359 

 CONCHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE NILE. 



By LIONEL E. ADAMS, B.A. 



(Read before the Society, March 13th, 1912). 



A TRIP up the Nile from Cairo to Assouan during the spring of last 

 year (1911) gave me the opportunity of sampling the mollusca when- 

 ever the steamer stopped. The only spots along the river where 

 collecting is at all profitable are sandbanks, which are exposed as the 

 river falls, and where the shore slopes gradually down to the water. 

 Even in these situations only "dead shells" are to be found, as flocks 

 of spoonbills, plovers, cranes, herons, and ducks of many kinds leave 

 nothing eatable undiscovered. The banks, moreover, are for the 

 most part perpendicular faces of clay. There are no calm backwaters 

 with "bulrushes" or other water plants, whatever there may have 

 been in the time of the infant Moses ; these have retreated further 

 up stream with the crocodile and the Sacred Ibis. 



At intervals between Luxor and Assouan the small Corbicula Jiuin- 

 inalis Miill. was common, and an occasional Melania tuberciilata 

 Miill. occurred. 



At Assouan the natives sell necklaces of shells strung together, 

 some of which are marine and of obscure origin, the only local 

 material being the little solid Cleopatra huUmoides Oliv. , which is 

 stained red, and strung through the mouth and a small hole roughly 

 pierced in the body-whorl. Throughout the district of the first 

 Cataract, this species and its variety trifasciata occurred plentifully, 

 always dead and bleached. I never found a " live " shell during the 

 whole trip ; perhaps a dredge w'ould bring living specimens from the 

 mud at the bottom. 



As the river runs through absolute desert, and most of the existing 

 vegetation along the banks is on land reclaimed from the desert, it 

 is not wonderful that I did not find a single specimen of any land 

 species. 



Helix cantiana Mont. Eaten by Birds. — As bearing upon Mr. Oldham's 

 note on page 323 of this volume, I may record that Helix cantiana swarmed at 

 Westgate-on-Sea in June last, and there was ample evidence from "stones" of 

 birds feeding on this snail. I found no trace of any other species among the 

 debris. — G. C. Leman. 



