84 



The cupidity of dealers, some years ago, not unfrequently prompted 

 them wilfully to deceive those who gave extravagant prices for new 

 shells on this point, and carelessness was generallj^ the order of the 

 day. Mr. Cuming, by his accurate notes, and the open publication 

 of the places where every one of the multitudinous species and va- 

 rieties collected by him was found, has mainly assisted in making a 

 complete revolution in this department of the science, and has done 

 more towards giving us data for the geographical distribution of the 

 testaceous mollusca than any person who has yet lived. 



" Helicid^. 



" When we consider what the genus Helix was when Linnaeus 

 wrote, and what it now is, we must be struck with the flood of new 

 species which has been poured in upon us of late years. Already 

 the vocabulary has been so drawn upon, that the mere finding 

 names for the new species is attended with no small embarrass- 

 ment, whilst the limits of each species are daily more difficult to fix. 

 When a few forms only in a great natural group are known, they 

 . are easily defined. It is where multitudes are placed before the 

 zoologist, marked with every variation that food and temperature 

 and locality can impress upon them, that it becomes no longer easy 

 to solve the problem, ' Which is a species and which is a variety?* 

 Then it is that the pregnant question ' What is a species ? ' comes 

 home to the mind. But our business now is to define, as well as 

 we can, those forms which have been laid before us, and which, to 

 us at least, are new. When the whole of the additions to this great 

 tribe existing in Mr. Cuming's collection have been studied, we shall 

 perhaps have materials for something like a complete natural ar- 

 rangement of the group." 



Genus Bulinus*. 



BuLiNus MiNDOROENSis. Bul. testd ovatd, ventricosd, subprond, 

 anfractibus sex, ultimo longe maximo, lineis incrementi oblique 

 striatd, aperturd subrotundd, columella lata, labio expanso. 



Var. a. valde ventricosa, sordide brunnea strigis irregularibus longi- 



tudinalibus varia ; aperturd siibalbidd ; labio nigro-brunnescente. 

 Hub. ad Puerto Galero in insula Philippina Mindoro dicta. 

 Legit H. Cuming in sylvis. 



Var. b. Pallidior, coloribus distinctioribus , fascia suturali brunned 

 interruptd ; anfractu ultimo fascid brunned strigis longitudinali- 

 bus interruptd cincto ; labii margine castaneo-rufescente. 



Hab. ad Mansilai in insula Mindoro. 



Legit H. Cuming in sylvis. 



Var. c. Gracilior, longitudinaliter brunnea et flavo sordido striata. 

 This comes very near in colouring, and approaches somewhat in 



* " I have elsewhere (Zoological Journal, vol. iv. p. 222) given mj' 

 reasons for writing Bulinus instead of Bulimus. Adanson's Bidin was a 

 Phi/sa, and the word, however written, is very inapplicable to the forms to 

 which Bruguiere, Lamarck and authors generally have applied it." 



