GASTEROPODA. 293 



bands that I have seen described, from the hyaline and opaque white to 

 the darkest brown. H. cricetorum has in similar variety been procured 

 by this excellent and indefatigable collector at the same place, and //. 

 Pisana, likewise differing, he possesses from its not far distant station : — 

 one of the most beautiful of these three species is opaque white with 

 hyaline bands. At La Bergerie, near Portarlington, Mrs. Patterson of 

 Belfast obtained a specimen of H. vm/ata, which both in form and colour 

 bears a rude resemblance to the IZeiix cleyans of Brown. 



H. caperata, Mont. 



In Brown's Irish Testacea this species was noticed to be " not un- 

 common at Naas on mud walls," p. 526 ; and " Bullock in Ireland " was 

 given by Dr. Turton as a habitat. (Conch. Diet. p. 51.) The H. 

 caperata is in Ireland a very local species, is found in the southern half 

 of the island, and appears to be plentiful where it does occur. From 

 Dr. W. H. Harvey I had specimens in 18.33, which were collected by 

 him at Glanmirc, near Cork ; on '' dry banks at Kilkee Castle, near Balli- 

 tore. County Kildare," he had likewise procured the species. At Kings- 

 town, near Dublin, contiguous to Dr. Turton's station, it has been col- 

 lected by Mr, Warren. At La Bergerie (Queen's County) it was a few 

 years ago obtained in abundance by Mrs. Patterson of Belfast. Among 

 the specimens brought from this locality (and presenting gi-adations in 

 colour from the ordinary state to that of being almost wholly of a deejj 

 reddish-brown) was one shell entirely of a pale amber colour, and trans- 

 parent, the fine and regular striae rendering it very beautiful. Here, in 

 addition to this species, //. ericefornm and JFI. rin/afa were found by Mrs. 

 Patterson, and were abundant on the same plant, the H. caperata being 

 the most plentiful. 



The distribution of //. caperata seems rather anomalous ; it is unknown 

 to me in the North of Ireland, but on the walls of the houses in Portpa- 

 trick, one of the nearest parts of Scotland to this country, I have remark- 

 ed it; about Ballantrae, in Ayrshire, it has not occurred to me; at the 

 base of the cliffs at Salisbury Craigs, near Edinburgh, in 1834, 1 procured 

 it in abundance. 



H. ericetorum, Mull. 



This Helix differs from its nearest British allies, //. virgata, TT. Pisana, and 

 H. caperata, in being pretty generally diffused over Ireland and the adjacent 

 islands ; most of the marine sand-banks around the coast claim it, but H, 

 virgata in some places appears to its exclusion ; it likewise affects the 

 most inland localities, from one of which, near Portarlington, I have spe- 

 cimens so large as 9 lines in diameter. An exception to the more ordi- 

 nary places of its occurrence may be mentioned ; the ruins of Dunluce 

 Castle, situated on the summit of an insulated mass of rock, considerably 

 elevated above the sea. In localities in the North, but a few miles dis- 

 tant, and in every respect presenting a similar appearance, I have remark- 

 ed the specimens in the one to be without exce])tion either uniform in 

 colour or very faintly banded, and in the other not one to be of an imi- 

 form colour, but all banded, and almost every individual darkly so. Dra- 

 parnaud's //. ccspitam, (3. pi. 6, f. 15, 17, and Pfciffer's H. ctHjntam, taf. 

 2, f 24, and ji. f. 25, are all very characteristic figures of our //. ericeto- 

 rum, as is Rossmassler's var. f. 516. This author's //. cricetorum, f. 517, 

 a. and b., likewise re])resent it. My friend Prof. Forbes informs me that 

 in the Museum at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, he in 1838 saw a voung 



