HORSLEY : LAND SHELLS OF MAJORCA. 71 



from one old woman's stall a remarkable series of two species of Tapes 

 shewing great variation in colour and marking, which our British 

 Museum was glad to receive. Many men were engaged in the estuary 

 dredging for these with an arrangement of large iron teeth and a bag- 

 net at the end of a heavy pole. At Cette there is the interesting and 

 well equipped Marine Biological Laboratory maintained by the Uni- 

 versity of Montpelier. It contains an excellent aquarium, and I was 

 surprised to find that I was about the first English visitor. The 

 collection of shells is fairly large but quite devoid of classification. 



Protective form or colouring is somewhat strangely rare amongst 

 molluscs, wherefore you will be more interested in two dry stems and 

 seed vessels of plants from Belver Castle, near Palma. On one I 

 have put some Helix conoidea, on the other IT. acuta, and you will 

 observe how in colour and shape the shells resemble the dry seed 

 vessels. The somewhat rare var. nigra of H. conoidea in which the 

 shell is chocolate with the apex only remaining white much resembles 

 small bird-droppings. 



Report on the Droylsden Ramble. — A fair number of members met at 

 Droylsden on Sept. 12 for this ramble, a few having come long distances in the 

 hope of taking some of the more local freshwater shells that have been found in the 

 district. We first visited the clay-pit near Cryer's mill, where Mr. J. W. Jackson 

 and myself took very fine SphcEriiim pallidtun during the summer of last year, and 

 were disappointed to find that owing to the tipping of earth in the pond the bed of 

 muddy clay in which the Sthceria flourished had been covered, only a few dead shells 

 rewarding our efforts. Taking to the towing path of the canal we went on through 

 Droylsden to the Fairfield Locks, examining the canal as we went along ; Palu- 

 destrinajetikinsi was still flourishing, and a few specimens of Physa heterostropha 

 and SphiErhim pallidinn were taken ; on nearing the locks search was made for 

 Paludestiina iaylori in its original locality but without success. From the locks 

 we directed our course along the canal towards Guidebridge; with the exception of 

 a few nice Physa heterostropha nothing of special note was found in this length until 

 we reached the Guidebridge Spinning Co.'s cotton mill, here the water is very warm 

 owing to the condensed steam, and Planorbis dilatatus swarmed on the walls just 

 below the surface of the water; from this point to the junction of the Peak Forest 

 Canal, the species occurred uninterruptedly along with the Physa, Planorbis co7-neus, 

 P. albiis, Lininaa stagnalis, L. peregra, and Bithynia tentaculata; in the canal 

 between the cotton mills at Ashton-under-Lyne, Sphczrium comeuin, S. lacitstre var. 

 brochoniana and S. palUdiun occurred ; the former species in very great abundance. 

 On reaching the junction of the Peak Forest Canal we visited the short arm of the 

 canal on the Cheshire side of the River Tame and found Pahtdestj-ina taylori in 

 numbers on the moss-covered walls, in company with Bithynia tentaculata and 

 other common species of freshwater mollusca. During the ramble only one species 

 of land mollusca Hyalinia nitida was found. — Fked Taylor {Read before the 

 Society, December 9th, 1903). 



