212 HELICIDJE. 



ber of them by sweeping along a grassy plain and drop- 

 ping its contents in a limited area. Draparnaud men- 

 tions this snail as eatable ; but it must be small game 

 for those who like that kind of food. It is, however, 

 supposed to impart a nice flavour to our South-country 

 mutton. Borlase, in his * Natural History of Cornwall ' 

 (1758), says : 



" The sweetest mutton is reckoned to be that of the 

 smallest sheep, which usually feed on the commons where 

 the sands are scarce covered with the green-sod, and the 

 grass exceedingly short ; such are the towens or sand- 

 hillocks in Piran-sand, Gwythian, Philne, and Senan- 

 Green near the Lands-End, and elsewhere in like situa- 

 tions. From these sands come forth snails of the tur- 

 binated kind, but of different species, and all sizes from 

 the adult to the smallest just from the egg ; these spread 

 themselves over the plains early in the morning, and 

 whilst they are in quest of their own food among the 

 dews, yield a most fatning nourishment to the sheep." 



In Montagu's time also it appears to have been the 

 prevailing opinion in the South of Devon that the H. 

 virgata contributed not a little to fattening sheep ; and 

 in a recent number of the ' Field ' newspaper a corre- 

 spondent says that this kind of food is supposed to 

 give Dartmoor mutton its admitted superiority. Bou- 

 chard-Chantereaux remarks that H. virgata does not 

 seem to mind the cold, and never hibernates ; that 

 during frost, or when the grass is covered with snow, it 

 covers the mouth of its shell with the same kind of epi- 

 phragm that it makes in summer as a protection against 

 the rays of the sun ; and that when a thaw takes place 

 it is again active and in search of food. It usually lays 

 its eggs from September to November, but sometimes as 

 late as January. He also observed that when the she 



