Land-slugs and Glass -she lis 



JO 



the efforts of Testacella in keeping down the race. 

 But to tlie average gardener all slugs are anathema, 

 because all are reputed destro^-ers of seedlings. It 

 must be admitted on behalf of the gardener that he 

 has little opportunity for discovering the fact that 

 Testacella is doing tlie work that should commend it 

 to the hater of untidy lawns : for the slug pursues its 

 prey in the underground burrows of the worm, and 

 only visits the upper world at night or when the 

 ground is sodden with moisture. When opposite 

 conditions prevail, and thei'e is a prospect of drought, 

 the Testacella will retire to a depth of about three 

 feet; or if the conditions preclude so remote a 

 retreat it will excrete mucus and fashion it into a 

 tough capsule which hardens and protects the sluo- 

 from loss of moisture by evaporation. In like 

 manner, early in the autumn, after doing their best 

 to reduce the number of earthworms, they retire into 

 deep ground and appear no more till the spring-time. 

 Slugs and snails, as well as worms, contribute to 

 Testacella's well-being. 



Their eggs are not laid in connected heaps, but 

 separately. They measure about one-sixth of an 

 inch across — which is largo for a slug — and are 

 enclosed in thick tough skin. Cooke says they are 

 so elastic that they will " if dropped upon any hard 

 surface, rebound several inches, just like an india- 

 rubber ball." 



The second species of Testacella is T. scutulinn, 

 considered as a variety of T haliotidca until it was 

 shown that the so-called variety was more plentiful 

 and more widely distributed than the type. The 

 body is yellowish speckled wdth brown, and the shell 



