23 2 



NOTES on LINCOLNSHIRE MOLLUSCA. 

 Pisidium milium at Revesby, Lines. — On 41b July, on the occasion 

 of the meeting of Lines. Naturalists' Union at Revesby I found Pisidiitm 

 milium in a pond near the reservoir; its identification has been kindlv veri- 

 fied for me by Mr. Lionel E. Adams. — C. S. CARTER, 172, Eastgate, Louth, 

 Lines., 1 1 th J uly [90I. 



Helix cantiana : Its Range and Soil Preferences in North 

 Lincolnshire.— All explanations which 1 have yet met with about the 

 dispersal of H. cantiana are not according to the facts I can observe in 

 N. Lines, in a .short walk. The Rev. J. W. Horsley once pointed out by 

 letter that snails are rare on sandy inland soils, though plentiful enough on 

 sea-side sandhills which contain much comminuted lime from the destruc- 

 tion of sea shells. He added : ' I have also a theory that proximity to 

 highroads leads to their greater abundance, since they get their material 

 for their shells in a powdered and easily assimilated form. I should 

 certainly expect more booty in the hedge of a field lying by a road than in 

 the other three hedges length for length. This may be due to a certain 

 extent to the greater absence of their enemies near to a line of traffic' 

 This I find to be true generally, but there are most peculiar exceptions. 

 Helix cantiana on the sandhill on to which the outfall of the Thirty Foot 

 Drain at Cadney abuts is as fine as can be taken in any part of England. 

 This hill is made up of drift sandy gravel from chalk and Kellaways Rock. 

 Absent on the peat between, at Hibaldstow on the whole length of the 

 cornbrash outcrop they are fine and plentiful. While right on the Kirton 

 Beds of the Lincolnshire Limestone, with 70*85 percentage of CaCO : , , for 

 long distances not a single specimen can be found on the old Roman road 

 from London to Barton-on-Humber. Just west again, on the same stratum, 

 they are not uncommon on the Cliff Road on the same geological bed, 

 though the specimens are not so fine. In other ways the actions of our 

 molluscs are most puzzling. H. virgata here at any rate may be found 

 abroad in frost and snow on its beloved spots. It seems to be indifferent to 

 seasons and weather when it likes. But of the hundreds I have sown in 

 botanically 'fitting' localities not a single specimen remains; and yet the 

 range of this species is wide and as inexplicable as it well can be. My 

 present means of explanation fails with the commonest species. H. nemoralis 

 is found on every bank and hedge-side, and here and there abounds. On 

 the 13th of April I took a ten miles' stroll in the rain on the look out for 

 anything to be seen. Not a single specimen of H. nemoralis did I see 

 except for two hundred yards on the Kirton Beds, where it was out by 

 scores, young and old together, and most active. Yet dead shells, which 

 were visible evervwhere by the road-side, showed it was not uncommon on 

 the whole route I went. The explanation cannot be merely a question of 

 food. All the shells were on the branches of White Thorn {Crataegus 

 monogyna Jacq.) which had been recently cut from a laid hedge and placed 

 in a very shallow ditch to keep off cattle. The difficulty is they were not 

 feeding on the thorn bark, and the other herbage was no higher, as far as 

 I could observe, than in other places, where a similar protection had been 

 placed a year and two years before. The drain and bank faced the wind 

 and cold rain, and I passed a hundred spots more sheltered and there was 

 not a snail out. On the 14th I observed the same thing. In a two miles' 

 walk not a snail was out except for about sixty yards on a bank. There 

 their chief resting plant was the Barren Brome {Brachypodium pinnatuvi 

 Beauv. ). On the 12th H. cantiana was out in the bitterest east wind, but 

 only in a few sheltered spots. There is much in the life of slugs and snails 

 that the wisest conchologist dreams not of as yet. All notes on the food 

 plants, soils, frequency and scarcity of molluscs and their varieties are 

 most interesting to me, if brother naturalists would kindly communicate 

 them by letter. — E. Adrian Woodruffe- Peacock, Cadney, Brigg, 16th 

 April T901. 



[Such notes as Mr. Peacock suggests in his concluding remarks will be 

 most acceptable at all times for publication in this journal. — Eds. Nat.] 



Naturalist, 



