306 MOLLUSCA. 



and by Jeffreys (p. 390) as being pellucid, Sec, I find upon the first stones 

 wet by mountain springs, on their gushing from the earth. All the spe- 

 cimens from these localities are much smaller than those found in still 

 water, and coated with green vegetable matter, which is entirely adventi- 

 tious, and may be seen in like manner coating the little prominences of 

 the stone to which the A)ic>/lus adheres; this and the animal being re- 

 moved, the shell is crystalline. Under the name of " Ancy. Jluviatills, 

 Drap. var. montana,"' M. Michaud has favoured me with specimens from 

 the Pyrenees, quite identical with the var. just noticed, as, it need hardly 

 be remarked, are others from France with the ordinary form. 



I had often observed that beautiful and graceful bird the grey wag- 

 tail {3Iotacilla hoarula) feeding about the mountain springs, but was not 

 aware of its propensity for moUusca, until, on opening the stomach of one 

 without knowing where the specimen had been killed, I found it to be 

 filled with shells of this species, all of which being of the var. a. afforded 

 evidence whence they had been procured. 



Animal bluish-grey beneath ; portion which comes in contact with 

 the shell blackish-green. Of six specimens which I once kept in a dry 

 chip box for eighteen hours, two perfectly recovered on being immersed 

 in water. 



A. laeustris, Mull. 



This species, although rare, has been met with in the North, East, and 

 West of Ireland, in still and gently-flowing waters. It was noticed by 

 Captain Brown in his Irish Testacea as " plentiful in a mill-race a mile 

 below Naas." By the late Mr. Templeton's MSS. I find that the species 

 had been previously observed by him " on Potamogeton, &c., in the drains 

 of the bog-meadows near Belfast." Between the fourth and fifth locks of 

 the Lagan canal, a few miles from this town, I have, at the end of Sep- 

 tember, procured many specimens, all of which were on the under side of 

 the leaves of the yellow water-lily [Nuphar Intea) and great water-plan- 

 tain {Alisma Plantago) — Pond in the demesne at Moira, County Down, 

 Mr. Hpidman — Near Limerick, Dr. W. H. Harvey — Beechwood, near 

 Portmarnock, County Dublin, Mr. T. W. Warren — Glasnevin Botanic 

 Garden, Dublin, Dr. Coulter — Finnoe, County Tipperary, and Derryadd 

 Lake, County Armagh, Mr. Edward Waller. 



Genus Physa. 



P.fontinalis, Drap., 



Is common, and generally distributed over Ireland, occurring on 

 aquatic plants in stagnant and gently-flowing water. It is subject to con- 

 siderable variety. 



P. hypnorum, Drap., 

 Although much less common than P. fontlnalis, is generally difi"used 

 over the island, and found as frequently in very shallow as in deep 

 water. 



Getms Planorbis. 

 P. coi'netis, 



Has been found only within a very limited portion of the island. It 

 still prevails in the locality recorded by Capt. Brown — near Maynooth, 



