212 HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES. 



who discovered the art of catching a bird by putting 

 salt on its tail knew very well that, if you could 

 get a boy to devote much time to the attempt, it 

 would keep him out of mischief if it did nothing 

 else. The ease and rapidity with which such 

 sluggish creatures as snail? can withdraw their 

 tentacles on the approach of danger, is very remark- 

 able. This movement is effected simply by intro- 

 version, much as an old woman draws her stocking 

 feet into the leg, after mending them. Like the 

 slugs and fresh-water snails, the land snails have 

 lingual ribbons, armed with teeth, besides their 

 tolerably powerful horny jaws. Their breathing 

 orifice may be seen on the right side, beneath the 

 margin of the shell, when the creature is in motion. 

 The reproductive orifice is situated near the base 

 of the right upper tentacle. During the breeding 

 season, certain species have a peculiar habit of 

 shooting "love darts," or "stylets," at each other. 



As might have been expected from the nature of 

 their shelly covering, land snails are very largely 

 influenced in their distribution by the geological 

 character of rocks. Wherever limestone or chalk is 

 the underlying stratum, there they are sure to 

 abound, both in individuals and species. Perhaps 

 the commonest, and certainly the largest, of the 

 more abundant kind is Helix aspersa (Fig. 152). 

 This species is eaten in Southern France, Italy, 

 Greece, and Algeria. We have tried a dish, which 

 tasted like stewed kid gloves. "Quack" doctors 



