SO PULMONIFERA.—HELICIDA. 
A moist state of the atmosphere combined with 
a certain degree of warmth, though not essential 
to life, is necessary to the healthy performance of 
its functions in the Snails. On the approach of 
winter in cold or temperate climates, they hide 
themselves in protected situations, where they con- 
struct, in a manner presently to be described, a 
tight chamber, within which each individual sleeps 
away the cold season in a torpid state. During 
the summer, a continuance of dry weather will 
induce a similar retirement and a similar torpidity, 
though more brief in its duration. 
The great majority of the species deposit a 
number of eggs glued together into a mass, and 
concealed under rubbish, the bark of decaying 
trees, dead leaves, or moss, or beneath the surface 
of the ground. Those of the Garden Snail (Helix 
aspersa) are soft, semi-transparent, and about as 
large as small peas; those of many foreign species 
are oval, and are enclosed in a firm, white, calcareous 
shell, like those of birds. Some of these are ,of 
considerable size. That of the magnificent Bulimus 
hemastoma, from the West Indies, is as large as a 
blackbird’s egg, and that of Bulimus ovalis trom 
Brazil still larger. The latter species has pro- 
duced eggs in England. <A specimen had_ been 
presented to the Horticultural Society, and was 
kept in their conservatory at Chiswick. At first it 
appeared rather sickly; but after it had been kept 
in the hot-house for some time, it recovered, and 
began to move about. Mr. Booth, who was on 
the spot, says—‘It cannot now be correctly ascer- 
tained when it produced the first egg, but it was 
very shortly after its arrival—I should think about 
the beginning of November. This egg was sent 
