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to the serpents by reason of its mode of progression, and if it should 

 know I do not think it would care one jot. What the slug does 

 care about is the newly planted lettuce, the seedling aster, or that 

 nice fungus in the wood. In the popular idea the slug is a loath- 

 some creature, without beauty, without intelligence, but of exceed- 

 ingly lazy habits and great keenness of appetite. Like many popular 

 notions and many scientific theories, parts of this idea are wrong. 

 The slug has a healthy appetite, its progress is slow, but it has great 

 intelligence and certainly distinct claims to beauty. When we lift 

 up a stone off the rock garden, or move a log of wood which has 

 been lying on the ground for some time, we may see some slugs 

 beneath. They will of course be resting, and, if we are curious, we 

 try to make them move, and after a time they slowly creep oft", and 

 we think what dull animals they are, but we forget that we have 

 come upon them suddenly in their sleep. One day I brought in 

 four specimens of Avion circniiDicriptiis from the garden and put 

 them in a saucer with a little water. They soon began gliding all 

 over the saucer, and I had some difficulty in keeping them off the 

 table. Their motions were really quite graceful. One of these I 

 made crawl up and down an artist's paint brush handle. After a 

 time it got tired of its promenade and suddenly let itself down by a 

 thread of slime on to the table, just as a lepidopterous larva would 

 do on its silken thread. This habit of escaping from uncomfortable 

 positions by means of a mucous thread is common to most slugs. 

 For the larger species we require a soup plate or even a meat dish. 

 Our soft friends glide easily over the smooth surface of such articles, 

 and one can watch their actions and appreciate their form and pro- 

 portions. Some species are more slender in form than others and 

 some have much longer tentacles in proportion to their bodies than 

 other species. 



When first becoming interested in slugs one naturally has to 

 overcome an inborn feeling of repugnance, but in this case, as in 

 many others, familiarity breeds contempt and we soon learn to 

 enjoy the grace and delicacy of the slug. Round London they are 

 mostly of a dull coloration, but in some parts of the kingdom speci- 

 mens may be found showing a scheme of beautiful tints. One 

 disadvantage connected with the study of slugs consists in the want 

 of any good method of preserving specimens for comparison. They 

 look very sorry objects when immersed in spirit. They n)ight 

 perhaps keep their shape and colour better m a 10% aqueous solu- 

 tion of forujalin. At present a water colour drawing would seem 

 the best means of bringing back to memory the details of form and 

 colour of any particular specimen of which we may wish to make 

 some record. Mr. Main has made some very successful camera 

 studies of these animals. A good series of such photographs would 

 be a useful and beautiful addition to any conchologist's collection. 

 In general slugs are of nocturnal habit, and require a large amount 

 of moisture to keep them in a healthy condition. A dry heat is 



