86 PHILIPPINE ISLAND SNAILS. 



and adding by their own strange appearance to the singular 

 aspect of the ungainly plants on which they feed. 



The pretty pink-mouthed Snail-shell, adorned with broad bands 

 of white and chocolate-brown, that finds a place on many a 

 mantelshelf and sideboard, is a species common in Ceylon, and 

 which, though christened H. haemastoma, the pink-mouthed 

 Helix, is quite as often iZoc^-mouthed as pink, and sometimes, 

 though much more rarely, white-mouthed. Another pretty 

 Cingalese is the dainty H. melanotragus, arrayed in pink or 

 white, with delicate shades of brown; but, as its name may 

 serve to denote, H. elegam carries off the palm for beauty from 

 all the Snails within sight of Adam's Peak. 



In no part of the world, perhaps, do the shells of the Helicidoe 

 present a greater variety of rich and delicate tints than in the 

 luxuriant open forests of the Philippine Islands, which seem to 

 be a sort of Paradise for the terrestrial Mollusca, as the shores of 

 those islands are for such as live upon the borders of the " vasty 

 deep." But we might as well attempt to describe an Italian 

 sunset, or the glories of our autumn woods, as to convey in words 

 an idea of the beauty of these beautiful shells of the far-off islands 

 of the tropic seas, on which nature seems to have lavished her 

 richest wealth of pure and delicate colouring. We are strongly 

 inclined to suspect, that the fact of which Mr. Cuming gives us 

 intimation namely, that none of the birds of the Philippines 

 ever touch the superb Helix polycroa, the many-coloured Helix 

 is no other than the result of a common understanding amongst 

 the feathered tribes there, that, by thus refraining from all mo- 

 lestation of one of the number, they would fitly express their high 

 appreciation of the beauty of the entire Snail family. 



We ought, perhaps, before going further, to caution our 

 wnconchological readers against assuming that all the different 

 sections of the Helicidce carry about the same sort of globular or 

 semi-globular shells as those of the species common in our own 

 gardens and hedges. It is far otherwise, and is indeed somewhat 

 singular, that, while the animals of this family are themselves 

 substantially alike in form and structure, the shelly coverings 

 which they secrete exhibit most remarkable deviations from the 

 typical character. 



Not the least curious part of our subject is that which pertains 

 to the Snail tribe as an article of food. It has already been 



