148 
NATURE NOTES 
lovers of Nature will be careful never to take more specimens 
than they really need ; to pick the best examples and never to 
destroy an immature or worn shell, or to endanger a habitat. 
After all, by collecting carefully and preserving the colonies ; 
by replacing any grass or moss we have moved, we are only 
depriving thrushes and many other birds, mice and several 
animals, beetles, and parasitic insects of their extra luxuries in 
life. Of course many shells may be picked up empty and there 
is no need of killing the animal, but where this has to be done 
let it be done by plunging them into absolutely boiling water. 
Then death is instantaneous and the animal can be at once 
extracted (whilst the water is quite hot) a la winkle, with, say a 
hat-pin, or a vaccination needle. 
Where shall we look for shells ? Well, as a rule, peaty 
and sandy grit soils, pine-woods, commons of bracken, and 
igneous rocks are not much use for exploring. Limestone 
and chalk districts are, however, always productive, and clay 
in parts. Search under fallen branches and stones in moist 
and shady places, in nettle-beds, on mossy or ivy-clad hedge 
banks, on old walls, and at the roots or on the trunks of beech 
trees, for the land shells ; whilst for the water shells the most 
likely spots are reservoir sides at low water, the underside of 
stones in shallow streams, the rejectamenta of rivers after 
floods and the sand-banks of eddies. 
Collect in the spring, before the new lip of the shell is formed, 
or m the autumn when the young shells have grown theirs. 
The best times for hunting are after or during rain. To learn the 
special characteristics of the species and their varieties it is best 
to see some really good private collection, or to visit a museum. 
At South Kensington, where the bird-lover is charmed with the 
really magnificent cases of British birds, one is by no means 
satisfied with the collection of British shells. They are in an 
extreme corner of a room leading off the bird gallery, and the 
varieties are locked up out of sight, pride of place being given to 
a world-wide collection, which is not very interesting, because 
non-British. At Northampton or Newcastle things are managed 
better ; but the really good museum-collections are few. 
One cannot expect, or hope, to get all the species or varieties 
by one’s self, many of them being extremely local, but by ex- 
changes a very valuable collection can be put together and a 
delightful correspondence with other collectors started. 
If we look at the “thrush altars,” the broken shells of Helix 
nemoralis, arhustorum, &c., will soon show what varieties are 
in the near neighbourhood. These varieties are by themselves 
well worth studying— - the absence, or presence, or combinations 
of the typical five bands being very varied — also the colouring, 
pink, yellow, brown, white or lilac, in li. nemoralis or H. hortensis. 
Some varieties are quite rare, c.g., 00300 of II. hortensis 
(though it is common in nemoralis., the black-mouthed species), 
or 12300 00005 in both. Those with translucent bands, again, 
are not common, but very beautiful, whether in H. virgafa, 
hortensis caperata, or ericetornm. 
