LAND AND FRESHWATER MOLLUSC A OF SUSSEX 313 



shells are found, e. g. the Eev. W. A. Shaw found it in a post- 

 Pliocene deposit at Kingley Vale, near Chichester, an indication 

 that it is a waning species, which is supported by the occurrence 

 of dead shells only in parts of Surrey and Kent. It is always 

 associated with beech trees, ascending the trunks in spring upon 

 emergence from hybernation and spending the summer on the 

 branches. To secure living specimens it is necessary to visit the 

 trees at the time of the spring ascent or the autumn descent, for 

 amongst the moss and leaves at the base only dead smooth shells 

 are met with ; living specimens of all ages show the epidermis 

 clothed with hairs. 



Some years ago, upon pointing out the shell to an old 

 gamekeeper at Ditcham, he remarked that he knew it well, and 

 that once when digging out rabbits in the wood in winter he 

 came across some of the shells " stuck together in a lump as big 

 as my fist," an observation tending to show that these molluscs 

 assemble for hybernation in the manner often adopted by Helix 

 aspersa. I gave him my address, and promised to send him 

 half-a-crown upon receiving a similar " lump," but the reward 

 has not been claimed. As in H. pomatia the mouth of the shell 

 is closed by a thick, white, chalky epiphragm during the period 

 of hybernation. Weaver alludes, in ' The History of Harting ' 

 (1877) to the first British record of it (in 1830) by Dr. James 

 Lindsay in Ditcham Wood on the Hants border, and adds: "We 

 have since found it in another locality near Up Park, where, 

 within the last dozen years or so, they were so plentiful that we 

 have collected as many as thirty or forty specimens in less than 

 three hours on several separate occasions." 



Mr. Clement Eeid exhibited specimens before the Linnean 

 Society on December 18th, 1890, and showed by aid of a specially 

 prepared map its present very local distribution in England. 

 He informs me that it is quite common where it occurs, and is 

 associated with Clausilia rolphii, and with plants belonging to 

 ancient woods. It does not occur in the eastern division of 

 Sussex. The following are the recorded stations in the western 

 part of the county. " Specimens evidently only recently dead, 

 amongst moss at the roots of trees on a bank at Duncton " 

 (T. Godlee, J. C, 1895); dead shells only at Woodend "at the 

 base of the Downs " (W. Jeffery) ; Winden Wood, near Arundel 



Zool. 4th set. vol. XIX., August, 1915. 2 b 



