26 Our British Snails 



a vegetarian, and by habit a lover of the twilight 

 and of moisture. With the exception of H. 

 pomatia it is the largest of our native shells, and 

 is too common to satisfy gardeners. A powerful 

 animal of its kind, it can travel a yard in twelve 

 minutes, or at the rate of a mile in a fortnight, 

 can bear or draw on level ground a weight fifty 

 times its own. It breathes about four times a 

 minute, and its heart-beat varies from sixty to 

 eighty per minute according to temperature, 

 or its activity. It takes its winter rest in clusters, 

 closing its mouth with a membranous film, while 

 if the cold increases it shrinks farther into its 

 shell and makes more epiphragms or film curtains 

 to keep out the cold. Not only on the Continent, 

 but in several parts of England, notably about 

 Bath and Bristol, it is sought, sold, and used 

 for food, and in Belgium it is said to be 

 preferred to the larger and more firm-fleshed 

 H. pomatia. The eggs, from fort}^ to a hundred, 

 are laid in the earth and hatched in from a fort- 

 night to a month, according to the weather. I 

 had observed them as a boy, and used to call 

 tapioca pudding " snail's egg pudding." In 

 the year of their hatching they attain but half 

 their proper size, but after hibernation they eat 

 voraciously and grow rapidly, so as to attain 

 full size in a little more than a year. Most 

 die in their second hibernation (if not destroyed 

 by their many enemies, gardeners, collectors, 



