A shell no less remarkable for its form than its extreme rarity. The mouth bears a most striking resemblance to the human ear; and the only specimen known in this country is the one here figured, from the cabinet of Ch. Dubois, Esq., who obligingly favoured me with it for examination; neither does the exquisite work on the Land Shells, by M. de Ferrusac, now publishing at Paris, contain this species among the numerous matchless figures already given of this family.
In the present uncertainty respecting the natural groups of the genus Helix, as left by Lamarck, I have preferred for the present following the example of Cuvier and de Ferrusac, in placing it with that family, in preference to adopting the ill-defined and palpably artificial distribution of them by D. de Montfort, or of forming a new genus for its reception.
The variegations in its colouring are better seen in the figures than described. The whole shell is slightly marked with obsolete longitudinal striæ; the umbilicus is very deep, and the tooth does not extend externally beyond the margin of the lip.
