248 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The poi^ular belief that snails will feed on almost any vegetable 

 is erroneous. I find that they are very particular regarding their 

 food. I have placed spinach, young beet leaves and several other 

 kinds of tender vegetables in the box, but they have refused to 

 eat them. 



Binney speaks of the carnivorous habits of Circinaria 

 con cava, and also speaks of Polygyra sayi devouring 

 its owii species. John Walton, in Mollusca of Monroe county, says 

 of the cannibalistic habit, in some of the species: "I had abun- 

 dant evidence the past summer in the Zonites fuliginosa; 

 fully one third of the specimens of this species, taken during a 

 special search by myself and pupils, were found devouring shells 

 and animals, sometimes their own species, but more frequently 

 the young of P. albolabris, thyroides, sayi, and T r i- 

 odopsis palliata. This was in July, and possibly the time 

 of the year had something to do ^ith the habit, as in the case of 

 some seed-eating birds that are known to consume large quanti- 

 ties of insects in feeding their young and probably themselves 

 during the breeding season ". 



I would suggest, in regard to their carnivorous habits, that, if 

 the season was very dry, there may have been a scarcity of suit- 

 able vegetable food. I have raised over six hundred specimens 

 from the egg, and I have found that, when the adult animals were 

 l>lentifully supplied with food, the eggs and young were per- 

 fectly safe. When returning from my vacation, I packed 

 many specimens of P. a 1 b o 1 a b r i s in a box of dead leaves; 

 in a small box I had several hundred eggs and very small young. 

 Several days elapsed before I could attend to them. I then pro- 

 cured a box, placing several inches of earth in the box, covering 

 it with dead leaves, and placed the larger shells on the leaves. 

 Then I busied myself with the eggs. Some that were just hatch- 

 ing, partly out of the shell, I reserved to put in alcohol. The 

 others I laid temporarily on a piece of paper in the box with the 

 larger shells. After putting the specimens in alcohol I returned 

 to the box, and was surprised to see several of the adults busily 



