32 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 



bleached in millions on the surface of the ground. Mr. 

 E. L. Layard, in a recent number of the London Field, men- 

 tions a precisely similar case in Mozambique and another 

 in Fiji. "Why have these species thus suddenly become ex- 

 tinct ? As far as we can see, there is no cause for their epi- 

 demic death. 



Snails, being great eaters, meet their just reward in being 

 eaten. The paludine forms are sought after by all sorts of 

 water birds, particularly ducks and rails; while the thrush- 

 es and other birds crush the shells of the land snails and 

 extract their juicy bodies. The woodland birds, however, 

 will riot eat the naked-bodied slugs: the slime sticks to 

 their beaks and soils their feathers; but the ducks seem to 

 have no such dainty prejudices. Some mammals, like the 

 raccoons and wood-rats, also eat them ; insects suck their 

 juices, and the carnivorous slugs prey upon one another. 

 Lastly, man, the greatest enemy of the brute creation, em- 

 ploys several species of snails for culinary purposes. By 

 the Romans they were esteemed a great luxury, and por- 

 tions of plantations were set apart for the cultivation of the 

 large, edible Helix pomatia, where they were fattened by 

 the thousand upon bran sodden in wine. From Italy this 

 taste spread throughout the Old "World, and colonies of 

 this exotic species, survivors of classical " preserves," are 



