79 



specimens are greenish yellow, with three narrow brown 

 bands ; others with five broader belts, being darker and 

 wider in places; pink, with four bands, the three 

 lower ones broad, and of a dark red-brown colour, the 

 separations between the bands very narrow ; brownish 

 pink, with a broad band nearly occupying the whole 

 whorl, having a second narrow band immediately above 

 it; and pink, with five pale brown bands. These are 

 the more common colours, but the size, shape, and 

 colours are so varied that it would be difficult to enu- 

 merate them all. 



The usual diameter is seven-eighths of an inch. Tbe 

 largest specimen taken in this neighbourhood measured 

 exactly an inch in diameter. 



The colour of the animal is yellowish green, becom- 

 ing darker as the individuals become older; the darker 

 shells bave a darker-coloured animal tban the paler ones. 



Helix nemoralis is one of the s'.x species of shells 

 described by Merrit, in the year 1667, in his "Pinax 

 rerum Naturalium Britannicarum." 



According to Grey, it attains a very large size in 

 Portugal, and is very small on the Swiss mountains. 



It has been introduced into Canada and the United 

 States, where it is becoming common. 



Sowerby says this Helix will eat earth worms, and 

 even cooked meat. 



A parasitic insect lives on this species ; it is the lava 

 of Drilus flavescens. 



Although in dry weather not a single living specimen 

 is to be found, yet, an hour after a shower, the banks 

 which they frequent are literally covered with them. 



In cold weather they retire into holes in tbe ground? 

 or amongst grass roots and rubbish. In winter they 

 close the mouth of their shells with a semi-transparent 

 mucous covering, after which the animals retire con- 

 siderably further into the shell, and then form a second 



