Our British Snails 41 



H. {CepcBo) ncmoralis. — As already stated, this 

 is the most brilliantly and variously coloured 

 and diversely banded of all our English land 

 shells with the exception of its very close con- 

 nection H. {T ached) hortensis. It is happily 

 very common, and so the attention of beginners 

 should first be directed to this. Thrushes and 

 mice are its great enemies, the former smashing 

 it on some stone which may be found sur- 

 rounded by the broken shells. The " mouth " 

 or peristome is normally black, the shell larger 

 and stouter than hortensis, in which the mouth 

 is white. When a white-mouthed nemoralis or 

 dark-mouthed hortensis (both rare) is found, the 

 shape of the internal flinty dart at once distin- 

 guishes them. In some places both live together : 

 in most one is found and not the other. Nemoralis 

 is fond of sand-hills by the coast, but is chiefly 

 a hedge-snail, and the edges of main roads are 

 preferred because of the greater variety of food, 

 because the traflic scares away their bird enemies, 

 and because the dust gives them abundance of 

 already prepared material for their shells. Wlien, 

 however, the collector comes to a wayside cottage 

 where fowls are kept he need not waste his time 

 in looking for snafls in the neighbouring hedge. 

 The more the chicken industry extends and the 

 more the Bird Protection Acts operates, the 

 worse it is for collectors of snafls. The banding 

 is probably protective, as in the case of the 



