312 KEW : THE FACULTY OF HOMING IN GASTROPODS. 



inch apart, and enter the pots from below. Mr. T. Baines, an 

 experienced gardener, states that after feeding on the flowers of 

 orchids, slugs retire to a favourite hiding-place, often at the opposite 

 end of the orchid-house, and regularly return every night to the 

 flowers.* During a considerable period, as observed by Mr. E. Stepp,t 

 the colouring matter on some book-covers in a publishing-house was 

 damaged almost nightly by slugs, which, as would seem probable, 

 came from time to time from secure hiding-places. Mr. Gain informs 

 me that L.flavus, as shown by its slime-trails, came nightly to feed 

 upon cream in his cellar, and it must always have retired to a safe 

 retreat, for most diligent search for it was made without success. 

 It seems that the slug was not guided on the outward journeys solely 

 by the scent of its food, and it would appear to have relied upon 

 memory of locality and direction, for when the milk basins were 

 moved to a distant part of the cellar, it was seen next morning 

 ' wandering disconsolately ' in the place where the basins formerly 

 stood, and where it had been accustomed to obtain a meal from 

 the cream. Mr. Gain suggests, however, that it may have been 

 guided by its own trail or scent. 



Concerning black slugs \Arion aier\ a curious observation is 

 recorded in the 'Zoologist' for 1845.+ Two slugs, which had been 

 placed in a vessel in a dark part of a room, and supplied with herbage, 

 were neglected nearly a fortnight. On recurring to the animals, the 

 observer provided them with a piece of raw beef, and placed them in 

 another vessel. In the evening, he put the vessel whence they had been 

 taken into its former place, and put the one in which they then were 

 on a shelf above it. Next morning it was found that the beef had 

 been deserted, and the slugs were at length discovered under the 

 decaying herbage in the vessel in which they had been formerly kept ! 

 The observer suggests that perhaps they were led back to their 

 former abode by the odour of the decaying herbage, and they may 

 also have scented their slime and faeces. It is improbable that they 

 sought the herbage as food, for they were provided with a supply of 

 raw beef, of which they had made copious meals. Memory seems 

 to be out of court, unless indeed the slugs had been in the habit of 

 crawling out and returning to the vessel containing the herbage 

 during the fortnight which elapsed before they were removed to 

 another vessel ; but this seems improbable, for slime-trails would 

 have been noticed about the room, and this would have been 

 mentioned in the account, which is a detailed one : yet, on the other 



* 'Garden,' v (1874), 201-2. 



t ' Science Gossip,' 1883, p. 163-4. 



t James Hardy, 'Zoologist,' iii (1845), 1036-7. 



