GASTEROPODA. 
291 
in colour ; from beneath the same stone I have procured specimens vary- 
ing from a crystalline transparency to dark reddish-brown, and in these 
differences the animal participates with the shell; like II. rufescens , 
Mont., and some other species, it occasionally presents a white band on 
the last volution ; in the very youngest state this species is hispid, and 
quite depressed or flat above. The internal rib, in what — to distinguish it 
from H. concinna — may be called the normal state of H. hispida , which I 
find in the North, is generally wanting. On supplying Mr. Alder with 
specimens of these in April, 1836, he observed that they were the most 
strongly-marked varieties he had seen ; and, about the same time, M. 
Michaud, in acknowledging specimens I had sent him, remarked upon 
them as a very fine variety of H. hispida. The shells thus alluded to are 
of the most common form in the North of Ireland; and are larger, 
more depressed, and with the umbilicus comparatively wider, than in 
specimens which I have found in various parts of England and Scotland, 
and which are similar to those that, under the name of H. hispida, have 
been sent me from Newcastle by Mr. Alder, and from Lorraine by M. 
Michaud ; specimens the same as the English and French are likewise to 
be met with in the North of Ireland, but are rare comparatively with the 
others. 
Note. — Sept. 17, 1837. On looking to the animals of full-grown speci- 
mens of this Helix collected at Wolf hill near Belfast, I could not perceive 
any difference between the inhabitants of the very hispid shells wanting 
the internal rib, and those having the rib and displaying very few hairs : 
the animals are commonly pale grey above and whitish beneath ; in the 
very hispid shells they varied from this colour to black. 
Var. sericea, Muller. 
In the rejectamenta of the river Lagan, near Belfast, I have obtained 
specimens corresponding with those favoured me by Mr. Alder under this 
name. This shell is, in general form, size of umbilicus, &c., intermediate 
between H. hispida and H. granulata , but hardly differs more from the 
ordinary state of II. hispida than the specimens of it common to the 
North of Ireland do, and which are considered by Mr. Alder and M. 
Michaud only varieties of the species bearing this name. I cannot look 
upon it otherwise than as a var. of H. hispida. Great Island, Cork, Mr. 
Humphreys. 
Yar. concinna , Jeff. 
The shell alluded to under this name is that described by Mr. Al- 
der as “ stronger, and with the hairs more deciduous, than the usual 
form [of H. hispida'],'” Mag. Zool. and Bot., vol. ii. 107 ; and which, I 
would add, is generally more convex, and has an internal rib, which in H. 
hispida, at least as I find it in the North of Ireland, is more often want- 
ing than present. It commonly in Ireland takes the place of H. rufescens, 
Mont., where this is not found, as it has been remarked by Mr. Alder to 
do in England. In the northern half of the island it prevails abundantly ; 
and as the H. rufescens decreases northwards so does the H. concinna 
southwards ; from extreme East to West they both range : in the central 
parts of the country, where both occur, they retain their distinctive cha- 
racters, the H. concinna being smaller, more convex, and darker in co- 
lour than its ally. About Cork, Messrs. Wright and Carrol. 
Specimens of H. concinna from the neighbourhood of Bristol, favoured 
me by Mr. Jeffreys, are, as he now considers, certainly nothing more than 
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