HELIX. 239 



and slender^ with two long and two short eye-bearing horns ; 

 it is of a bluish-grey tint_, with two purplish lines running 

 down the horns to the back of the neck. The shell is car- 

 ried rather far back on the end of the foot^ which, instead 

 of gradually tapering, terminates suddenly in an oblique 

 declivity. 



HELIX. 



The common Garden Snail, with a rather rounded, dull- 

 coloured, banded shell, and with a greenish-grey, granulated 

 body, which is generally, when taken, angrily thrown over 

 the garden-wall, and which is so often deaf to the poetical 

 invitations of the children "to come out of his hole,^^ is 

 called Helix aspersa, because its shell is aspersed, or 

 sprinkled, with spots of white and black. Although the 

 usual specimens of the shell have a very dull appearance, 

 yet it sometimes occurs very pretty and bright; and the 

 bands in the aperture, when the animal is removed, are 

 often found to be of a very beautiful purple tint. The horns 

 of the animal, too, when closely observed, are found to be 

 exquisitely delicate, with a stream of colour seen through 

 the transparency, and reaching the little spot which we call 

 the eye. The author well remembers collecting specimens 



