,^0 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



June 20 ^"^^ ^^^ those of the hognose and the 



pine-snake. Garter-snakes are shedding 



their hides. 



Among smaller life, now, the snails are 

 worthy of attention. Their method of 

 egg-laying is thus described by Dr. W. G. 

 Binney: 



" In the course of the months of May 

 or June, earlier or later, according to the 

 localit)^ and as the season is more or less 

 warm, they begin to lay their eggs. These 

 are deposited, to the number of from 

 thirty to fifty, and even more, in the moist 

 and light mould, sheltered from the sun's 

 rays by leaves, or at the side of logs and 

 stones, without any order, and slightly 

 agglutinated together. The depth of the 

 deposit is usually measured by the ex- 

 treme length of the animal, which thrusts 

 its head and body into the soil to the 

 utmost extent, while the shell remains at 

 the surface ; but sometimes the animal 

 burrows three or four inches deep before 

 making the deposit, in order to insure a 

 sufficiently moist position. Three or four 

 such deposits, and sometimes more, are 

 made by one animal during the summer 

 and autumn. The embryo animal, with 

 its shell, is observable in the albuminous 

 fluid in a few days after the eggs are laid. 

 Its exclusion takes place, under ordinary 

 circumstances, in from twenty to thirty 

 days, according to the state of the atmos- 

 phere. . . . The hatching of eggs laid 

 late in the autumn is often interrupted 



