360 Shell Life 



it is usually considered that they are eaten in- 

 advertently by the sheep in cropping the short 

 grass. I am assured by intelligent Cornish farmers, 

 however, that this is not so : when sheep are turned 

 out to feed on the clifl'-pastures they make by prefer- 

 ence for those parts near the edge where the " sheep- 

 snails " {JI. virgata and H. acuta) are most plentiful, 

 and they thrive exceedingly upon them. They do not 

 appear to hibernate. Full-grown specimens measure 

 a little more than half an inch across. 



The Heath Snail {H. ericetorwm) is like a large 

 Banded Snail that has been depressed until the spire 

 is very little higher than the large body - whorl. 

 White predominates as the ground colour in small 

 specimens, but in large individuals it is chiefly cream 

 or pale buff, only the top of the inner whorls being 

 white ; the bands are less numerous and not as deeply 

 coloured. The mouth is more nearly round, and equal 

 to four-fifths of a circle. The internal rib is only 

 developed occasionally ; and the umbilicus is very 

 wide. Large specimens measure three-quarters of an 

 inch across. It frequents dry pastures and downs, 

 both inland and maritime, where it may be found 

 about thistles and furze - bushes. It is very shy. 

 Jeffreys describes it as going into hibernation in 

 November, yet I have on several occasions found it 

 in Surrey during mid-winter hanging to dead thistle- 

 stems and grasses on the borders of fields whose 

 newly ploughed ridges were frozen hard. It is said 

 to suffer from the attacks of the Devil's Coach-horse 

 Beetle (Ocypus olens), which attacks it with its strong 

 mandibles and eats it. It is widely distributed through 

 the United Kingdom. 



