WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



some mouldering log or half -buried bowlder, it 

 attaches itself, aperture upward, by exuding a little 

 glue, and settles itself for a season of hibernating 

 sleep. Withdrawing into the shell, the animal 

 throws across the aperture a film of slimy mucus, 

 which hardens as tight as a miniature drum-head. 

 As the weather becomes colder, the creature draws 

 itself a little farther in, and makes another "epi- 

 phragm,'' and so on until often five or six protect 

 the animal sleeping snugly coiled in the deepest 

 recesses of his domicile. 



This state of torpidity is so profound that all the 

 ordinarj^ functions of the body cease — respiration 

 being so entirely suspended that chemical tests 

 are able to discover no change from its original 

 purity in the air within the epiphragm. Thus the 

 snail can pass without exhaustion the long, cold 

 months of the North, when it would be impossible 

 for it to secure its customary food, just as 



" The tortoise securely from danger does dwell 

 When he tucks up his head and his tail in his shell." 



The reviving sun of spring first interrupts this 

 deep slumber, and the period of awakening is there- 

 fore delayed with the season, according to the vary- 

 ing natures of the different species. A few species, 



303 



