228 JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY 



CONCHOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 By THOS. SCOTT. 



(Read before the Conchological Society). 



During last summer I happened to come across the nests 

 of several land molluscs, and the following are some jottings 

 from my note book concerning them : — 

 Helix aspersa. 



Seven nests of this species were observed — the first 

 was found on the 17th June, and contained fifty-one eggs. 

 Between the 21st and 26th of the same month, three more 

 were observed ; they contained respectively, forty-three, forty, 

 and sixty-nine eggs. Three more were observed on July 

 the i6th, and contained — one seventy-three, one seventy-seven, 

 and the other ninety-six eggs. The eggs were, without excep- 

 tion, deposited in little hollows, such as would be made were a 

 boy's marble pushed into the soil till about level with the 

 surface and then withdrawn. These little hollows were gener- 

 ally made by the mollusc at the roots of grass, and the eggs, 

 after being deposited, were covered with a thin layer of earth, 

 so that to find them, a careful and judicious search required to 

 be made. According to Dr. Jeffreys,* Bouchard-Chantereaux 

 " has often counted from 100 to no eggs, which had been laid 

 by a single individual," so that in only one instance do the 

 numbers observed by me, approach near to those given on 

 the authority of Bouchard-Chantereaux. The eggs had a 

 tough membranaceous covering, so that though one happened to 

 fall, it sustained little or no injury. The average size of the 

 eggs, as far as I could make out, was 4-25 x 4 millimetres. 

 In one nest the development had proceeded so far that the 



* "British Conchology," vol. i., p. 183. 



J.C, v., Oct., 1887. 



