316 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



brought out of a drinking glass by the friction of a wet 

 finger on the rim. We have heard this sound many 

 times since, and more than once enjoyed the mystified 

 expression of other persons whom we had summoned 

 to listen to it. 



The Wood Snail (Helix nemoralis) and the Garden 

 Snail (Helix hortensis], the most gaily-coloured and 

 prettily-banded of all our snails, and vernacularly 

 known here as "snags," are common throughout the 

 parish ; but of the Hybrid snail (Helix hybrida), so 

 nearly related to the last species as to be ranked 

 by some authors as only a permanent variety of it, we 

 have only found five specimens here three in Pads- 

 wood Copse, and the other two in a hedgerow on 

 Hucksholt Farm. The Zoned Snail (Helix virgata) 

 and the Wrinkled Snail (Helix caperata) are met with 

 chiefly on the thistles, nettles, and herbage of the sheep- 

 walks on East and West Harting Downs, Hemner and 

 Torbury ; and in some other localities they are so 

 numerous, that they are presumably credited with the 

 property of fattening and flavouring our South-down 

 mutton. The Kentish Snail (Helix Cantiand) is also 

 a Harting species, and may be found not uncommonly 

 on the wild plants growing in hedgerows on the hill 

 as well as in the valley. Omitting any lengthened 

 reference to the Rufous Snail (Helix rtifescens) and the 

 Bristly Snail (Helix hispida), both of which are common 

 here, we may specify the pretty little Prickly Snail 

 (Helix aculeata}, the shell of which measures about the 

 tenth of an inch in breadth, and the same in height. 

 We meet with this not uncommonly under fragments 

 of chalk and among decaying leaves under the beech 

 trees in the Park. The distinguishing character of 

 this curious shell is that the epidermis with which it is 

 clothed rises at frequent and regular intervals in the 

 middle of each whorl into sharp teeth or points, so as 

 to present under a lens the appearance of a very 

 elegant spiral of bristles. 



