BEESTON : hi EI. I) NOI KS ON HRLlCODON'l'A OBVOLUTA. 45 



very extensive tract of country known as the Forest of Bere, which 

 stretched from the confines of, and joined up to the Weald on the 

 east, to the north-eastern limits of the New Forest on the west ; but 

 as the shell has never been recorded from the New Forest, it is very 

 probable that it was confined strictly to the chalk areas. 



It is a well known fact that many species of snails indulge in the 

 habit of climbing trees in spring, and this predilection has led some 

 to believe that H. obvoluta, in common with H. lapicida, Ena obsciira 

 and E. iiiontana, ascends the trees to a great height and remains there 

 all the summer, only descending in autumn to deposit its eggs and 

 to hibernate. 



Mr. E. W. Swanton (Zoologist, Aug., 1915) refers to this habit as 

 follows : " To secure living specimens it is necessary to visit the trees 

 at the time of the spring ascent or the autumn descent," and very 

 definitely states that the animals are in the habit of "ascending the 

 trunks in spring upon emergence from hibernation, and spending the 

 summer on the branches." Once only have I seen H. obi'oluta 

 ascending trees, and that was on a very mild wet day in early April. 

 On that occasion I observed about a dozen snails at the height of 

 about five feet from the ground, but they had then finished the climb. 

 They had evidently left their hibernaculum a short time before, lured 

 out by the mild and humid atmosphere, and were doubtless in search 

 of suitable food. This^s the greatest height I have ever observed 

 the snails up the trees. I do not positively say they do not 

 climb somewhat higher, but that they mount the trees in spring and 

 spend the summer on the branches requires definite proof. On one 

 or two occasions I have seen H. lapicida six or seven feet up the 

 trees, but rarely higher. E. obscura certainly climbs higher, but I am 

 not aware that there is any evidence that H. obvoluta attains very 

 great elevations and remains there all the summer. I have on several 

 occasions collected H. caperata, H. heripensis, H. virgata, H. striolata, 

 H. aspersa, H. nemoralis, and H. horfensis several feet up the bare 

 trunks of the beeches, but I do not think any conchologist would be 

 bold enough to say that these species remain up the trees all the 

 summer. The greatest objection to the theory is the fact that H. ob- 

 voluta begins laying eggs in May. There is one other objection ; it is 

 tliat H. obvoluta is to some extent a moisture-loving creature, and 

 somewhat subterranean and nocturnal in its habits. If it does reside 

 aloft in summer, and the weather should become droughty, the animal 

 naturally retreats into its shell, and the first gusty day would soon 

 bring it to the ground, as the very slender power of adhesion it 

 possesses would be insufficient to hold it to the swaying branches. 

 H. obvoluta, too, has the habit in dry weather of forming its chalky 



