PEARCE : VARIETIES OF BANDED SNAILS. 1 27 



to form a more or less regular arrangement, which, carried a 

 little further would be incipient spiral banding ; in other cases 

 the different points of colouring keep distinct from each other, 

 and present that speckled appearance or pepper-and-salt look 

 we are so familiar with on the shell in the majority of cases ; 

 but very often (and chiefly this is the case with the flatter form 

 of the Helix caperata found only on the arable lands) the mottlings 

 and markings tend to disappear entirely, or remain only in a 

 faint and broken way, and thus not infrequently the result is an 

 unicolourous creamy or brownish white shell, very much in 

 harmony with the tone of the earth on which the snail lives. 



But, in addition to the numerous variations in the mottled 

 form, we have also (2) the variety which, being entirely without 

 mottlings or any such thing, concentrates all its markings in one 

 or more bands of dark or blackish shade, which run spirally on 

 a whitish shell, the usual arrangement of the bands on the last 

 whorl being one above and four if present below the periphery. 



This banded form is the variety ornata in Dr. Jeffreys' work 

 (B.C., p. 214), and is worthy of its name, offering a sufficiently 

 striking contrast to the more common mottled forms. 



But yet, though the two extreme variations : the var. ornata 

 and the mottled form, shew this great contrast, it is to be remem- 

 bered that we cannot draw any abrupt dividing line between 

 them. There exist innumerable links which connect together 

 the two extreme forms. In many a mottled individual we find 

 the distinctive bands of the var. ornata appearing, sometimes so 

 manifestly that we hesitate as to which variety we shall say it 

 really belongs ; and then many an ornata has the bands so 

 broken up, or blurred and diffused, that we cannot but see 

 therein an early step made from the strictly mottled form 

 towards the banded variety. 



The variety ornata varies in size, but in form affects the 

 compactly built shell, with a somewhat raised spire, and, as 

 might be inferred from what we have already said on this 



