520 Miscellaneous. 



Twenty minutes after midnight it began to travel along the balus- 

 trade of the veranda, taking at first a very undecided course, but 

 as soon as it reached the edge of the balustrade making straight for 

 the banana. Halfway it was turned aside by some fish-scales, 

 which no doubt indicated that the surface was contaminated; but 

 it soon regained its previous direction. Near the column it fell in 

 with a grooved washing-board, which it seemed to remember, for it 

 reared its head and tentacles towards it while still 2 centimetres off. 

 So far 2 metres had been traversed in twenty minutes. The snail 

 now advanced resolutely from the board to the flower-pot as if over 

 known ground. (The board had lain in the same place for several 

 days.) I watched its movements by a lamp set far off so as to give 

 only a faint light ; but when it reached the pot the animal became 

 shaded by weeds which grew there, and I found it necessary to 

 bring the lamp near, in order to observe the movements of the snail's 

 lips and tentacles. It climbed the pot rapidly, mending its pace 

 as it got nearer, then it examined the rim with care, and at last 

 crawled over the mould. For a quarter of an hour it wandered 

 among the weeds in the pot, licking them frequently. When I saw 

 it explore the soil with its lips and larger tentacles, while the re- 

 productive orifice seemed to open from time to time, I thought that 

 it was seeking a convenient spot to lay its eggs. At last it came up 

 to the banana, mounted it, and began to gnaw the leaf previously 

 attacked exactly where it had left off before. I was standing a 

 little way off to avoid disturbing the snail, but could readily detect 

 the peculiar odour of the gnawed leaf. Very likely the snail could 

 perceive, even in an uninjured leaf, that scent which only became 

 apparent to me when the leaf was bruised or cut, and this may have 

 helped to guide its course. Scent alone will not, however, explain 

 all the movements of the animal. At 2 p.m. I left it feeding. 



June 11. — At 10 A.M. very little of the leaf had been devoured. 

 The snail was comfortably established, as before, between the column 

 and the pot. 



After this the snail wandered over a vine which trailed about the 

 column and upper veranda. Finding that it was disposed to escape 

 to the next garden, I opened it on June 17 to see whether it was 

 ready to lay eggs. There was not a single egg in the oviduct, and 

 a large dart in the dart-sac proved that no sexual congress had 

 lately taken place. 



These observations seem to show that a land-snail may possess an 

 instinct which enables it to choose its abode and return to it at 

 pleasure. We have here the same love of home and topographical 

 knowledge which have been observed, and noted with wonder, in 

 the limpet (George Roberts, in Woodward's ' Manual of Mollusca/ 

 p. 11). — Zoological Section of the Lisbon Museum, Oct. 27, 1885. 



On the Existence of a Postoral Band of Cilia in Gastero]pocl Veligers. 

 By J. Playfair M'Mukeich. 

 The question as to the phylogeny of the MoUusca is as yet unde- 

 cided, though recent researches indicate a relationship between this 

 group and that of the Annelida. The discovery of the peculiar 



