40 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 



ON THE VIVIPAROUS NATURE OF BALEA. 



By THOS. ROGERS. 



It may be interesting to the readers of the ' Journal of Con- 

 chology ' to have a few additional notes besides those which 

 appear in the 'Journal' for October, 1891, by A. E. Craven and 

 Edgar A. Smith on the viviparous nature of Balea perversa. 

 During the latter part of August, 1869, I was in the neighbour- 

 hood of Killarney with a small party of botanists, and as I was 

 the only one of the party having conchological proclivities, I had 

 to do my snail hunting before my fellow botanists had arisen. 

 It was during one of these early morning walks near the Tore 

 Waterfall, and whilst the rain was coming freely down that I fell 

 in with a numerous colony of Balea perversa on a wall that was 

 streaming with rain and the drip of trees. They were fine long 

 specimens of a greenish horn colour, and I noticed that a large 

 number of them had young shells in the mouth of the adult 

 shells, exactly as described by Mr. Craven in his find in the 

 Duchy of Luxemburg, October 1890. You will probably 

 remember, Mr. Editor, seeing these Killarney specimens with 

 the young /// situ when you favoured me with an inspection of 

 my cabinet. At the time of my visit to Killarney I was in 

 correspondence with Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys, and amongst other 

 things I mentioned the fact and observations as aforementioned 

 about Balea. In a paragraph of a subsequent letter dated 

 September 20, 1869, he says, "Your account of the viviparous 

 nature of Balea perversa is interesting." The inference I drew 

 from this remark was that the observation was new to him or 

 not generally known. 



I have collected Balea perversa many times in various 

 places, but I never saw it in this apparent viviparous condition, 

 except in the Killarney specimens, although I think my friend 

 Mr. Moss has found similar specimens and in similar condition 



JiC. vii., April, 1892. 



