116 TESTACELLID/E. 



district^ as well as in Guernsey. This species has been 

 noticed by Continental writers as occurring throughout 

 a great part of France (principally in the South and 

 South-west^ but also, according to Collard des Cherres 

 and De PHopital, in the Department of Finisterre and at 

 Caen), Spain, Algeria, Corsica, Sicily, Madeira, and the 

 Canary Isles. It has also been found in a fossil state 

 near Clermont and in the South of France. 



Whether this singular and somewhat anomalous mol- 

 lusk is really indigenous to this country, or has been in- 

 troduced and acclimatized, it is almost impossible to say. 

 The means by which MoUusca become spread are various ; 

 and Man is one of the unconscious agents of such diffu- 

 sion. A usual habitat of this kind of Testacella is at the 

 roots of flower-plants, or under heaps of dead leaves in 

 gardens ; and if a plant were imported into this country 

 from the botanic garden at Montpellier with the native 

 soil or a compost made of leaf-mould, either the Snail- 

 slug or its eggs would perhaps accompany it. 



The European Snail-slug is by no means prolific, lay- 

 ing only 6 or 7 eggs from April to July. During this 

 operation its head and tentacles are drawn in. The eggs, 

 when new-laid, are pointed at each end. The young are 

 excluded at the end of from twenty-five to thirty days. 

 The slime is abundant and colourless. 



Mr. Tapping described in the * Zoologist' for 1856 

 (p. 5105) what he considered a new species of British 

 Testacella, under the name of Medii'Templi. It was 

 found in only one part of the Middle-Temple Gardens, 

 under the shelter of a south-west waU. But his descrip- 

 tion scarcely differs from that of the variety scutulum ; 

 and Mr. Norman, who has examined typical specimens of 

 the supposed species, informs me that they belong to 

 that variety. The colour of the body, as well as the form 



