7 
From the ANNALS AND MAGAzINE oF Natura Hisrory 
Ser. 6. Vol. xiil., January 1894. 

Preliminary Notes on the Relation between the Helicide of 
New Zealand, Tasmania, and South Africa. By Henry 
Suter, Christchurch, New Zealand. 
BEFORE entering upon the subject in question it will be neces- 
sary to say a few words as to the present classification of the 
New Zealand Helicide, which will be more or less new to 
most conchologists. In the ‘ Reference List of the Land 
and Freshwater Mollusca of New Zealand” (Proc. Linn. Soc. 
N.S. W. (2) vii. p. 633) Mr. C. Hedley and the writer 
classed the Helices under Zonitide, induced by the characters 
of the animal—clavate eye-peduncles, distinct pedal line, 
diagonal grooves on the foot, and mucous tail-gland in many 
of them; but, in accordance with Mr. H. A. Pilsbry and 
Dr. von Ihering, I am now fully convinced that the New 
Zealand Helicide are really pseudo-zonttotd mollusks. 
In 1892 I sent a collection of New Zealand land-shells to 
Mr. H. A. Pilsbry, and the result was his article “* Observa- 
tions on the Helices of New Zealand,” published in * Nautilus 
(vol. vi. no. 5, p. 54). With regard to the numerous genera 
recognized by New Zealand conchologists the author says :-— 
“ These sections or subgenera are founded upon various modi- 
fications of the shell or jaw, but they have not sufficient distinct- 
ness to rank as genera, unless we understand that term in a 
much more restricted sense than it has been used by the 
majority of conchologists or zoologists generally.” He unites 
