Land-snails 369 



as the egg-slioll, which they use for their first meal 

 after the manner of caterpillars. 



In the Descent of Man, Darwin relates a circum- 

 stance that happened to Mr. Lonsdale, in which //. 

 pomatia appears in a new light. A couple of these 

 snails were turned into a small garden but ill-provided 

 for their comfort, and one of them was in a sickly 

 condition. Next door was a garden of a better sort, 

 so when the robust snail climbed over tlie wall into 

 this better land it looked as though friendt^hip was 

 not so strong as self-interest ; and yet he had gone 

 but as a pioneer to sp}^ out the land and save his 

 friend needless exertion should it prove to be less 

 suitable than it appeared. About twent^^-four hours 

 later the absentee returned, and evidently gave the 

 other a glowing account of the world beyond the wall, 

 for they both started off on the same track and turned 

 their backs on the unsatisfactory enclosure. 



A very pretty snail of pyramidal form, with flat 

 base and keeled whorls {H. ferrestris), was found in 

 the year 1890 by Mrs. M'Dakin, a few miles out of 

 Dover. There was a colony extending for half a mile 

 along a chalky bank by the roadside, far from houses 

 and gardens. The snails climb tall grasses, like H. 

 acuta ; and they pass the winter among lumps of 

 chalk, their shells closed by an epiphragm. It is 

 almost certainly not a native, but was probably intro- 

 duced from the shores of the Mediterranean some few 

 years prior to Mrs. M'Dakin's discovery. 



And now we have done not only with the great 

 genus Helix, but with the family Helicida ; the family 

 Pupidie claims attention. In this family we shall find 

 the shell of an elongated, more or less cylindrical 



