LAND SHELLS : THEIR TENACITY OF LIFE. 10/ 



tion, the creatures were still alive under a bell-glass, 

 along with several other foreign snails which had been 

 received at the Museum in a living state.^ Specimens 

 of H. vermiculata and of a species of Leucochroa^ it is 

 stated, have survived a confinement of two years in a 

 leaden case.^ 



Helix hortensis. — A specimen which had been 

 collected in August, 1843, and laid by and forgotten 

 until April, 1844, on being placed in a window, soon 

 crawled upon one of the panes, attached itself to the 

 glass, and remained there until the following October, 

 when it was broken down by accident, and soon after 

 died, having lived without food for fourteen months."* 



Helix aspersa. — A specimen oi H. aspersa, observed 

 by Mr. J. Ward, survived in a closed pot of earth for 

 about ten and a half months, and, as it is interesting to 

 note, subsequently produced fertile eggs. Two in- 

 dividuals were enclosed in the pot at the beginning of 

 July, 1878, immediately after copulation, and when 

 taken out for examination about the middle of May, 

 1879, one was found to be dead — not a vestige remain- 

 ing except the empty shell — but the other, though the 

 animal had shrunk to about a third of its former bulk, 

 on being moistened and supplied with food, revived 

 and fed, and after about two months deposited ova, the 



1 S. P. Woodward, "Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.," (3), iii. (1859), 

 p. 448. 



- O. Reinhardt, in "SB. nat. Fr.," 1886, pp. 55-6, as quoted in 

 the "Zoological Record," xxiii. (1886), Moll., p. 102. 



^ H. T. Harding, '• Zoologist," ii. (1844), 800. 



