694 Some Account of the 



sulco marginali ; carina dorsali succinea, vakle notata : lateribus pallidis." 

 This description may be thus translated : — Sowerby's Skig. In colour 

 approaching to yellow, chequered with brown ; head and horns black ; 

 shield or mantle as if minutely warted, and with a furrow near its margin ; 

 the ridge or keel of the back very obvious, and of an amber colour j the 

 sides pale." 



" Plate VIII. D," cited by Ferussac, appears not to have 

 been yet published ; but the accompanying figures {Jig, 120. 



120 



c, Z>), drawn by Mr, Sowerby from living individuals, well 

 exhibit the animal under two of its forms : b, when it has been 

 touched, and has contracted itself; and «, when again dilating 

 itself to resume its progress: ^ does not show, I think, so 

 much contraction as the animal presents when in a state of 

 settled repose ; and a is much too short and stout for the ani- 

 mal when at its greatest extension in the course of uninter- 

 rupted travelling. 



Of the existence of this species at Bayswater, Mr. Sowerby 

 was not previously aware ; but mentioned, as additional locali- 

 ties in which it occurs, the neighbourhood of. Camden Town 

 and the neighbourhood of Lambeth, and suspects that it is 

 common all round London. 



In two of the few Bayswater gardens with which I am ac- 

 quainted, Zyimax Sowerby/ is most troublesomely abundant ; 

 but I cannot state from my own observance that it abounds 

 about Bayswater generally : probably, however, it does. The 

 soil here is a stiffly clayey brown loam incumbent on gravel ; 

 and this stiffness of the soil renders it liable to crack during 

 dry and summer weather. The fissures thus formed are a 

 very great convenience to the slugs, which retire into them 

 to escape the annoyance of the drought and the heat; and 

 although they may usually descend not lower than about 3 in., 

 they will sometimes go so deep as 6 in. ; they also retreat 

 under large clods ; and young ones will hide themselves 

 between the inner surface of flowerpots and the mould they 

 contain. When detected in these places, they exhibit greater 

 contractedness, I think, than shown in ^y^. 120. h; and the 

 younger and smaller specimens resemble so many rudely 

 formed dirty-hued boluses, which, as particles of soil and dust 



