Reports to various Correspondents. 59 



where it often does much damage. It has a handsome shell, subject 

 to much variety in regard to colour, and is very hardy. It is one of 

 the first to make its appearance in the spring, and often does much 

 damage to young turnips and lettuce as well as clover. In the 

 typical nemoralis the lip is black. The colour of the shell is 

 extremely variable, being white, grey, pale yellow, pink, or brown, 

 with 1 to 5 spiral brown bands, occasionally confluent or interrupted ; 

 whorls 5^, convex, last | of shell. The body of the mollusc is dark 

 brown, tinged with yellow, and covered with small tubercles ; 

 mantle greenish, with yellow specks ; tentacles long and slender. 



A well-marked variety, at one time regarded as specifically 

 distinct, is H. Jiortensis, which has the mouth white-lipped and the 

 rib of the same colour. A variety known as hyhrida has the mouth 

 and rib of a pink colour. The arrangement of the bands and markings 

 of the shell are extremely variable, as is also the colour of the animal 

 itself. I have seen clover and lucerne literally stripped by this snail 

 in Wiltshire and in Wales. 



The Strawberry Snail (H. rufescens, Pennant) is a constant source 

 of annoyance to strawberry growers, preferring those plants, violets 

 and iris to all others. I have seen beds of strawberries in 

 Surrey and Cambridgeshire quite spoilt by this snail. The fruit 

 is attacked as well as the young leaves. These snails are seldom 

 seen in the day-time, unless after a shower of rain, when they at once 

 become active. They may often be seen in summer under the straw 

 which is sometimes placed between the plants. Tliey deposit their 

 eggs from September to November, eacli snail depositing about sixty 

 eggs. In my breeding-case the eggs were on the ground in heaps, 

 but I think naturally they place them below the surface of the 

 ground. The ova hatch in about three weeks, but a few remain 

 undeveloped until the spring. The small snails do not grow very 

 rapidly, as is the case with Helix aspcrsa. The shell is compressed 

 above, and angularly rounded below, opaque pale dirty 'grey, often 

 with a reddish-brown hue, sometimes transversely streaked with 

 brown and marked with a white spiral band which passes round the 

 last whorl; whorls 6 — 7; last whorl = ^-shell ; mouth obliquely 

 semilunar, furnished inside with a broad white rib. The body of the 

 snail is yellowish-brown with dark brown stripes running along the 

 neck and on the tentacles ; foot pale, narrow and slender. 



H. virgata, Da Costa, often does much harm to root crops and on 

 grass lands. During the year 1894 it appeared in large numbers in 

 parts of Kent, where it is well known on account of its destructive 

 habits. At Wye, on the farm belonging to the South Eastern 



