586 THE GARDEN SNAIL. 



side. On the discharge of the first dart the wound- 

 ed Snail immediately retaliates on its aggressor by 

 ejecting at it a similar one : the other renews the 

 battle, and in turn is again wounded. Thus are the 

 darts of Cupid, metaphorical with all the rest of the 

 creation, here completely realized in Snails. After 

 the combat they come together. Each of them lays 

 its eggs in some sheltered and moist situation, gene- 

 rally under a little clod of earth, or in some cool ca- 

 vity. The eggs are about the size of small peas, semi- 

 transparent, and of a soft substance. From these 

 the young are hatched completely formed, with 

 shells on their backs ; and they undergo no further 

 change than what necessarily takes place in the gra- 

 dual increase of their size. 



The depredations that these animals commit in 

 gardens and orchards are very considerable ; and it is 

 remarkable that in defect of moist and succulent 

 food, as fruit and tender leaves, they will even at- 

 tack substances of a dry and hard nature. The 

 common Garden Snail has been known, when con- 

 fined for a single night under glass of more than 

 four inches in diameter placed on a sheet of com- 

 mon blue paper, entirely to devour the whole paper 

 contained in the included space, to th& very edge 

 of the glass, so that a circular piece seemed almost 

 as neatly taken out as' if it had been marked by a 

 pair of compasses*. 



* Shaw's Nat. Mis. i. tab. 30. 



