A TROPIC PICTURE. 85 



days are pretty well over now, unfortunately ; though we hope 

 he may yet live many years to enjoy the fruits of his labours, 

 not the least agreeable part of which to him, perhaps, is the 

 gratitude of all loving students of natural history for the many 

 valuable additions he has made to their knowledge. 



But the Bulimi ! In the first place, then, in some of these 

 creatures the animal itself is curiously spotted with conspicuous 

 colours, as may be seen by a model of B. rosaceus in one of the 

 cases in the British Museum. The animal is of considerable 

 size, and over every part of its deep-green body there are, closely 

 set, bright-red spots, which give one the idea that the poor Snail 

 has been seized with a violent attack of the measles ! According 

 to Mr. Cuming, this Snail hides itself away in the dry season 

 under stones among bushes, and close at the edge of the sea- 

 shore, where at times it gets sprinkled with the spray. On the 

 hills they live on the leaves of an aloe-like plant, to which the 

 giant humming-bird also comes to sip the honey Irom the bril- 

 liant flowers ; and we are inclined to think that the strange-look- 

 ing plant, with its bright flowers, and the Snails, and the hum- 

 ming-birds together, must make a very attractive tropic picture. 

 Some years ago several of these Snails were brought to this 

 country alive, and were sent to spend their days amongst the 

 palm-trees in Mr. Loddiges' nursery at Hackney, where for eight 

 months they tried to forget the rich juices of their native aloes, 

 by eating greedily of English cabbage-leaves ; but it would not do, 

 and they died miserably at last, within a few days of each other. 



One of the most beautiful of the Bulimi is a species that comes 

 from the Solomon Islands of large size, and clothed with a 

 shell of the purest and most delicate yellow, while the lip, or the 

 rim around the mouth, is of a brilliant orange red. The head- 

 quarters of the tribe appear to be in Venezuela and New Gra- 

 nada, where great warmth and moisture give a wonderful de- 

 velopment to vegetation, and where, accordingly, Snails abound 

 and banquet on the luxuriant pastures. No less than sixty 

 different species of Bulimi alone may be found in these parts ; 

 and at the head of the list there are the monstrous species, 

 maximus, ovatits, valenciennesi, and hcemastoma, big as the 

 clenched hand of a full-grown man, and beautifully coloured 

 Snail giants that cling in bunches to many a splendidly-flowering 

 cactus, eating into the very middle of its spiny leaves and stems, 



