26 



Shell Life 



opening may be watched for just below the lip of the 

 shell on the right-hand side. 



Each individual Garden Snail combines the func- 

 tions of both sexes. When one reflects that every one 

 of those Snails clustering under the ivy will probably 

 produce numerous eggs, he ceases to wonder at the 

 enormous number that contrives to survive in spite of 

 the depredations of birds and gardeners. One hundred 

 may be taken as the average number of its eggs, and 

 these are deposited in cup-shaped hollows among 

 herbage, and covered with a little loose earth. The 

 young come forth with the same shape as their parents, 

 carrying a tiny, glassy shell on their backs, and differ- 

 ing only in size. They become adult in about a year, 

 and live until about five years old. Late in autumn 

 they retire in companies to dry nooks and corners, 

 there to spend the winter, many of them attaching 

 their shells to those of their neighbours, all closed by 

 tough films which keep in some degree of warmth. 

 The Snail is not the stupid senseless creature he 

 is commonly thought to be. 

 His entire body is very sensi- 

 tive, and even when deprived 

 of his eyes he can distinguish 

 between light and darkness. 

 His sense of locality is of a 

 lii<ih order, for he has his 

 favourite roosting place and 

 invariably returns to it for 

 his day's rest after a night's 

 wanderings in search of food. 

 As an example of a second class of shells and shell- 

 makers, let us take either of the large Swan Mussels 



Swan Mussel 



