MOLLUSCA. 181 



no less than forty being known in Ireland alone.* In a little 

 wooded glen, we have, in a couple of hours, collected more 

 than a dozen of species, some of them, though minute, of 

 great beauty when examined under the microscope. The larger 

 species afford a plentiful supply of food to two of our favourite 

 songsters, the blackbird and the thrush. Those with thin 

 shells are, of course, the most in request, and are brought to 

 some flat stone, and there broken to pieces. We recollect 

 how tantalising, on one occasion, it seemed, when searching 

 with a friend for a very elegant native species, which is found 

 in wooded districts (H. arbustorwn), while the shells we 

 discovered were " few and far between," the recent fragments 

 strewed plentifully about the stones, used by the thrushes for 

 their demolition, showed that the birds were much more suc- 

 cessful in their search than the naturalists. 



About the sandy slopes and hillocks which extend for con- 

 siderable distances along the coast, several creatures of this 

 family may be found; and he who examines them critically 

 will notice that, although the habitat appears of the same 

 character, species will be abundant in one locality which are 

 wanting in another, and their presence or absence does not 

 seem to depend upon any law of geographical distribution. 

 How constantly do the phenomena of nature make us feel the 

 limited extent of our knowledge, and say, in a manner not to 

 be misunderstood, " Be humble 1" It is a general belief that 

 these little snails are eaten, in vast numbers, by the sheep 

 which graze upon the scanty pasturage of the sandy knolls, 

 and that they form a very fattening kind of food. 



The Helices are not, however, used only as food for birds, 

 or for sheep and other quadrupeds, such as the hedgehog. 

 There is a species, found in the southern and midland counties 

 of England, which has been considered a delicacy by man 

 himself (H. Pomatid). " From the time of the Eomans, who 

 fattened them as an article of food, they have been eaten by 

 several European nations, dressed in various ways. Petronius 

 Arbiter twice mentions them as served up at the feast of Tri- 

 malchio (Nero), first fried, and again grilled on a silver gridiron. 

 At one time, it seems, they were admitted at our own tables ; 

 and Lister, in his Historia Animalium Angliai, p. Ill, tells us 

 the manner in which they were cooked in his time. They are 



* W. Thompson. Report of British Association, 1843. 



