xxx LETTERS TO MARCO 205 



snails and slugs. One or two warm days last 

 week brought out a large batch of hibernating 

 tabbies which went at once, no doubt by 

 scent instinct, to my iris clumps, where I 

 found them just before they had commenced 

 to break their long fast. I have seen none 

 since, the dry cold having most likely stopped 

 them back. Small snails and slugs do not 

 seem to mind the cold, and I slaughter 

 hundreds. The snails and slugs must have 

 a strong instinct of scent ; as I found, when 

 my boys placed sugar and beer on the trees 

 to collect night-moths, very many large slugs 

 greedily feeding on the bait. 



I also found, whenever I have left the 

 mangled remains of a slug or snail on a low 

 brick wall, that two or more slugs in a very 

 short time would be attracted by the scent 

 and proceed to feed greedily on their dead 

 companion. So, to his other disagreeable 

 qualities, the slug must have added the crime 

 of cannibalism. I in this way kill slugs at a 

 sort of compound interest. It reminds one 



