4S JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. 10, NO. 2, APRIL, IQGI. 



Notes from Porthleven, Cornwall.— It would be interesting and useful to 

 those conchologists who are going to new places for their summer holidays, if those 

 who have preceded them had made and published a few notes as to what was to be 

 found in or near a holiday resort. Example being better than precept, let me say 

 what I found when staying this August at Porthleven, a little fishing town, half-way 

 between the Lizard and the Land's End. Weather unpropitious, it only raining 

 twice in the three weeks of my stay ; soil unpropitious, being mainly granitic or 

 metamorphic, metalliferous but not mollusciferous. It was not a very long walk to 

 North Cornwall, where I found forms larger, notably in the case of Helix virgata 

 and //. acuta. The most common shells were H. aspetsa and H. nevwalis. Both 

 were mainly found in the stone walls overgrown with gorse, heath, brambles, and 

 foxgloves, which here take the place of hedges. H. aspersa in the south was largely 

 of the var. iindata type ; those in the north more nearly approached var. flaniniea. 

 Nearly all were considerably weather-worn ; H. aspersa and H. acjita were largely 

 pairing and were the only species thus occupied. II. nemoralis showed a large pro- 

 portion of red as against yellow shells. The variety castanea I only found at the 

 Lizard near the signal station. Some that in the flesh appeared brown were found 

 to have shells much more diaphanous than those of other tints. I found two speci- 

 mens of var. hyalozonafa, and in two hedges var. aUwlabiata occurred, and I secured 

 fourteen specimens, some of which have a primrose-coloured lip. I found one shell 

 that is the nearest approach to an induliitable "six-banded" I have observed, but 

 it is frequently most difficult to distinguish between a ' split ' and a band, and I 

 believe, indeed, that the archetypal Helix had but one band, a peripheral one, from 

 which two above and two below have developed by " splitting." Some were notice- 

 ably pyramidal in form, but these were not common as they are in some places, eg., 

 the Brighton Downs. H. hortensis was entirely absent ; latterly I looked specially 

 for it, but in vain. H. virgata was not common ; where it did occur in any numbers 

 I always found there was a clover-field on the other side of the wall ; one exception 

 was a cliff at Polurrian. In the south, as I have already noted, forms were small, in 

 the north larger. Only once in the whole district I examined (Lizard to Penzance, 

 along the coast, and Porthleven to Gwithian, crossing Cornwall) did I find var. 

 albicans, so prevalent in most counties. The exception was near Marazion, but in all 

 other places where H. virgata occurred var. hypozona took its place, just reversing 

 what would be the case in Kent. Var. Icucozona was finest and most abundant on 

 the Gwithian sand-dunes, where, indeed, it prevailed over all other varieties put 

 together. Var. alba and var. alba-hyalozonata I found in a clover-field at Helze- 

 phron, where also to my great delight I took one var. sinistrorsiim. Millions of 

 //. virgata have I seen, myriads have I handled, thousands have I collected, but 

 never before have I seen a reversed form. At Polurrian a form intermediate between 

 var. radiata and var. nigrescens occurs. H. acitta occurred only sparingly and locally 

 in the south, but abounded at Gwithian, where the beautiful var. articulata was com- 

 mon together with the type and var. strigata. H. granulata was fairly common, but 

 local, and was obtained by beating or looking under hedge-cuttings. H. revelata I 

 found only a few of, and these under stones. H. caperata fairly common, the var. 

 ornata not so ; H. riifescens rare ; H. rottmdaia not particularly common. Of H. 

 ilala I found only a few small specimens at Gwithian. Ilyalinia few, but less dry 

 weather might have brought more to light. I took two specimens of H. draparnaldi 

 at Penrose, near Porthleven. Only two specimens of Cochlicopa lubrica came to 

 hand. Ancyliis Jltiviatilis was abundant on stones in Looe Pool. Marine shells 

 apparently rare owing to the rocky shores, but Littorina rudis varied much in 

 colour and banding. — J. W. Horsley, St. Peter's Rectory, Walworth. {Read 

 be/ore the Society, Sept. I2th, 1900). 



