a concave form. This whole operation occupies but the fraction of a 

 minute. 



" As the weather gets colder, the animal withdraws farther into 

 the shell, and new epiphragms are made until five or six of these 

 partitions are formed. And what would you imagine was the purpose 

 of this epiphragm? It is to protect the snail through the cold of win- 

 ter when food is scarce or unobtainable. The winter's sleep is called 

 hibernation. Other animals, as the bear and the raccoon, also enter 

 into this sleep of winter, as you probably know. 



" During hibernation, the heart almost ceases to beat, and all the 

 functions of the body stop, the animal becoming torpid, to be awakened 

 only when the warm days of April or May appear. In tropical coun- 

 tries, the snails hibernate during the hot and dry season, and are most 

 active during the rainy season. The naked snails, or slugs, cover them- 

 selves with this secretion much as a caterpillar covers itself with a cocoon. 



" The land snails are most active in the spring, when they may 

 be seen crawling over fallen trees, on bushes, and on the ground. As 

 fall and winter approach, they become less active, and finally prepare 

 for the winter's sleep, from which many of them never awake, meeting 

 death from old age, or falling a victim to some carnivorous animal." 



This old log produced a large number of species for our collections, 

 some of which were new, and one in particular, called Omphalina fuli- 

 ginosa, was especially large and fine. Here we worked until darkness 

 had fairly set in, when we reluctantly left the prolific locality and 

 returned home. 



Omphalina fuliginoBa. (Binney.) 



33 



