326 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. II, NO. II, JULY, I906. 



hawthorn bushes in springtime is always interesting, however famiUar 

 it may become to the conchologist as time rolls on. Inland, there is 

 usually plenty of scope for H. neinoralis to indulge in this propensity 

 when so inclined, and if opportunity offers, it is not content with 

 bushes, but ascends tree trunks to a height of many yards. The 

 members of the great colonics on the sand dunes of our coasts have, 

 however, perforce to make shift with the marram grass, dwarf sallows, 

 and other seaside plants. In the case of these and some others of 

 our larger Helices, there seems little doubt that this climbing propensity 

 has an intimate connection with the pairing instinct. The same is 

 true of Po)natias elegans, Eiia nw?iiana, and probably also of £na 

 obscura, and the ClausilicB — but Claiisilia laminata and C. hidentata, 

 with which I am best acquainted, may be found on trees all through 

 the spring, summer, and autumn. In early spring C. lanihiata 

 ascends trees to a great height, and I have found it thirty feet or more 

 from the ground, on beech and other trees, and that not singly but in 

 numbers, on several occasions when I have, out of curiosity, followed 

 up the slime tracks of our most notably active climbing slug, Lhnax 

 arborum, which makes nought of ascending tall trees to the very top- 

 most branches. But although the pairing instinct may safely be 

 accepted as the explanation of the climbing of our larger Helices during 

 the earlier part of the season, I have always observed the actual 

 pairing taking place on or near the ground, and it will not account 

 for similar climbing tendencies on the part of juvenile snails during 

 late autumn, of which some notable instances have from time to 

 time come under my observation. 



I devoted much of my time to " sweeping " with a half-circle net of 

 stout canvas, or " beating " into an umbrella for Coleoptera and other 

 insects — an occupation which reveals an infinity of otherwise hidden 

 life — keeping at the same time a keen look-out for anything of interest 

 conchologically. As on prior occasions at this time of the year, I 

 speedily noticed the wonderful abundance of mollusca, mostly juvenile, 

 which came into the net and umbrella — an abundance all the more 

 remarkable when contrasted with the extreme scarcity of shells 

 observed when searching this district during the last week of June and 

 first week of August this year, when the weather was extremely hot 

 and everything dry and parched. 



The old wall-fences, crowned in many places with the luxuriant 

 masses of ivy in full bloom, which is everywhere such a prominent 

 feature throughout this district in autumn, are an especially favourite 

 haunt of Helix aspersa and Hypvmia rufescens, and beating the ivy 

 brought down young shells in showers. So abundant was H. rufescens 

 that it became in places a perfect nuisance, and many of the captured 



