138
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
difference in striae, etc., will probably establish it a var., if not a new
species; but if these characters are fixed, it is, doubtless, a new species.
But you can set this matter or not as well as anyone I am acquainted with,
and I shall feel additionally obliged to you to do so at your convenience.
Stanway, May 24th, 1843.
I have been much importuned by several collectors in London to send
them suites of the Copford shells. In some instances I have done so,
and from one gentleman I learn that the sinistral species, which I think
you said was a variety of V. pusilla, is "Vertigo angustior"; and he tells
me that he is confirmed in that conclusion by Mr. Sowerby, but he does
not say which of the Sowerbys, but I suppose Mr. G. S.
I state this to you as you told me no one had seen it as a "recent shell,
and that its claims to specific distinction are at present doubtful."
When you see Mr. S. Wood, have the goodness to ask him if I sent him
the species in question, and his opinion respecting it ; and, if I have not
sent him the species already, I will do so as soon as I hear from him or you.
Miss Barker, of Colchester, to whom I sent a quantity of the unsorted
shells from Copford, has sent me a list of shells which she has collected,
and among them is Helix rupestris ; but I have my doubts in that matter.
I cannot find another ruderata, although I have not searched in a careless
manner for that species. Could you favour me with a shell of that species,
a recent one; as I am told that some of our collectors have obtained them
from the collectors of foreign shells. Merely as a loan, I should be glad of
one, and would return it. Do you know whether Mr. Morris has found
any of this species at Grays at any time ? He has long laboured in that
part of the field. By finding this species at Copford, with so many recent
species, I should think it very probable that it is living in our Island at
the present day. When you see Mr. Morris, please to give my best respects
to him ; and, if he can spare me a specimen of ruderata from Grays, I should
be most happy either to return it or send him the Copford shells for it.
As I think, time is always well spent in ascertaining or confirming a
fact; and that is the principal object in my writing to you at this moment
respecting the Vertigo, before it has escaped my memory.
Stanway, May 27th, 1843.
I have this week found (for the first time) a few specimens of Zonites
pygmea [sic], and I have great pleasure in sending you about a dozen
of them. They are from the debris of the Copford Pleistocene beds. They
are at your service and disposal, and if you think a few specimens will be
acceptable to the Society, I will begin the search anew; but this species
is not very abundant here. You and Mr. S. Wood are the only friends
that I have sent this species to. I had not observed them when I wrote
last to you, or I should not have troubled you at this time, as I am aware
of your multitudinous duties; and you can answer me when most con-
venient.
Stanway, July 29th, 1843.
In looking over the sand from Clacton, I find the shell which Mr. S.
Wood has found so many of: I mean the ruderata. It is singular that
this is the first I have met of that species, when that gentle nan has obtained
so many. It appears to have existed in that locality in tolerable abundance.
Stanway, Novr. 4th, 1843.
In carrying out your suggestion respecting the shells of the Copford
Post Tertiary beds, laid open by a cutting for the Eastern Counties
Railway, I really think there can hardly be any place in England that