Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/71

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ZOOLOGY MOLLUSCS The soil of Rutland, consisting largely of calcareous rocks overlain by the Great Chalky Boulder Clay, should be favourable to molluscan life, which nevertheless does not seem so abundant as might be expected. In part this may be due to the dearth of observers, for there is no published account of the mollusca of this county, which in this respect has been peculiarly neglected, while only five records from the neigh- bourhood of Morcott are to be found in the Records of the Concho- logical Society. Two small manuscript lists, one by Mr. F. M. Burton of species found in the neighbourhood of Uppingham, in 1855—9, the other of specimens observed recently near Edith Weston by Mr. V. B. Crowther-Beynon, have kindly been furnished by Mr. W. M. Webb. The bulk of the following list, however, falls to the credit of Mr. C. E. Wright, who worked over the district in 1899 and 1900. Only 84 out of a total of 146, or so, species known to occur in the British Islands are here enumerated, though further research should bring others to light. Two or three more species of slugs, several of the small Vertigos, as well as some other species ought certainly to be found in the county. The lacustrine deposits in the Casewick cutting of the Great Northern Railway yielded nineteen species of non-marine mollusca, but all belonging to forms now living in the county. The nomenclature adopted in the following list is that of the Conchological Society issued in 1904, and differs from that employed in the earlier county histories of this series. Where the names here used differ from those previously given the latter are added in square brackets in order to facilitate comparison. A. GASTROPODA I. PULMONATA I. PULMONATA {continued) a. Stylommatophora a. Stylommatophora {continued) Limax maximus, Linn. Fairly common V'urea crystallina (Mull.). Common throughout — flavus,M . Edith Weston — cellaria (Mull.). Oakham, Liddington, Up- Agriolimax agrestis (Linn.). Common pingham, Bisbrooke and Glaston Lane, Fitrina pellucida (Mul).). Oakham, Lidding- Stoke Wood ton, Uppingham, Edith Weston, Stolce — rogersi, B. B. Woodw. The most abundant Wood of the genus in the couuty 35