110 OUT OF DOORS. 



pretty Belted Snail, with its rich golden shell, banded 

 with deep mahogany or soft orange, as the case may be ; 

 the Stone Snail, with its boldly-keeled shell seeming 

 as if it had been pinched along its length and then 

 squeezed flat ; and the elegant little Clausilia, with its 

 long pointed shell looking as if made of flattened hairs. 

 Great black and grey slugs are now seen in every direc- 

 tion, descending the trees, gliding over the grass, and 

 showing themselves so plentifully that their hiding- 

 places during the day-time must be very cleverly 

 chosen to conceal such numbers of great fat creeping 

 things, which would be mercilessly extirpated if dis- 

 covered. Look now in the streamlet, and even by this 

 fading light other molluscs are seen inhabiting its 

 waters. There is the Limnea, one of the commonest 

 aquatic shells, gliding about the water-plants, or float- 

 ing down the stream on its back, having hollowed its 

 large foot so as to form it into a boat. Sometimes a 

 whole fleet of these living vessels may be seen on their 

 voyage ; and I have often known a continuous stream 

 of them of upwards of a hundred yards in length. 

 Throw a stone into the water, and down go all the boats 

 to the bottom. There is another kind of limnea with 

 a wide trumpet-shaped mouth, nearly as common as the 

 former. Towards the bed of the streamlet are seen 

 some flattened shells called by the name of Planorbis, 

 and looking something like the fossil ammonites with 

 which we are so familiar. 



Out come the tribes of night-loving insects, heralded 



