INSECTS AND OTHER SMALL DEER. 157 



stock was accordingly brought over from the Con- 

 tinent and turned down within an enclosure, to be 

 drawn upon when required. Some of these escaped 

 and bred, and the illustration on page 155 represents 

 one of their descendants photographed beside one 

 of the common banded snails. 



This is how some of the natives of Caterham 

 Valley account for their presence ; but as the Romans 

 were very fond of edible snails, and introduced fallow 

 deer and one or two other creatures to this country, 

 it is possible they brought them from the Continent, 

 or they may be, as some people claim, indigenous to 

 our dry chalky hills. 



The great black slug is looked upon as a weather 

 prophet in the Yorkshire dales, and if it is out in 

 numbers during the evening or early in the morn- 

 ing, a wet day is said to be likely to follow. A 

 curious fact about this particular species is that it 

 is very fond of tobacco, for which it will at any 

 time leave all other kinds of food. 



To anyone who wishes to know how a spider 

 builds his web I would recommend a walk almost 

 any fine still night with a bull's-eye lantern, along- 

 side a hedgerow or dry stone wall. I have watched 

 some of the finest webs imaginable being woven, 

 and the dexterity and rapidity with which the work 

 is done are extraordinary. Those spreading large 

 fly-nets across the openings between wooden palings 

 and other places where a current of air is likely to 

 sweep winged victims into them, have the guide- 



