126 PEARCE : VARIETIES OF BANDED SNAILS. 



the soil, close under the radical leaves or matted weeds which 

 only too often are found on arable lands, and so it lives out a 

 slow sluggish life, rarely, if ever seeking to climb up higher by 

 any neighbouring stalk or stem. 



But while a flattish loose shell with a somewhat depressed 

 spire is an advantage to Helix caperata in the cultivated field, 

 such a shaped shell would manifestly be a hindrance to the 

 same species living on the turf or thick grass of our open downs, 

 heaths, and sheep pastures. On the turf and grass of such 

 localities a more compact, smaller, and so handier shell is 

 required in order that the animal may the more easily and 

 actively manoeuvre up and down, in and out, and among the 

 many blades and stems of grass, which otherwise, of course, would 

 prove insurmountable impediments to successful progress from 

 one feeding place to another. This latter va.nQty oi Helix caperata, 

 belonging to the open down, indulges in climbs up the stalks 

 and stems of grass like its oft companion Helix virgata; indeed it 

 has acquired a greater activity of movement all round compared 

 with its more sluggish relative of the cultivated field. 



We now come to consider what is much more difficult 

 to speak of: — The Variations in Colouring, Marking, Banding, 

 and Mottling, as found upon the shells of Helix caperata 

 and other kindred species. 



In Helix caperata the variation in this respect seems on the 

 whole capable of a twofold division : — (i) Those in which the 

 markings are mottlings. (2) Those in which the markings take 

 the shape of dark or black spiral bands or lines on a lighter 

 ground, as with the bandings in the usual form of Helix virgata. 



With regard to the first — By ' mottlings ' one would wish 

 to signify those blotches of different colour, size, and form 

 which are scattered over the surface of the shell. These 

 mottled forms differ among themselves very considerably. 

 Sometimes the darker blotches run together, and diffusing over 

 the whole shell, give it a uniformly brown appearance; these we 

 have in the V2a\e\.yfulva; or else the dark blotches tend together 



J.C, vi., July, 1889. 



