ii6 HELICID^. 



their winter quarters, they may frequently be seen 

 crawling about with the discarded epiphragm of their 

 late companions still adhering to their shell. These 

 snails were at one time collected in great quantities 

 in this country, and exposed for sale in the markets, 

 being considered, when boiled in milk, an excel- 

 lent remedy for diseases of the chest. In Turton's 

 'Manual' it is stated that "the glassmen at Newcastle 

 once a year have a snail feast (?) ; they generally 

 collect the snails themselves in the fields and hedges 

 the Sunday before the feast day." I am informed 

 that this practice is still continued, and although it 

 might probably be difficult to tempt the world in 

 general with the bill of fare, the repast has at any 

 rate the advantage of being an inexpensive one, and 

 besides, " there is no accounting for taste." The 

 specific name aspersa, bestowed upon this species by 

 Miiller, is a Latin word, which literally rendered 

 means besprinkled (as with water). It is not easy to 

 comprehend in what way the appellation is an appro- 

 priate one ; perhaps the celebrated German naturalist 

 by a slip of the pen wrote aspersa instead of aspera 

 (rough), which would have been much more descrip- 

 tive of the coarsely wrinkled surface of the shell. 



Var. I. alb -fas data. — Shell reddish-brown with a single white 

 band, B.C. Local, but not uncommon. 



Var. 2. exalbida^ Menke. — Shell yellowish or whitish, local, 

 Norwich (Bridgman), B.C. Bristol (Miss Hele), Cambridge 

 (W. G. Blatch), a colony at Burlington (Hey), J.C. 



Var. 3. conoidea, Picard. — Shell smaller, more conical and 

 thinner ; mouth smaller. Sandhills and cliffs on the sea-side, 

 B.C. 



Var. 4. tenuis. — Shell dwarfed, extremely thin, and nearly 



