HELIX. SNAIL. Ill 



coatings, and finding a retreat at the roots of 

 trees, and under old walls, it braves the rigours 

 of the season. Its circulation is most remark- 

 ably sluggish, and its movements are correspond- 

 ingly slow; but the thick juices which prevent 

 its activity, enable it to bear the severity of 

 winter, so that no cold, however intense, has 

 been known to freeze it. Again these juices, 

 though they retard the progress of the animal, 

 furnish it by means of their viscidity, with the 

 power of travelling with its house on its back 

 up perpendicular ascents, or across horizontal 

 surfaces. Snails do not usually crawl out in 

 search of nourishment, except in rainy seasons, 

 or in damp shady places ; in time of drought, 

 they take their station under stones and leaves, 

 or in the cavities of the trunks of trees. The 

 eggs of the snail are round and white; and 

 covered with a soft shell, adhering to each other 

 in clusters ; the parent hides them with great 

 care in the earth. 



HELIX lanthma. 



VIOLET SNAIL. 



\ 



Specific Character. Shell with four whorls 

 obliquely situated, subglobular, thin, fragile, 

 diaphanous : aperture subtriangular, 1 the angle 

 formed by the upper and lower part of the outer 

 lip rounded ; columella straight, and elongated, 

 the inner lip turned back over it; colour violet, 



