THE SNAIL. 36.5 



General food Locomotive faculty Tenacious of life. 



re-establishment of the ruined habitation. The 

 shell thus mended has a mottled appearance, all 

 the new pieces being much whiter than the old 

 fabric. 



These animals are very voracious; they chiefly 

 subsist upon the leaves of plants and trees, but 

 are very delicate in their choice. At the ap- 

 proach of winter they bury themselves in the 

 earth, or retire to some hole, to continue in a 

 torpid state during the severity of the season. 



Their locomotive faculty is by means of that 

 broad muscular skin which commonly projects 

 round the mouth of the shell ; this they put out 

 as far as they are able, and then, by a kind of 

 contraction, draw the shell after ; besides this, 

 they have a great advantage from the slime with 

 which they are so copiously furnished; this they 

 constantly emit whenever they move, and which 

 not only smooths their way, but enables them 

 also to ascend or descend trees in search of food, 

 or wherever their inclinations direct them. 



These animals are remarkably tenacious of 

 life ; they have been known to revive after hav- 

 ing lain in a cabinet fifteen years; and, what is 

 more extraordinary, though a basin of them has 

 been filled with boiling water, and when that was 

 poured off the basin rilled again with more hot 

 water, the next morning they have been seen 

 crawling about, some on the edge of the basin, 

 some on the table, and others eating ! 



