HELIX NEMORALIS. 281 
It is also frequently found tenanting the hibernacula excavated chiefly 
by Helix aspersa in the carboniferous limestone cliffs, and doubtless will 
contribute to their perforation. 
Though hibernating closely in severe weather, the animal often bursts its 
epiphragm in the milder intervals, and is also one of the first of the larger 
Helices to finally leave its winter quarters and resume active life, the 
immature animals always preceding the adults by a week or more. 
As food, a great variety of plants are partaken of, but a few are especially 
sought for, the common stinging nettle (Urtica dioicw) being a particular 
favourite both for food and shelter, while a single plant of the /ris has 
been noted at Leominster upon which seventy shells of //. nemoralis were 
observed. 'I'hey will also devour cooked meat, and dead earthworms, insects, 
etc., and several were observed apparently feeding on the flowers of Pinus 
insignis at Morteboe, Devonshire, by Dr. G. B. Longstaff. Mzyosotis and 
Lysimachia have also been used as food upon which to rear the young. 
In captivity Dr. Gain offered this species 197 different kinds of food, but 
only one—the lettuce—was eaten with avidity though twenty-five other 
foods were eaten quite freely, but these were chiefly culinary vegetables 
and cultivated fruits, as gooseberries, peas, beans, cabbages, turnips, ete., 
and also the edible mushroom, Boletus edulis. 
Parasites and Enemies.—'lhe enemies of this species are numerous 
and destructive, and an incessant war is waged against it by many forms 
of life, which find it a nourishing and appreciated food, so that even any 
partial protection gained by acquiring a resemblance to other less appetiz- 
ing or inanimate objects will be beneficial to the species. 
Rats, field-mice, and voles all prey upon this species, and have been 
known to burrow into thick snow to obtain the hibernating Helices beneath, 
of whose presence they seemed to be aware. ‘I'he hedgehog also devours 
numbers of these creatures, usually crunching up shell and animal together 
indiscriminately. ‘lhe rabbit will feed upon this species, and has been 
actually observed feeding upon them at Magilligan Bay, Derry. 
Fic. 340, Fic. 341. Fic. 342. 
Fic. 340.—Helix nemoralis L., illustrating the manner in which they are destroyed by Field-Mice. 
Collected by Mr. C. E. Wright in an ironstone quarry at Lincoln. 
Fics. 341 and 342.—/Hedia nemoradis L., illustrating the manner in which these shells are broken 
by thrushes, etc. Collected by Mr. C. E. Wright, near Kettering. 
Birds are especially destructive, thrushes and blackbirds feeding upon 
this species at all seasons, but especially during the winter months, when 
heaps of broken shells can be found around the various stones upon which 
they break the shells either by seizing them by the lip and striking them 
upon the stone or by fixing them in a convenient crevice and pecking at them 
until broken, like a nuthatch with nuts. Other birds doubtless assist in this 
great slaughter of the species, but little precise evidence is forthcoming. 
The rapid disappearance or increasing rarity of this and allied species 
from the vicinity of the large manufacturing towns and industrial districts 
generally, has with some justice, been partially ascribed to the great increase 
in those areas, of thrushes, blackbirds, and other helicivorous birds, an in- 
crease due in great part to the “ Bird Protection Acts.” 
