320 



LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSCA OF WINSLEY 

 IN NORTH WILTS. 



By DOUGLAS BACCHUS. 



(Read before the Society, September Sth, igzo). 



The village of Winsley lies some five miles east of Bath and two 

 miles west of Bradford-on-i\.von, about one-and-a-half miles inside the 

 North Wilts, border and about half-a-mile north of the Kennet and 

 Avon Canal. Some 520 feet above sea level, it is situated at the top 

 of a hill which rises at Limpley Stoke and descends again to Bradford- 

 on-Avon. 



The formation on which the village stands is Bath Oolite. Having 

 to spend three months this spring at Winsley Sanatorium and not 

 being able to walk very far, it has amused me to see how many species 

 of Land and Freshwater mollusca I could find within a ten minutes' 

 walk of the place. The Sanatorium, two hundred yards west of the 

 village, stands on what sonie hundred years ago was a large stone 

 quarry. The grounds are about 55 acres in extent, ten acres of which 

 are woodland, consisting of beech and larch with a sprinkling of 

 horse-chestnut, as well as hazel and the usual undergrowth. I do not 

 think there is, however, a single holly tree. 



The Canal is 300 feet below the Sanatorium. The freshwater 

 shells were taken from 100 yards of this. The fields round the 

 district are divided one from the other by stone walls of the local 

 stone built without cement. Under the loose stones at the top of 

 these walls was always a good collecting ground for the stone-loving 

 species. The woods mentioned below are those in the Sanatorium 

 grounds. 



Exclusive of Pisidmm (except P. amnicuni) the recorded land and 

 freshwater shells for N. Wilts, were 91. I managed to add three nev^^ 

 ones and confirmed one, making a total of 94. My total for the 

 district is 68, which is not so bad considering the small space 

 searched. The whole of the ground covered was searched in three 

 weeks (March i — 21). Records bearing a date were taken later. 



In a small stream between the Canal (the N. and S. Wilts, dividing 

 line) and the river Avon, which is the dividing line between Wilts. 

 and Somerset, I found numerous examples of Paludestr'uia jenkinsi. 

 Twenty yards north would have placed them in North Wilts. ; twenty 

 yards west and they would have been Somerset examples. 



Testacella maugei. — One specimen feeding on H. aspersa. 

 Sanatorium Garden, April loth. Very large. New record for 

 Wilts. N. and kindly identified by Mr. J. W. Taylor. 



