HELIX NEMORALIS. 279 
For ornament, the shells are utilized by the peasantry and children at 
Bundoran, Ireland, and certain other Imsh and British seaside resorts, 
where they are strung together to form necklaces, which are sold to 
Fic. 338.—Helicidian necklace, made by the peasantry ot Donegal, and composed solely of 
Helix nemoratis, reduced to one-fourth natural size (Mr. K. Welch’s collection). 
tourists and visitors. Necklaces of this kind are, according to Mr. Kk. Welch, 
a survival of a prehistoric personal ornamentation, as is evidenced by their 
presence in ancient Lrish interments. 
Habits and Habitats.—Helix nemoralis is regarded as a somewhat 
slow and sluggish animal, but moderately sensitive, and in crawling carries 
its shell obliquely inclined, but its rate of progress is far from umtorm, as 
1 have counted in the same specimen during progression 36, 42, and 50 
undulatory waves per minute. It lives by preterence along hedgebanks, 
amougst bushes and against walls, especially if overgrown with ivy or with 
gorse, heather, brambles, foxgloves, nettles, or other vegetation, but also 
favours gardens, fields, vineyards, and the margins of woods and plantations. 
It seems to be more plentiful on limestone soils, and is often especially 
common among the débris of limestone crags or in quarries, but is also 
common on open downs, amongst furze, juniper bushes, and long grass. 
Roadsides are also much frequented, perhaps on account of the variety 
of herbage, the abundance of finely communuted limestone particles, and the 
greater scarcity of helicivorous birds, probably scared away by the traftic. 
It frequently swarms on the sandhills of our coasts, and in such circum- 
stances may be associated with //. ita/a, which also flourishes on dry and 
arid slopes, but when living within or near high-water mark the epidermis 
is invariably lost and the shell becomes much weathered, white, and worn. 
Though usually not living in company with “7. hortensis—being really 
less montane in habit, and showing a greater capacity for prospering under 
other and more arid conditions, yet there are many undoubted instances 
ot their living in company, sometimes in approximately equal numbers. 
It is much more geophilous than its ally A. dortensis, not climbing trees 
so frequently nor ascending so high as that species, although the habit 
varies somewhat in different districts, as in some localities 1t 1s scarcely 
known to ascend trees, while in others it is a common habit. 
It ascends to an altitude of about 4,000 feet in the Pyrenees; and in the 
Maritime Alps, near Menton, though not found in the submaritime zone, 
