164 JOURNAL OF CONCHOl.OGY, VOL. I5, NO. 6, APRIL, I917. 



6x5 mm. Some other smaller eggs were also obtained with them, 

 at the same place, but it would be guesswork to suggest to what 

 species these belong. 



Considering how interesting the eggs of snails always prove to 

 those unfamiliar with them, it seems strange that they should be so 

 seldom seen in collections, though of late years the large and con- 

 spicuous eggs of Boms oblongiis Miill. have become fairly common, 

 and are usually regarded as a curiosity. I have often been amused, 

 when showing my eggs to non-conchological friends, to note their 

 amazement, and often ill-repressed incredulity, when told that these 

 were really snails' eggs and not those of birds, though some of them 

 were large enough to be " blown," like l)irds eggs, with drill and 

 blow-pipe. Personally, my own snails' egg collecting has practically 

 been confined to our own British species, which, though small, are 

 fully as interesting in their way as the foreign ones, which I have had 

 no opportunity of seeking in their native habitats. 



The examination of dried-up bodies of exotic snails, or such as 

 have been preserved in spirit, has proved one of the most prolific 

 methods of obtaining eggs, more especially in turreted or many- 

 whorled species, where by reason of careless cleaning a portion of the 

 body, including the oviduct, has been left behind and allowed to dry 

 up. Many of my specimens have been obtained in this way, and it 

 is noteworthy that many of the species of eggs placed upon record by 

 various observers have been obtained from a similar source. My 

 friend, G. C. Spence, has been particularly fortunate in thus obtain- 

 ing examples of several hitherto unknown eggs, and I am indebted 

 to him for some valuable additions to my collection. 



It may perhaps be considered that my address deals with a minor 

 detail of trivial importance, but no detail is trivial if likely to contri- 

 bute ever so small an item to our knowledge of any given subject. 



In my remarks I have embodied particulars and measurements 

 which represent practically the sum total of our present knowledge of 

 the subject, and of these many are from my own specimens, some of 

 which have not hitherto been recorded. For others I am chiefly 

 indebted to Tryon and Pilsbry's " Manual of Conchology." The 

 study of the moUuscan egg in its many and diversified forms of 

 reproduction and development, especially when co-ordinated witli 

 that of the nepionic whorls, which so frequently differ widely in 

 sculpture and other characters from those of the adult shell, offers a 

 wide field for investigation and research, and their associated value 

 as an aid to classification must eventually become more fully recog- 

 nised. 



