330 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY, VOL. It, NO. II, JULY, 1906. 



Westmorland, in a similar habitat to that at Ford Lane; and is 

 plentiful on the "screes" at the summit of Arnside Knot. It would 

 be interesting to ascertain the source of the trees in the coppices 

 where this species now lives. The plantations do not appear to be 

 much more than half-a-century old, judging from the dimensions of the 

 trees, which are mostly Birch, Beech, Elm, Sycamore, and various 

 Firs, and there seems to be reasonable ground for suggesting that the 

 species has been introduced along with the young trees. In this dis- 

 trict Valloiia excentrica seems to be the predominant form of the 

 interesting group to which it belongs, though a considerable colony of 



V. costata occurs at the westward base of Warton Crag. V. pulchella 

 does not occur to my knowledge anywhere in the district, and I am 

 disposed to think that when the typical characters of the three 



Vallonice, now established on the British list, are better understood, 

 and collectors have become more familiarized with them, it will prove 

 the scarcer one generally throughout the British Isles. 



Sinistral Helicigfona arbustorum. — On October 7th I was fortunate in find- 

 ing a sinistral specimen of Helicigoaa arbustorum, which Mr. Wright, who was with 

 me at the time, kindly exhibited with his set from Maidwell Dales, Northants. 

 On July 26lh, at Duston, near Northampton, I found one specimen of Helix hor- 

 tensis var. incarnata with the rare banding in black 00005. — Rev. W. A. Shaw 

 Haselbeech Rectory, Northampton {Read before the Society, November Slh, 1905). 



Do Swans and Ducks eat Anodonta cygnea?— On reading Mr. L. E. 

 Adams' remarks under the above heading (p. 192) it stiuck me that the following 

 circumstance might possibly be worth recording. During a stay in the Waveney 

 Valley in the autumn of 1904, 1 noticed on September 30th, in a sedgy corner of a 

 meadow adjoining the river, in the parish of Wortwell, several specimens of 

 Anodonta cygnea, the valves of wiiich had been broken, and the soft parts in many 

 cases more or less completely removed. The grass and sedge at^ the water's brink 

 were worn and trampled down, as if the spot were frequented by some animal or 

 animals of considerable size and weight, and I thought at the time that otters must 

 have been at work there. On several subsequent visits to the place I always found 

 a good number of these mussels strewn about the ground, a few being quite entire 

 and unbroken, with the animal inside alive ; others smashed as to their valves and 

 having a part or the whole of their contents gone. On one occasion I saw some 

 swans (of which there are several about that part of the river) standing and sitting 

 about at this very spot ; and though I did not see any of these birds actually 

 engaged in bringing up the mussels from the bottom, I came to the conclusion that 

 they must be in the habit of visiting the place for that purpose. I once watched a 

 party of grey or Koyston crows plucking these molluscs out of the mud of the river 

 Aide at low tide, each bird carrying off its prize into the middle of a meadow in 

 order to enjoy it unmolested. — G. T. Rope {Read before the Society, Dec. 13, 1905). 



