CULTURE OF EDIBLE SNAILS. 73 



as whitebait is procured at Greenwich. Some idea 

 may be formed of the estimation in which these 

 snails are held there, from the fact that Burgundy 

 and Champagne alone send no less than 100,000 of 

 them daily to Paris. In The Field of April 19, 1873, 

 appeared an article on the culture of edible snails in 

 France, in which some very interesting details are 

 given ; and the so-called apple snail, H. pomatia* 

 is of course especially noticed. To this account 

 we may refer such of our readers as have not 

 already perused it. 



A curious circumstance is related in Merrifield's 

 " Sketch of the Natural History of Brighton," 

 p. 157 (1864), which proves that rats are as fond of 

 snails as some members of the human race, and are 

 quite as ingenious in capturing them. The facts 

 were thus narrated to the author by Mr. W. W. 

 Attree of the Queen's Park: "While my father 

 was building this house (the villa in Queen's Park) 

 the gardens, laid out beforehand, were colonized on a 



* With regard to the name " apple snail," which is ap- 

 plied to this species, it may be appropriate as regards its 

 shape, or with reference to the animal's penchant for apples ; 

 but the word " pomatia" is derived from irupa, an operculum, 

 and not from " pomum," an apple* 



