THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[October 



sides the whole of its peculiar fauna seemed to be as much in evidence 

 as they would be on any day during the summer. Probably all these 

 were hybernated individuals but of the obscure subject of the hyber- 

 nation of the Coleoptera, and their larval times and seasons and pupal 

 duration, hardly anything seems to be as yet known. 



As descending we left the heather and dropt out of hearing of the 

 last far off Curlew's cry, the shadow of the hills stretched right across 

 to the opposite ridge and left all the valley in deepening gloom. 

 Lower down the roosting pheasants crowed in the larch woods, and a 

 few battered H. programmaria flitted aimlessly across the deep lanes. 

 Still lower we catch the faint murmur of the river yet far below us, 

 and clearer and clearer its music breaks on the stillness of the evening, 

 till at length we stand again upon the bridge, and watch the quiet 

 bats cutting with their unsteady flight the fading sunset glow in the 

 great salmon pool. Arcturus already shines bright as a planet in the 

 North, the twilight deepens into night, and our day among the hills 

 is ended. 



L idsham , Cheshire . 



THE GENUS RISSOA. 



( Continued from page 123.) 

 BY B. TOMLIN. 



The next species on our list is R. cancellata, Da Costa, the only 

 important synonym being R. cremdata, Mich. : of recent years (in 1884, 

 I believe) this has been made the type of a new sub-genus Acinopsis, 

 by Monterosato, based merely on the presence of a 'tubercle at the 

 base of the columella and a slight channelling at the bottom of the 

 mouth. This tubercle, besides being not absolutely constant, is only 

 a thickening of the usual deposit on the columella or pillar in the 

 adult stage, and neither feature seems substantial enough for the 

 proposed isolation of a shell, which is so essentially an Alvania in 

 sculpture ; the lattice-work of this species (in fresh specimens of course) 

 is extremely strong, producing deep pits, and giving the shell quite a 

 prickly appearance, as Dr. Jeffreys says. This is its most marked 

 feature and at once distinguishes it from the two preceding species, 

 which have nothing like this coarse, strong cancellation (which the 

 specific name emphasizes). It is about equal to them in size, perhaps 

 on the average slightly smaller, but there is a rather wide margin of 

 variation in size (? sexual). This feature has been noticed in almost 

 every species of the genus, which is hence plentifully sprinkled with 

 vars. major and minor ! Live specimens are tinged with red as a rule, 

 on a whitish-yellow ground, but the dead shells usually seen in 



