35 Beautiful Shells, 



in an old wall^ or burrow in tlie carili, or congre- 

 gate beneath garden pots^ roots of trees^ thatclied 

 roofs, or in any hole or corner that may be con- 

 venient, and then throwing a kind of temporary 

 skin, like a drum head, which naturalists call oper- 

 culum, over the opening of their shells, and sticking 

 themselves fast to the sides of their refuge, or to 

 each other, they sleep away, careless of frosts and 

 tempests. 



A moist and rather warm state of the atmosphere 

 seems most congenial to the land Snails, some 

 species of which are found in all countries, except 

 those where the most intense cold prevails. Gene- 

 rally speaking", they do not like dry heat, and to 

 escape from it will get under stones, and into other 

 cool places, from whence a shower brings them 

 forth in such numbers, the smaller species espe- 

 cially, as to lead to the popular belief that it some- 

 times rains Snails. 



These Gasteropodsj although extremely injurious 

 to vegetation, must not be regarded as worse than 

 useless, as they commonly are; besides furnishing 

 food for several wild, as well as domesticated, birds, 

 they are no doubt a nourishing article of diet for 

 man. The Ptomans had their cocldearia, where 

 Snails were regularly fed and fattened for the table; 



