2S3 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



common, perhaps. The cellar snail must be looked for in 

 localities such as the common name suggests. Here it is 

 difficult to find, but that they do occur is unquestiona- 

 ble. " This species is not a native of this country. It 

 has been imported from Europe to our shores through 

 the medium of commerce. As these snails are general- 

 ly confined to cellars and gardens, their eggs have prob- 

 ably been brought to this country on wine-casks or on 

 the roots of hothouse plants ;" this their history, as given 

 by Prof. Morse, who adds, " a lady in Portland, in whose 

 cellar the writer collected a great many, stated that the 

 snails annoyed her by crawling into her pans of milk. 

 We can well imagine an enthusiastic collector delighted 

 in being able to dredge specimens from the bottom of 

 his coffee-cup at the breakfast-table !" 



A third form of these land-snails is very different 

 in tlie form of its shell, " being ovate-conic, and not 

 rolled in a plane." There is no marked difference in its 

 habits, beyond the fact that they are more frequently 

 found in large numbers. Thus, on the last day of May, 

 in a limited spot in the meadows, were hundreds of 

 them, of all sizes, apparently sunning themselves. 



I have noticed none doing so very lately, but our 

 pretty checkered snail has no fancy for an approach 

 even to an anhydrous condition, and migrates to damper 

 localities, as the often-mentioned midsummer drought 

 begins to assert itself. 



Such processions of these pretty snails always remind 

 me of how slight is one's ability to find any small creat- 

 ures, wlien scattered through the woods. One need 

 scarcely expect to capture more than half a dozen in an 



