SLUGS. 



A LTHOUGH the slug is not generally classed under 

 -/~~x the head of ferce. natures, it is in the summer time 

 of the year hunted extensively, and with the greatest 

 assiduity. The chase is kept up, indeed, in every garden 

 in England, but it is in the villa gardens of London that 

 the hunt is most actively pursued. It is not that the hatred 

 towards the slug is stronger there than elsewhere, but its 

 depredations are more noticed and cause greater annoyance. 

 In a large country garden, although the head gardener may 

 gnash his teeth when he finds that heavy raids have been 

 made upon his beds of petunias or his tender young vegetables, 

 the damage done is comparatively so small that it is scarcely 

 noticed. But the ravages committed in a villa garden catch 

 the eye at once. The possessor, if fond of his little domain, 

 knows every plant in it by sight, and when he finds a dozen 

 of his pet seedlings raised under a handlight, watched, 

 watered, and tended with pride and pleasure lying upon 

 the ground, eaten off a quarter of an inch above the surface 

 on the very morning after being planted out, his heart is 

 filled with grief and rage, and he becomes from that day a 

 determined slug-hunter. This pursuit is a fascinating one ; 

 undertaken at first from a thirst for vengeance, it is soon 



