HELIX SNAIL. Ill 



coatings, and finding a retreat at the roots of 

 trees, and under old walls, it braves the rigours 

 of the season. Its circulation is most remark- 

 ably sluggish, and its movements are correspon- 

 dingly slow ; but the thick juices which prevent 

 its activity, enable it to bear the severity of 

 winter, so that no cold, however intense, has 

 been known to freeze it. Again these juices, 

 though they retard the progress of the animal, 

 furnish it by means of their viscidity, with the 

 power of travelling with its house on its back up 

 perpendicular ascents, or across horizontal sur- 

 faces. Snails do not usually crawl out in search 

 of nourishment, except in rainy seasons, or in 

 damp shady places ; in time of drought, they 

 take their station under stones and leaves, or in 

 the cavities of the trunks of trees. The eggs of 

 the snail are round, white, and covered with a 

 soft shell ; they adhere to each other in clusters ; 

 the parent hides them with great care in the earth. 



HELIX lantUna. 



VIOLET SNAIL. 



Specific Character. Shell subglobular, thin, 

 fragile, diaphanous : composed of four whorls 

 obliquely placed ; aperture subtriangular, the an- 

 gle formed by the upper and lower part of the 

 outer lip rounded ; columella straight, and elon- 

 gated, the inner lip turned back over it ; colour 



