habits of the 

 beasts. 



A. J. PEILE. 



No. LITI.— OONOHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM BOMBAY. 



By Lionel E. Adams, B.A. 

 (^Reprinted from tlie Journal of Concholof/y. ) 



From Durban we went to Bombay, where, from an exclusively concho- 

 loo-ical point of view, we arrived at the best time of the year to find land 

 and freshwater species, viz., during the South-West Monsoon, when the 

 earth is moistened and pools form. On this occasion the earth was quite 

 sufficiently moistened for my pm-pose, for during the night of our arrival 

 thirteen inches of rain fell in eleven hours — a record that even Manchester 

 might be proud of . I spent much time in the Natural History Museum, 

 Avhich is an ideal provincial Museum, the exhibits being restricted to the 

 fauna of the country, and arranged on British Museum lines. The collec- 

 tions are copiously labelled, and immaculate as regards dust and mould. 

 I owe much to the Curator, Mr. Kinnear, and the Secretary of the Bombay 

 Natural History Society, Mr. Millard, for the trouble they took to procure 

 me specimens and advise me how to procure others for myself. Acting on 

 their advice, I took a trip up the Ghauts to Igatpuri, where I spent a short 

 but satisfactory time among the snails. It was only possible to hunt 

 between the deluges which continued the whole time with intervals of 

 sometimes half an hour. The most abundant species here M^as the sinistral 

 Nanina bajadera, Pfr., which swarmed along a wall close to the dak bunga- 

 low where I was staying. In the town of Bombay, along Malabar Hill, 

 about a quarter of a mile from the sea, in Mr. Millard's garden, were found 

 considerable numbers of one (if not two) species of Onchidtum, which I 

 regret being still unable to name. Nanina laviput<, M\ill, and iMacrocklamz/s 

 pedina were not uncommon in the same locality, and one species of 

 Ampullaria was plentiful in a certain piece of water. 



Snail-hunting in India has distinct drawbacks. In dry weather it is 

 useless, and in wet weather it is sometimes impossible and always 

 uncomfortable. 



