108 AGRIOLIMAX AGRESTIS. 
eaten alive by those who wish to obtain all the benefits that may be deriy- 
able from this reputed remedy. 
For throat and chest affections a poultice of slugs is also said to be very 
emollient and curative. 
Puton records that the peasantry of the Vosges regard A. agrestis as a 
reliable barometer, and that the greater viscosity ‘and abundance of the body 
mucus, evidenced by the adhesion thereto of earth, leaves, and other ex- 
traneous substances, is a sure sign of approaching rain. 
Food and Habits.—A griolimax agrestis, though essentially a ground 
slug, inhabits a great variety of situations, not only frequenting gardens, 
fields, and hedgerows, but also living in woods and forests, by dusty road- 
sides, in marshy districts, and in the close vicinity of, or even within, houses 
and out-buildings. 
The most curious, though doubtless temporary, habitat, is that vouched 
for by Mr. W. Nelson, Who in April 1866 observed numbers of these 
animals crawling freely about beneath the water, at the bottom of Pebble 
Mill Pool, Birmingham; many of them were a considerable distance from 
the margin, and all were moving about in an ordinary way. 
Its food is as varied as its habitats, as it is a truly omnivorous species, 
nothing edible seeming to come amiss, and when food to its liking is avail- 
able its voracity and appetite seem insatiable ; in such cases it has been 
known to eat the night through without intermission. 
It is exceedingly destructive in the garden, its ravages not being confined 
to any particular plant or even to leaves, flowers, and fruit, as it devours 
the roots with almost equal avidity ; like Avion hortensis, it is very partial 
to strawberries, and is especially destructive to peas, devouring not only the 
young shoots, but even the pods. 
In the fields the havoe wrought by this pest amongst oats, clover, peas, 
tares, etc., 1s sometimes so great as to necessitate the re-sowing of the crop, 
and almost entitles it to a place amongst the locusts, rats, mice, and other 
plagues which at intervals devastate the country, and against which various 
prayers and ecclesiastical exorcisms! were formerly employed. The Ritual 
of Paris, A.D. 1712, which includes the slugs amongst the “worms,” con- 
tains definite formulas for such exorcisms. . 
Efficacious practical means for destroying this slug have been earnestly 
sought for, and many methods have been devised which are more or less 
successful in their object. 
Quicklime, sawdust, soot, tan, ashes, chaff, and sand are amongst the 
substances recommended to be spread over the ground they frequent ; 
these substances when dry are impassable by slugs, as the multitudinous 
particles adhere to the animals, which vainly endeavour by the exudation 
of fresh mucus to get rid of the annoyance, and ultimately become eXx- 
hausted and die. 
Another method is to attract them to a circumscribed spot by sprinkling 
slices of potato, little heaps of oatmeal, cabbage, or other leaves, with or 
without greasy matter spread over their surface. “The slugs are attracted 
by the baits, and rest upon or near them, so are readily found and destroyed 
during the frequent visits that must be paid to the traps. 
Although not usually a fungus feeder, A. agrestis will, like the true 
Limaces, at times feed upon various kinds of fungi, poisonous and edible, 
Boletus edulis, Amanita muscaria, and A. phalloides, being especially 
mentioned, 
1 Monog., i., p. 434. 
