134 ashford: notes from the isle of wight. 



some 20 or 30 individuals of this species in hibernation. Marking 

 the spot, I returned the next day to examine them in detail, when 

 I found the whole community devoured. The shining fragments 

 of their broken shells covered the ground a yard or two from the 

 post. In the the midst of the debris was the altar-stone of 

 immolation^ much stained. Lister says (speaking of H. tiemo- 

 ralis) that thrushes pierce the upper part of the shell with their 

 beaks. I once, and only once, witnessed the operation. Seizing 

 the shell by the lip, the bird struck it several times forcibly on 

 the stone till the spire was well broken. It made no attempt to 

 pierce it with its beak. The smeared state in which such stones 

 are left inclines me to believe that the process I have described 

 is the usual method adopted. [From our own experience 

 we are able to confirm the correctness of the above in- 

 teresting observation, the bird in our case being the Thrush. 

 — Eds. J-C?[ The love-darts of H. aspersa are four-edged 

 assegais or spear-heads. There is a central axis, generally 

 slightly curved, of opaque lime carbonate, round which the 

 four blades are symmetrically arranged, the latter being thin, 

 semitransparent and simple-edged. A round contracted neck 

 unites the blade-stem to the knob by which the weapon is 

 originally attached to the dart sac. This knob is roughly hemi- 

 spherical or subconical and hollow as if to receive a ligament. 

 The four-fold blade however does not seem to be a constant 

 characteristic. I have one in which I can detect only two edges 

 like an ordinary spear head. 



Vertigo minutissima. — Hitherto I have failed to find 

 this little fellow at the western end, but I have taken it among 

 disintegrated stone rubbish under Steephill, near Ventnor. 



Bulimus acutus. — The diminution in this species in 

 point of numbers was very perceptible last year. It is chiefly 



