BECHER : MOLLUSCA OF THE MALTESE ISLANDS. 233 



are all finer than those on Malta. In Benoit's list it is 

 stated to be very common in Sicily in all dry places ; 

 variable in size and colour, 



H. Spratti Pfeiffer. =Zr. gauUtana Mamo.=-^ solaroides 

 Gulia.^jy; ^^^^W(^r// Schwarzenburg. — This Helix peculiar 

 to Gozo was first found by Admiral Spratt in 1843; first at 

 Marsa el Forn in Gozo, and afterwards on the General's 

 Rock on the coast of the same island. My specimens were 

 found in the first named locaUty, where it is plentiful ; the 

 larger sized ones are not so frequently met with. 



H. meda Porro. — Feilden says, 'this snail is very common 

 on shrubs in the Floriana Gardens,' and as this is its only 

 locality regards it as an importation with foreign plants. 

 This is the only locality in which I found it, and it was 

 not very common. Benoit writes, ' lives near Palermo, 

 Girgenti, and Syracuse.' The shell can be distinguished 

 by its strong striations on the body whorl, it is of a light 

 colour and marked with interrupted narrow dark bands. 



H. trochoides Poiret=Z^ conica Drap. — Feilden states that 

 it is very local, the only place where he has found it being 

 at the head of Melleha Bay, where it is found by hundreds 

 attached to the stems of the coarse herbage. He goes on to 

 say that the Maltese specimens are not the typical form. 

 My experience is the same as the above. The shell is white, 

 banded with dark-brown ; these bands vary in distinctness 

 to total absence. According to Benoit it is found in Sicily. 



H. striata Drap. — Very common. A white variety is also 

 common. It is found in Sicily. 



H. candidissima Drap. — Very common, but not universally 

 distributed. I have found it on the coast from St. George's 

 Bay in N.E. direction — to Marfra on Feilden's authority — 

 but I have only personally found it as far as Melleha Bay, 

 not having been further along the coast. As its name 

 implies, the shell is white. It is very subject to distortion, 

 in fact I have rarely, if ever, found a perfectly regularly 



