3l8 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. II, NO. lO, APRII , I906. 



By Mr. J. Laycock : Loligo media L. (male) from Colwyn Bay. 



By Mr. Chas. Oldham: Liinmsa stagnalis, a dwarfed form, from pond, West 

 Kirby, Cheshire. 



By Mr. J. W. Jackson (on behalf of Mr. A. Leicester) : A Vertigo from near 

 Southport, of a form quite unknown to ail the members present, it being sinistral, 

 but certainly neither V. pusilla nor V. angiistior; it may be an undescribed species. 

 Also photo-micographs of above, and of V, pusilla ■ax^iS. V. a«^«.r/z'cr for comparison. 



By Mr. J. W. Baldwin: BytJiinia tentaculata var. albida from the Bolton Canal. 



A very extensive series of the British Vertiginidie, comprising sets showing 

 variation in size and colour from many localities was exhibited by the President, 

 Dr. G. W. Chaster, Messrs. Oldham, Standen, Moore, Jackson and Collier; the 

 latter also showed, for comparison, 38 species of Pupa and Vertigo from the Alps, 

 the Pyrennes, Norway, Greece, Abyssinia, and the Cape. Specimens were also 

 shown from the collections of the Society and the Manchester Museum. 



It was decided to have the following special exhibits at future meetings : 

 April II ... ... The Genus Vallonia. 



May 9 ... ... The British Trochidae. 



June 13 ... ... The Genus Cataulus. 



Limax tenellus in Buckinghamshire. — On October 15th last several speci- 

 mens of Z?'wax tenelhis were found by Mr. B. T. Lowne and the writer in Burnham 

 Beeches, Buckinghamshire. They were distinctly, rather brightly yellow in colour, 

 with blackish-grey tentacles ; and according to Mr. J. W. Taylor, to whom one was 

 submitted, they pertain to the var. cerea Held. The other slugs of the place — 

 undoubtedly a remnant of primitive forest — were Umax aiborum, I., cinereo-niger, 

 Arion sub/uscits, and A. minimus. — H. Wallis Kew [Read before the Society, 

 December 13th, 1905). 



"Do Swans eat Anodonta cygnea?." — In answer to this question in your 

 last issue, I wish to reply that they certainly do so, and in large quantities. About 

 twenty-six years ago I went to reside at Birchmore House, near Woburn, Bedford- 

 shire, my husband farming its lands. The mansion of our landlord, the Duke of 

 Bedford, Woburn Abbey (so-called from its having been built upon the site of an abbey 

 of the White Cistercians) was about two miles distant ; the Park, in which it stood, 

 was only separated by a road from our farm. The first autumn I lived there, I was 

 told by the old groom whom we had taken with the house, that the swans had flown 

 over from the Park to one of our ponds, as they did every year at that time, to eat 

 the mussels out of the pond. I had not then taken up the study of shells, and did 

 not know there were any but marine mussels. Out of curiosity I went to see, and 

 thus first made their acquaintance. At my approach the swans flew away, and over 

 a high wall which formed the boundary of the Park ; leaving behind them, on the 

 banks of the pond, numbers of empty shells. Many of them had only one valve 

 broken, and that, the one lying uppermost, so I was able to pick up both right and 

 left whole valves of very large specimens, such as I now know to be Anodonta 

 cygnea ; beautifully iridescent within. During the twelve years we occupied that 

 farm His (Jrace the Duke's swans never failed to spend several weeks of the late 

 autumn, coming daily to enjoy the freshwater mussels of what, tradition said, were 

 originally carp-ponds of the Abbey monks. — Jessik M. Br.UNPEi.L {Read before the 

 Society, September 13th, 1905). 



