NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 143 



yellow naked slugs ; the slime sticks to their beaks and feathers ; 

 fowls and ducks will eat the naked slugs. 



Snails are getting very scarce round London; the collectors have 

 to go long distances in search of them, sometimes as far as 

 Gravesend.and Southend, harbours for them being nearly cleaned 

 out round London. The men generally go for them in winter 

 time, when they are collected in great clusters under old ruins, 

 in hollows of trees, &c. The eggs are little white: things, and 

 they are deposited in cracks in the ground; eggs and little 

 snails are found in the same crevice. Snails' eggs are found 

 when digging for chrysalis. Snails lay eggs in the middle of 

 August ; they lay them often in cages when fresh brought in 

 for market. Mr. Davy has often had many bushels of snails at a 

 time ; an ordinary shop would very soon sell a bushel of snails. 

 He used to put snails away in a dry cellar. By so doing 

 they will keep good for twelve months. 



He once found some snails that must have been in his cellar 

 two years at least. They never had any moisture, nor yet any 

 vegetable matter; they were "cased up" the same as inwinter, but 

 the animals were alive inside. As soon as snails are shut up in 

 any dry place they begin to " case " themselves ; they never 

 crawl any more unless they get wet upon them. 



They begin to " case " when winter comes on. They creep, half 

 a gallon together, into old pollard trees, and deep into dry banks. 

 If two or three days' hard frost comes, and they have not pro- 

 perly protected themselves, they die in thousands. They get 

 rings on the mouth of the shell every year ; some must be very 

 old, seven or eight years at least. They sometimes adhere 

 together, and it is a difficulty to separate them. Snails' eggs are 

 much sought after by thrushes and blackbirds ; they are semi- 

 opaque, quite round, and half the size of a sweet pea or tare. 



I have frequently bought escargots, or the French edible snail, 

 already cooked for eating, at M. Dumas, French provision mer- 

 chant, 55, Princes Street, Leicester Square ; they cost one shilling 

 per dozen. 



These snails are said to have been introduced into England by 

 the Eomans. They are generally to be found in the neighbour- 

 hood of ancient Roman encampments. 



THE BULRUSH, OR VEGETABLE CATERPILLAR OF NEW ZEALAND. 

 I now venture to give apropos to the subject now before us 

 a drawing of a most remarkable specimen sent to my father 

 about the year 1844 by the Eev. Hanry Hobart, from the par- 

 sonage, Paramatta, New South Wales. In 1873 1 received other 

 specimens from Lieut. John Hayes, RN., H.M.S. Black Prince, 



