354 OBSERVATIONS ON 



SNAILS AND SLUGS. 



THE shell-less snails called slugs are in motion all the winter 

 in mild weather, and commit great depredations on garden 

 plants, and much injure the green wheat, the loss of which 

 is imputed to earthworms; while the shelled snail, the 

 QEpsowos, does not come forth at all till about April 10th, 

 and not only lays itself up pretty early in autumn, in places 

 secure from frost, but also throws out round the mouth of 

 its shell a thick operculum formed from its own saliva ; so 

 that it is perfectly secured, and corked up, as it were, from 

 all inclemencies. The cause why the slugs are able to 

 endure the cold so much better than shell snails is, that 

 their bodies are covered with slime as whales are with 

 blubber. 



Snails pair about Midsummer; and soon after deposit 

 their eggs in the mould by running their heads and bodies 

 underground. Hence the way to be rid of them is to kill 

 as many as possible before they begin to breed. 



Large, gray, shell-less cellar snails lay themselves up 

 about the same time with those that live abroad ; hence it 

 is plain that a defect of warmth is not the only cause that 

 influences their retreat. 



SNAKES' SLOUGH. 



" There the snake throws her enamell'd skin." 



SHAKSPEARE, " Mids. Night's Dream." Act ii. sc. 1. 



ABOUT the middle of this month (September) we found in a 

 field near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed 

 to have been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared 

 as if turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off back- 

 ward, like a stocking or woman's glove. Not only the 

 whole skin, but scales from the very eyes, are peeled off, 

 and appear in the head of the slough like a pair of spectacles. 

 The reptile, at the time of changing his coat, had entangled 

 himself intricately in the grass and weeds, so that the fric- 

 tion of the stalks and blades might promote this curious 

 shifting of his exuviae. 



" Lubrica serpens 



Exuit in spinis vestem." LUCRETIUS. 



