Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/115

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ZOOLOGY MOLLUSCS The published accounts of the Berkshire Mollusca are few and relate principally to the neighbourhoods of Wellington College l and of Oxford 2 : these, supplemented from the observations of Mr. W. Holland and the Rev. S. S. Pearce, as well as the Records of the Conchological Society, have yielded a list of 97 species. Seeing that the soil and physical features of Berkshire are such as to favour the development of molluscan life this number is not high ; but several other forms out of the 139 known to inhabit the British Islands should be forthcoming with further investigation. Although Helix pomatia, the Roman snail, has been named as occurring in the county (Nature, xxviii. 8 1 ) this is apparently an error, at the same time its absence is unaccountable, seeing that it is found not far from the border in Oxfordshire, and there is no obvious reason why it should not be present in Berkshire as well. The most noteworthy species in the fauna is the pretty little Acanthinula lamellata, a single specimen of which was found by Mr. Holland in a ditch by Theale Lock near Reading. This species had not previously been found living further south than mid Staffordshire, though in Pleistocene deposits it has been met with in Essex and at West Wittering near the coast of Sussex by the Hants border. Except for the presence of this northern form the assemblage is of an average British facies. A. GASTROPODA I. PULMONATA a. STYLOMMATOPHORA Testacella maugei, FeY. Faringdon haliotidea, Drap. Reading - scutulum, Sby. Faringdon Limax maximus, Linn. flavus, Linn. arborum, Bouch.-Chant. Agrlolimax agrestis (Linn.) /avis (Mull.). Wytham Hill Vitrlna pelludda (Mull.) Vitrea crystallina (Mttll.) lucida (Drap.). Near Reading alliaria (Miller) glabra (Brit. Auct.) eel/aria (Milll.) nitidula (Drap.) l H. W. Monckton, Rept. Wellington Coll. Nat. Hist. Sue. 1888. 9 J. F. Whiteaves, 'On the Land and Freshwater Mollusca inhabiting the neighbourhood of Oxford' (Aihmolean Society), 1857. 69