Il8 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 



MUSICAL SOUNDS CAUSED BY ACHATINELL^. 

 By rev. H. GLANVILLE BARNACLE, M.A. 

 When serving as astronomer on the Government Expedition 

 to the Sandwich Islands to observe the Transit of Venus in 

 1874, I took the opportunity of hunting over the Islands for 

 the Achatinellce, so perhaps the following may be of interest to 

 you concerning those beautiful shells. When up the mountains 

 of Oahu I heard the grandest but wildest music, as if from 

 hundreds of ^olian harps, wafted to me on the breezes, and 

 my companion (a native) told me it came from, as he called 

 them, the singing shells. It was sublime. I could not believe 

 it, but a tree close at hand proved it. On it were many of 

 the shells, the animals drawing after them their shells which 

 grated against the wood and so caused a sound ; the multitude 

 of sounds produced the fanciful music. I can hear it now as 

 I write, so great an impression did it make on me. On this 

 one tree I took seventy shells of all varieties. At the root in 

 the grass, I took twenty-three more, and everywhere I took 

 some. The British Museum now has eleven sinistral varieties 

 from me that they had not before, but it seemed a shame to rob 

 nature of its notes. It may be of interest to name that 

 wherever I found the Achatinellce, close at hand were always to 

 be ioMXid. Helix similis, and varieties oi Amasi?-a. — Sep. 3, 1883. 



Helix virgata v. major at Eastbourne. — Through 

 the kindness of Mr. S. Spencer Pearce, B.A., I have been 

 favoured with specimens of this variety of a much larger size 

 than I have yet seen recorded. The largest specimen is fully 

 25 mill, or I inch in diameter, and was collected by him ' in cul- 

 tivated fields at Eastbourne.' These shells are fully one-fifth 

 larger than those recorded by Dr. Jeffreys from Weymouth, 

 which were the finest specimens he had ever seen. The 

 extreme limits of size given by Dr. Gray, Moquin-Tandon, 

 Tate, &€., do not exceed the measurements given by Dr. 

 Jeffreys. — J. W. Taylor, Aug. 14th, 1883. 



J.C, iv., Oct., 1883. 



