GASTEROPODA. 291 



in colour ; from beneath the same stone I have procured specimens vary- 

 ing from a crystalline transparency to dark reddish-brown, and in these 

 differences the animal participates with the shell ; like //. rufescens, 

 Mont., and some other species, it occasionally presents a white band on 

 the last volution ; in the very youngest state this species is hispid, and 

 quite depressed or flat above. The internal rib, in what — to distinguish it 

 from //. concinna — may be called the normal state of H. hispida, which I 

 find in the North, is generally wanting. On supplying Mr. Alder with 

 specimens of these in April, 1836, he observed that they were the most 

 strongly-marked varieties he had seen ; and, about the same time, M. 

 Michaud, in acknowledging specimens I had sent him, remarked upon 

 them as a very fine variety of II. hispida. The shells thus alluded to are 

 of the most common form in the North of Ireland; and are larger, 

 more depressed, and with the umbilicus comparatively wider, than in 

 specimens which I have found in various parts of England and Scotland, 

 and which are similar to those that, under the name of II. liispida, have 

 been sent me from Newcastle by Mr. Alder, and from Lorraine by M. 

 Michaud ; specimens the same as the English and French are likewise to 

 be met with in the North of Ireland, but are rare comparatively with the 

 others. 



Note. — Sept. 17, 1837. On looking to the animals of full-grown speci- 

 mens of this Helix collected at Wolf hill near Belfast, I could not perceive 

 any difference between the inhabitants of the very hispid shells wanting 

 the internal rib, and those having the rib and displaying very few hairs : 

 the animals are commonly pale grey above and Avhitish beneath ; in the 

 very hispid shells they varied from this colour- to black. 



Var. sericea, MuUer. 



In the rejectamenta of the river Lagan, near Belfast, I have obtained 

 specimens corresponding with those favoured me by Mr. Alder under this 

 name. This shell is, in general form, size of umbilicus, &c., intermediate 

 between H. hispida and //. (jrnnulata, but hardly diffei's more from the 

 ordinary state of II. hispida than the specimens of it common to the 

 North of Ireland do, and which are considered by Mr. Alder and M. 

 Michaud only varieties of the species bearing this name. I cannot look 

 upon it otherwise than as a var. of H. hispida. Great Island, Cork, Mr. 

 Humphreys. 



Var. concinna, Jeff. 



The shell alluded to under this name is that described by Mr. Al- 

 der as " stronger, and with the hairs more deciduous, than the usual 

 form [of H. hispida']" Mag. Zool. and Bot., vol. ii. 107 ; and Mhich, I 

 would add, is generally more convex, and has an internal rib, which in II. 

 hispida, at least as I find it in the North of Ireland, is more often want- 

 ing than present. It commonly in Ireland takes the place of //. rufescens, 

 Mont., where this is not found, as it has been remarked by Mr. Alder to 

 do in England. In the northern half of the island it prevails abundantly ; 

 and as the H. rufescens decreases northwards so does the //. concinna 

 southwards ; from extreme I'ast to West they both range : in the central 

 parts of the country, where both occur, they retain their distinctive cha- 

 racters, the II. concinna being smaller, more convex, and darker in co- 

 lour than its ally. About Cork, Messrs. Wright and Carrol. 



Specimens of H. concinna from the neighbourhood of Bristol, Aivoured 

 me by Mr. JeSreys, arc, as he now considers, certainly nothing more than 



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