424 HELICIDiE, 



eyes black ; back shagreened with glandular tubercles ; foot rather 

 more than twice the diameter of the shell, pointed behind. 



Found in large numbers in all the partially cleared forests of 

 New England, sheltered in the moist mould under decaying logs 

 and rotten stumps ; and sometimes about stone-walls and rocks in 

 the open fields. It is found in all the States, from Canada to Ar- 

 kansas, Georgia to Minnesota. Also in the post-pleiocene of the 

 Mississippi Valley. 



This is our largest snail, and, though so simple in its structure 

 and coloring, is a pleasing shell. Its delicately striated surface, 

 and broad, white lip, cannot fail to gain admiration. It is subject 

 to very little variety, the principal variations being its want of the 

 white reflected lip, and an open umbilicus in its immature stages. 

 It has no tooth on the pillar, like H. thi/roides and H. cxoleta, is 

 smaller than the former and less globular than the latter. 



The economy of these animals may be briefly stated as follows. 

 They subsist upon decaying leaves and vegetable fibre, under which 

 they usually shelter themselves. In moist Avcather, and after show- 

 ers, they issue from their retreats, and crawl over the leaves or up 

 the trunks of trees, until driven back by a change of weather. In 

 early spring they are often seen collected in groups on the sunny 

 side of rocks. In June they deposit their eggs, to the number of 

 thirty to eighty, in the light mould by the side of rocks and logs. 

 These are white, opaque, and clastic ; and in about twenty to thirty 

 days the young animal issues from them with a shell consisting of 

 one whorl and a half. In October they cease to feed, and select a 

 place under some log or stone where they may be sheltered for the 

 winter, and there they fix themselves, with the mouth upwards. 

 This they close by secreting a thin, transparent mcml)rane, and as 

 the weather becomes cold they grow torpid, and remain in that state 

 until the warmth of spring excites them to break down the barrier, 

 and enter upon a new campaign of duty and pleasure. 



Helix dentifera. 



Shell convex, yellowish horn color; whorls five; aperture contracted; peris- 

 tome white, broadly reflected; parietal wall with a single white tooth; nnper- 

 forate. 



Helix (hntifera, Binney, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist. i. 494, pi. 21 (1840) ; Terr. Moll. ii. 134, 

 pi. 12. — Adams, Mollusca, &c. 159 (1842). — Pi- kiffek, Mon. Hel. Viv. i..317.— 

 W. G. Binney, Terr. Moll. iv. 55. -De Kay, N. Y. Moll. 34, pi. 2, fig. 17 (1843). 



