Land-snails 



379 



dead leaves, and decayino- wood, in damp and .sliady 

 situations. So habituated is it to damp that it can 

 endure immersion for several houis, a degree of 

 endurance fostered probably by the occasional 

 flooding of its haunts, drowning off those less 

 hardy in this respect. It is generally distributed. 

 Length, a quarter of an inch. 



The Three - toothed Moss-snail {F. tridens) is of 

 much the same dimensions as the last, but owino- to 

 the seven whorls being individually less 

 rounded its outline is not broken by the 

 sutures. The colour, too, has a suggestion of 

 red in it, which is more evident about the 

 lip. The mouth would be pear-shaped but 

 for three strong teeth arising from the very 

 thick lip. It lives gregariously among moss 

 and dead leaves in woods, but it is local, one might 

 almost say rare. Its range extends from Cornwall 

 and Sussex to Northumberland. 



The Agate Snail (Ccecilianella acicida), though only 

 about one-fifth of an inch in lenf^-th, is interestino- on 

 several grounds. It is entirely subter- 

 M ranean in its habits, it is blind, and it is 



uk carnivorous, or at least supposed to exist 



^ upon animal matter. The animal is white 



ttS^^^^ and almost transparent; its shell also is 

 ^^^^ of ivory- whiteness, thin and transparent, 

 gate nai ^yi^\^ r^^^ irldesccut gloss. It lives at a 

 deptli of from 1 to 3 feet below the surface, and 

 to show preference for the neighbourhood of bury- 

 ing grounds. It never comes to the surface unless 

 turned up by the spade, or thrown out of their 

 burrows by rabbits. As a consequence the search for 



