HYBERNATION. 81 



they have been prying about for a suitable spot wherein to 

 deposit their ova, and have more than once disturbed them in 

 the midst of the operation ; and, despite all their frothy protesta- 

 tions, have been tempted to despoil them of their little pearly 

 globes. The spot selected for the purpose is generally some such 

 an one as we have already mentioned, or else the eggs are buried 

 beneath the soil, or in heaps of decaying leaves ; the particular 

 habit in this respect varying greatly amongst the different 

 species and genera of which the family is composed. The eggs 

 of some of the larger tropical species are deposited in little clus- 

 ters, high up on the foliage of stately trees, the parent Snail 

 managing to curl up two or three of the leaves, one upon the 

 other, so as to form a sort of nest for their protection. 



It is not necessary to do anything in the way of tracing the 

 course of the young Snails from infancy up to old age and they 

 do attain to a venerable age at times since, long as the Snail's 

 life may be, it is by no means an eventful one. The only thing 

 in it that need detain us at all, is the curious winter hybernation 

 in which all the members of the Helicida in temperate, and in 

 some of the warm, latitudes indulge. Almost everybody is 

 familiar with the fact, that in the winter time our common 

 Garden Snails are to be seen, by the dozen or the score, snugly 

 stowed away in the cracks and holes of old walls and trees, 

 under the eaves of barns and outhouses, and in other equally 

 sheltered situations, where they remain, fixed and motionless, 

 till the advent of spring. Other members of the family bury 

 themselves in the banks of the hedgerows, amongst the moss at the 

 roots of trees, or secrete themselves in the chinks and fissures of 

 the naked rocks. Helix pomatia, with very high notions of its own 

 dignity, is satisfied with nothing less than a comfortable hyber- 

 naculum, which it constructs with great art and skill in the sides 

 of ditches, in thickets, and similar places, and in which it sleeps 

 soundly all the winter through, very little concerned as to what 

 may be going on above ground. 



It is curious to observe that this period of inactivity, which 

 in temperate latitudes is rendered necessary by the cold of 

 winter, in the arid regions on the western side of the Andes is 

 equally imperative on account of the terrible droughts which 

 there obtain during the dry season. Heat here acts in one 

 respect just as cold does amongst ourselves : the herbage withers 



a 



