BRITISH SNAILS. 83 



distributed species is H. arbustorum, which is generally found in 

 woods and shrubberies, or amongst the willows on the banks of 

 ditches and rivers. It is rather famous for extending its range, 

 however, high up on the sides of mountains, on the Alps ap- 

 proaching the line of perpetual snow. H. virgata, H. capcrata, 

 H. ericetorum, and one or two others, affect the dry stunted 

 vegetation on heaths and commons. According to Dr. Turton, 

 they go down to the roots of the plants, and come up again after 

 the summer rains, when they are so abundant, that, like the 

 young frogs that leap in thousands over the same sort of places, 

 they are supposed to come down from the clouds with the rain ! 

 Cydostoma elegans, and several little fellows of the genera Pupa, 

 Clausilia, and Bulimus, keep clear of all but initiated concholo- 

 gists, secreted in woods and shady situations, under nettles and 

 other plants not pleasant to handle ; Helix rupestris passes its 

 days between the bricks and stones at the tops of walls, or in 

 the earth on the higher parts of rocks ; the dainty little Pupa 

 marginata, Achatina acicula, and one or two others, bury them- 

 selves alive among the moss at the roots of trees. H. crystalline 

 is a pretty little Snail, with a delicate, glassy shell, to be found 

 under stones in damp places, where also, with sharp eyes, we 

 may find the dusky-coloured H. pygmcea, no bigger than the 

 head of a good-sized pin. Not to extend this list to too great a 

 length, however, let us bring it to a close with the much-prized 

 H. revelata, one of the rarest of our British Snails. It has a shell 

 about a quarter of an inch in diameter, of an olive-green colour, 

 and occasionally gladdens the hearts of collectors at Nottingham, 

 in Cornwall, and in Devonshire, but more especially in the latter 

 county, where, with tme aristocratic predilections, it confines 

 itself to the select society of Torquay. 



We have been thus particular in referring to our British Snails, 

 because studies of this sort, like acts of charity, should always 

 " begin at home." But now that we have attended to the Snails 

 of our own land, let us glance as rapidly as may be at some of 

 their high and mighty relatives abroad especially at those of 

 tropic lands, that go about clothed in gold and purple, and 

 other fine colours, and which, according to some enthusiastic 

 conchologists, look, as they cling aloft amongst the glossy ioliage, 

 like the golden fruits in the Garden of the Hesperides. 



It is as well to know, perhaps, that the common Snail (11. as- 



