Henry Augustus Pilsbry

“ I believe that no one publishing work on our land mollusks at that time is still living. The progress of a generation of malacologists is thus to be recorded here, in addition to a summary of the previous work which we inherited.
In the limits set for this work, it is not possible to cover all aspects represented in the work of many naturalists during the past half century. Only the fundamental subjects, description, classification and distribution of our land snails are treated somewhat fully. ”

“ American land snails have been a favorite study with me since boyhood; during most of that time chiefly as an occupation of evenings and in the intervals of other work. A field acquaintance with them, begun as a student in Iowa, has been continued in vacations and collecting trips in the southern Appalachians, the Ozark region of Missouri and Arkansas ”

“ The present Part contains the remaining families of Helicacea, being mainly occupied with the Polygyridae.
This is the most ubiquitous and widely-spread North American family of helices, being found in all states of the Union but four (Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Nevada) , in Canada, Alaska and in Mexico. It is also more numerous in species than any other land snail family of our area, and it comprises many shells of large size. ”