INSECTS AND VERMES. 466 



SNAILS AND SLUGS. 



The shell-less snails called slugs are in motion all the win- 

 ter in mild weather, and commit great depredations on garden 

 plants, and much injure the green wheat, the loss of which is 

 imputed to earth-worms ; while the shelled snail, the </>epeot/eo9, 

 does not come forth at all till about April 10th, and not only 

 lays itself up pretty early in autumn, in places secure from 

 frost, but also throws out round the mouth of its shell a thick 

 operculum formed from its own saliva ; so that it is perfectly 

 secured, and corked up as it were, from all inclemencies. The 

 cause why the slugs are able to endure the cold so much 

 better than shell-snails is, that their bodies are covered with 

 slime as whales are with blubber. 



Snails copulate about Midsummer ; and soon after deposit 

 their eggs in the mould by running their heads and bodies 

 under ground. Hence the way to be rid of them is to kill as 

 many as possible before they begin to breed. 



Large, grey, shell-less cellar snails lay themselves up about 

 the same time with those that live abroad ; hence it is plain 

 that a defect of warmth is not the only cause that influences 

 their retreat. WHITE. 



SNAKES SLOUGH. 



There the snake throws her enamelled skin. 



Shakspeare, Mids. Niyhfs Dream. 



About the middle of this month (September) we found in 

 a field near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed 

 to have been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared as 

 if turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off backward, like 

 a stocking or woman's glove. Not only the whole skin, but 

 scales from the very eyes, are peeled off, and appear in the 



2 H 



