LAND SNAILS. 
139 
This species is usuallyregarded as an inhabitant 
of North America, but the species there is clearly 
distinct from the European H. pulchella; the 
American H . minuta of Say is clearly indigenous, 
for it is widely and abundantly distributed, and 
in regions remote from the sea, throughout North 
America. 
It frequents walls, under stones, and among the 
short herbage of down§. 
A variety— H. pulchella (3. costata (PL VIII., 
fig. 69)—has the shell furnished with elevated, 
transverse, and curved ridges, and is stated to be 
peculiar to marshy and damp situations. In this 
I do not acquiesce, for I have found both living 
together in dry places, as on the walls of Hast¬ 
ings Castle, under stones on the Chalk Downs 
of Sussex, and at Bristol; and in damp and 
low situations, as among the osier beds bor¬ 
dering the banks of the river Thames, both the 
smooth form and costated variety occur. In 
a parcel of shells of this 4 species from any of 
these localities, specimens showing the transition 
from the ridged variety to the smooth form are 
not rare. 
The variety costata should be regarded as the 
normal form, as the ribless condition results from 
the disappearance of the costae upon the shell, 
which is due to the occasional wearing away by 
age, just as in the case of H. aculeata , which is 
