igh TAYLOR : ON THE VARIATION OF MOLLUSCA. 



often provided with hairs and other epidermic appendages. As 

 instances of species affecting this mode of hfe and showing in 

 their exterior appearance corroboration of it, we can readily 

 call to mind Helix aculeata, H. hispida, H. obiwluta, Bulimus 

 montanus, B. obscurus and many others. We see an exposition 

 of the same law amongst the forest-loving and frequenting 

 Helices of Eastern North America, which are uniformly and 

 sombrely colored, their epidermis varying in shade from yellow- 

 ish horn-colour, through brown to a dark chestnut. Arboreal 

 species which are almost necessarily exposed to the full action 

 of air and light, are distinguished by brighter, more vivid and 

 more varied coloration, than the purely terrestrial species loving 

 shade and concealment. Our variegated Helices — nejnoralis and 

 hortensis — approach perhaps nearest in habit to arboreal life, 

 living freely exposed on hedges and hedgebanks, and these 

 species are the most gaily colored of our native shells. 



We shall from these considerations see the improbability 

 of our sombrely coloured Bulimus montanus with its thick 

 brown epidermis, being an arboreal species as stated by some of 

 our authors. Possibly the statements of our more recent writers 

 are a modified repetition of the following direct and positive re- 

 marks, of the Rev. J. E. Vize, in his list of Wilts shells pubUshed 

 in 1866, who says, " Its habits are unusual when contrasted with 

 other species : it hibernates by burrowing into the ground at 

 the roots of beech trees, it leaves its winter quarters in March, 

 ascends the favoured tree (and by-the-bye it chooses certain 

 beech trees in preference to others), it enjoys itself at the top 

 of the trees from March to August, and then descends to sleep 

 for the remaining half-year." 



I have always had the strongest doubts of the accuracy of 

 this statement, basing my judgment upon the character of the 

 shell, which clearly shows it to be a species living usually in 

 shade and concealment. With a view to settle the question I 

 recently requested Mr. F. A. Knight — who resides in Somerset- 

 shire near a locality for this species, and whose experience of 



J.C, v., April, 1888. 



