1^4:S NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The popular 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 i r c i n a r i a 

 c n c a V a, and also speaks of Polygyra sayi devouring 

 its own species. _ John Walton, in Mollusca of Monroe cmmty, 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 with 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 Qgg, and I have found that, when the adult animals were 

 plentifully 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 



