CONCHOLOGY^ 



In addition to these circumstances it may be observed, that al- 

 though the shell is now rare, and bears a considerable price, it has, 

 of late years, become rather more usual in fine collections than its 

 rarity might lead us to expect. The time is within our memory, 

 when a fine example of Helix Hsemastoma passed for a species almost 

 unique, and realized at a public sale the price of twenty guineas ; 

 the value of the shell was subsequently depreciated by the appear- 

 ance of three or four more specimens in the hands of our collectors, 

 ftnd might then be estimated at about twelve guineas each ; within 

 the last twenty years the price has again fallen progressively to less 

 than half that amount, a circumstance not a little accelerated by our 

 possession of the island of Ceylon, the country from whence those 

 beautiful shells are received. But although those two shells, as 

 well the Helix Haemastoma as Helix Melanotragus, have hence 

 appeared more frequently in our collections than in former days, 

 they are still held in much esteem for their rarity ; their appearance 

 is confessedly striking in a peculiar degree ; the rich coloration of 

 both, but that of H. Hasmastoma in particular, render them objects of 

 more than usual interest, and almost indispensable indeed as a cabinet 

 acquisition among the Helices. 



As a general observation respecting these two very analogous 

 shells, it may be stated, that the size of the species Melanotragus, 

 now before us, rather exceeds that of Hsemastoma ; the colour is of 

 a pale brown, or testaceous hue, instead of a deep chocolate colour, 

 and the appearance of a white zone encircling, or rather forming the 

 lower half of the whorl, with the exception of the umbilical region, 

 is by no means so distinctly obvious as in Haemastoma : it is indeed, 

 as we have observed, in some examples wholly wanting, the centre of 

 the wreath being marked only by a spiral line of separation. 



