244 JOURNAL OF CONCHOI.OGY, VOL. 12, NO. 9, JANUARY, I909. 



times thickly crowded with the animals, all travelling upwards, as 

 though desirous of reaching the highest parts of the walls in quick 

 time. 'I'hree or four square inches of surface often produced a 

 dozen or more. A few gleams of warm sunshine seemed quickly 

 to check their advance, and caused the animals to withdraw into 

 their shells ; and in this condition they would hang with apices 

 all pointing downwards until another shower fell, when the advance 

 began again. But it was very astonishing how quickly they dis- 

 appeared in dry weather — in a place where perhaps only the day 

 before the shells were so numerous, not an individual could be 

 seen. 



It is this extreme sensitiveness of many species of moUusca to 

 the approach of rain, causing them to emerge from their hiding- 

 places so quickly, that has given rise to the popular rustic belief 

 in " showers of snails." This phenomenon is particularly noticeable 

 with such species as H. virgafa, H. caperata, and the larger Helices. 

 Haggs Lane, Cartmel ; Spring Bank Road ; Cartmel Road ; 

 Grange Fell Road ; Charney Well Lane ; Windermere Road ; Lin- 

 dale ; Cart Lane ; Meathop Road ; Eggerslack Wood ; Lower 

 Lindale Road ; Holme Island and Humfrey Head (J.W.J, and 

 C.H.M.), /. of C, vol. II, p. 45; Holker, 1903 (J.W.J.). 



var. cravenensis Taylor. — Fairly common. Humfrey Head 

 (J.W.J, and C.H.M.), / of C, vol. 11, p. 45. 



*var. gracilior Jeffreys. — Two or three specimens only with 

 the type. Locality uncertain. 



var. tumidula Jeffreys. — Occasional examples only with type. 

 (J.W.J, and C.H.M.), /. of C, vol. 11, p. 45. 



Succinea putris (Linn^). — Mr. G. H. Taylor (August, 1907) 

 reports this species as " common " at Low Meathop, although the 

 writer did not note it. 



Succinea elegans Risso. — A few small dwarfed shells were 

 found with LimHcea pereger and Pisidia, in a moist weedy ditch, 

 by the roadside, at Up Holker, near Cartmel. Meathop Marsh 

 (J.W.J. ). See Naturalist, May, 1907, p. 173. 



*var. albida Taylor. — Two examples with the type in a shallow 

 ditch at Meathop. 



*Succinea oblonga Draparnaud. 



? var. arenaria Bouchard. — This rare and local shell was 

 discovered by the writer quite accidentally, while searching for 

 Vitrea radiatula, near the rocks at the foot of Meathop Fell, and 

 first recorded in the Naturalist (January, 1907, p. 31). The 

 animals were found adhering to the under-side of stones and pieces 



