232 . 



HELIX HORTENSIS AND ITS VARIATION. 



GEORGE ROBERTS, M.C.S., 

 Lofthoiise, Wakefield. 



This species is more common about Lofthouse than Helix nemoralis. 

 The variety with the three upper bands and the two lower fused, 

 making two broad brown bands, and the variety with all the bands 

 fused (coaiifa) are the most prevalent. The type with five bands is 

 not common. Amongst the brown shells a few bandless yellow ones 

 occur, and it is probably from these that the variety lilacina is 

 produced. Last year I collected a considerable number of the 

 variety lilacina — some of a darkish hue, approaching the brown shells 

 in colour, but many more of the lilac colour from which they are 

 named. Many are rosy-lipped, but this feature is not a constant 

 concomitant of the lilac colour. The base is usually yellow, but 

 I have some in which the base or ground is white. Some are banded, 

 but the banding is generally obscure. The individuals of lilacina 

 with the bands clearly defined only count about one per cent. But 

 I am informed that it is unusual to find them banded at ail. It is 

 perhaps worth noting that, although the same ordinary colour- 

 varieties, brown and yellow, of H. nemoralis are found together — the 

 same as in H. hortensis — the lilac variety studeria is rarely produced. 

 I have never seen more than one or two specimens from this neigh- 

 bourhood that could be called lilac or purple. Among the hortensis 

 last year I found a small colony of sub-albida (shell nearly white), and 

 one specimen among the brown shells with a brown or fuscous lip — 

 the variety named by Von Martens fusco-labiata. 



NOTE—CONCHOLOGY. 

 Reappearance of Canal Shells at Agbrigg near Wakefield.— On June 21st 

 I examined the Wakefield and Barnsley Canal at Agbrigg, about a mile from 

 Wakefield, and dredged up about twenty specimens of Unio Uuuidjis and ten of 

 Paludina vivipara., but none of the latter were full-grown. These two species 

 seem to be plentiful this year, but have been scarce for ten years back. They 

 were in the same places in the canal thirty years since, as recorded by Mr. C. F. 

 Tootal in Morris's ' Naturalist.' Along with the above-mentioned species I found 

 four specimens of Anodonta anatina, two of Bythiiiia Icachii, two of Neritina 

 fliiviatilis, and one of Sphtirium rivicola. On June 25th I paid another visit to 

 Agbrigg Canal and got a dozen more Unio tumidns, six Paludina vivipara, six 

 Sphczriiini rivicola, three Anodonta anatina, and two Neritina fiuviatilis. The 

 shells of four of the Unio tumidus are constricted, that is, drawn in or crushed at 

 the lower margin as if they had been jammed and grown a' considerable time 

 between two stones. It often happens that several individuals are found together 

 all deformed alike. On June 26th one of the Pahuiina vivipara excluded six 

 young about the size of a small pea. — Geo. Roberts, Lofthouse, June 27th, 1888. 



[Mr. Roberts mentions Mr. Tootal's record as being in Morris's 'Naturalist.' 

 I have not, however, been able to find his List of Wakefield Shells in that journal, 

 or in any other publication to which I have access. Can any reader state definitely 



where Mr. Tootal's list did appear P—W.D.R.] . 



Naturalist, 



