Sept. 1, 1SGG.] 



HARDWICKE'S S CIEN CE- GO S S IP. 



197 



the more clear in colour and the more definitely 

 banded, the markings of arbustorum are, on the other 

 hand, more mottled and less definite. Although II. ne- 

 moralis is so globular as not easily to be confounded 

 with other species, its colours are so varied that 

 scientifically there might be formed a whole cata- 

 logue of its sub-varieties worthy of distinction. 

 One species, for example, is yellow with dark brown 

 rim ; another brown, but banded on tints of white, 

 yellow, or brown ; another greenish-yellow, with 

 three narrow brown bands ; another, with five broad 

 belts, darker and wider in different places ; another, 

 pink with four bands, the three lower dark red- 

 brown ; another, brownish-pink, with one broad 

 belt occupying nearly the whole whorl, and a second 

 narrow band above it ; and another pink, with five 

 pale brown bauds. These, the more common varia- 

 tions, are by no means a complete enumeration of 

 the varieties of colour. Sowerby makes the curious 

 assertion that this wood snail will eat earthworms 

 or even cooked meat, and we dare say it would if it 

 could get the chance. It is in its turn infested 

 with a parasitic insect. In dry weather not a speci- 

 men of it is to be seen. An hour after a shower 

 you may count perhaps, thousands in the woodlands. 

 In cold, too, it retires, as already hinted, into private 

 life, amongst grass-roots and rubbish. Much dis- 

 cussion has ensued on double glazing in certain 

 contemporaries weighted with the responsibility of 

 our domestic comfort. Let iL.r. take a lesson 

 from the snail. In winter it closes over the mouth 

 of its shell, not only with an outer semi-transparent 

 mucous covering, but afterwards retiring further 

 inwards, it protects itself by means of a second film, 

 securing a warm stratum of air betwixt it and the 

 outer cold for the entire.duration of its four months' 

 fast. 



The shell of H. hortensis, the garden snail 

 (fig. 180), again, is always about one-third smaller, 

 and it is a little more globular still than H. nemo- 

 ralis (fig. 176) . The eggs of H. hortensis resemble 

 small peas, and a bad kind they would be for the 

 gardener to sow. Macgillivray (to whom I shall 

 again refer) notices three varieties of garden snail : 

 the Common Banded ; the Unicolor (not banded) ; 

 the Arenicola (sand-inhabiting). 



The peculiarity of this last variety is a strange 

 one — it is a smell. Has any one ever smelt a 

 snail which emits an odour of onions ? It was either 

 this variety of the garden snad or the onion 

 snail {Zonites alliaria) altogether ; and this garlic- 

 scented odour, as it is more properly called, remains 

 perceptible even after the creature has been killed 

 in hot water. [Collectors will understand why we 

 kill snails thus— it is to get quit of the inhabitant at 

 once ; and to preserve the enamel of the shell, the 

 scalded one must instantly be dropped from the hot 

 into cold water.] 



Linnaeus, whose original arrangement of molluscs 



was successively upset by the new classifications of 

 Lamarck, De Ecrussac, and Bosc, and entirely 

 abandoned at the dictation of Dr. Oken, included 

 in the genus Helix many fresh-water, fluviatile 

 (river), and even sea species. But so limited has 

 been the view adopted by more modern authorities, 

 that Professor Macgillivray, labouring, it is true, 

 under the restraints of a northern clime (Aberdeen- 

 shire), although known as one of our most diligent 

 collectors (he was naturalist to the present Royal 

 family, and the late Prince Consort is understood to 

 have acquired the copyright of his works), adduces, 

 besides the three Helices already mentioned, only the 

 following, treating all the minor specimens, not as 

 Helices, but as Zonites: — The Wrinkled Snail, Helix 

 coperata* (fig. 181) ; the Bristly Snail, II. hispida 

 (fig. 182) ; the Scaly Snail, II. lamellata (fig. 183) ; 

 the Prickly Snail, H. aculeata (fig. 1S1) ; and the 

 Little White Snail, H.piilchella (fig. 1S5). 



Fig. 181. Wrinkled Snail 

 (H. caper ata). 



Fig. 182. Bristly Snail 

 [B. hispida), enlarged. 



Fig. 183. Scaly Fig. 184. Prickly 

 Snail (-ff. Snail (2T. 



lamellata). aculeata), enlarged. 



Fig. 185. Little White 



Snail (S. pul- 



chella), enlarged. 



These, indeed, are the more typical, the more 

 common, and profuse. But when we classify types, 



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Fig. 166. Kentish Snail (IT. Cantiana). 



they must go together, thus : to the Bristly Snail 

 may be referred two which have been classed as its 

 varieties,namely, the Silky Snail {H. sericea), and the 

 Neat Snail (//. concinnci). In like manner also to 



Fig 187. Carthusian Snail (fi\ Carthusiana). 



the Little White Snail (H. pulchella) we may ascribe 

 the white snails, the Kentish Snail (//". Cantiana, 

 fig. 186), and the Carthusian snail {H. Carthusiana, 

 fig. 187). Besides these the British list contains 

 the Pisa Snail (H. Piscina), the Zoned Snail (H. 

 virgata, fig. 18S), the Heath Snail (H. ericetorum, 



* In a few days I have just spent at Professor Buckman's, 

 I found Caperata to be the prevalent Helix on the upper lias. 



