290 



HELIX NEMORALIS L. IN NORTH-WEST DONEGAL 

 By EDWARD COLLIER. 



(Read before the Society, November nth, ic 



In September last I went with Dr. Chaster of Southport, Mr. C. E. 

 Wright of Kettering, and Mr. Arthur Stelfox of Belfast for a few days' 

 collecting in North-West Donegal, and when there Mr. Wright and I 

 collected all the Helix nemoralis we could so that we might note 

 the variation. 



Our first stay was at Dunfanaghy, where we found a considerable 

 area of sand-dunes, called Tramore Strand, which connects Horn 

 Head with the mainland, as Horn Head is almost an island. 



On one part of these sand-dunes there is a large stretch of sand, 

 virtually level, without any herbage at all, where, when any wind is 

 blowing, one was almost blinded with the driving sand, but further 

 west and nearer the sea it is covered with bush and short grass. In 

 some parts the sand-dunes are very high, rising to a height of 380 

 feet in the part nearer Horn Head. 



On the lower portion, near the mainland, we found H. nemoj-alis 

 fairly plentiful, but most of them the type 12345 in various bandings, 

 a good many of them being (t2)(345) and (12345) var. coa/ita. The 

 proportion of var. albolabiata in them was very considerable, as fully 

 one-third was that variety to two-thirds type. They were all libellula, 

 and not a single specimen of rubella. I only got eight specimens 

 without band, 00000, and two of them also were albolabiata. 



There was not a single specimen of 00300, which is so common in 

 most places. I got tliree specimens of 00305, all with the last band 

 a very thin line, but distinct; one specimen of 10045 and an ex- 

 tremely thin line for no. 2 band ; this specimen also was albolabiata ; 

 also two specimens of 10345, one of which also was albolabiata. 



These shells from Tramore Strand were rather larger than the ones 

 we got further down the coast, and much heavier shells than those we 

 found on an old wall by the roadside near Dunfanaghy, where we 

 found them much thinner and more variable in colour, some being 

 rubella. 



On leaving Dunfanaghy, we went to stay at Middletown, Bunbeg, 

 which we found considerably the better district for collecting Helix 

 nej/ioralis. 



On Bunbeg sand-dunes I collected a large quantity, almost one- 

 half of which were var. albolabiata, and in all the different band- 



