How to Know Shells 



dwellers. It is not stttdy to watch them. It is one of the finest 

 ways to put in the vacation of a brain-worker. It is true recrea- 

 tion. If the sojourn lasts a week or longer, have a jar of sea water 

 with sandy bottom and some green seaweed to keep it pure. 

 Put the creatures you wish to watch into this aquarium — a 

 miniature ocean — ^for your convenience and pleasure. Here the 

 shy mollusks will lose their self-consciousness, and live their lives 

 as contentedly and naturally as the bolder ones. 



If you live inland you may never achieve a vacation at the 

 seashore. Go to the lake or the stream nearest home. Sweep 

 the edges of the ditch with a dip net. Rake the bottom of the 

 brook and the pond. The number of aquatic mollusks living in 

 such situations is such that you soon abandon the idea that all 

 but a few live in the sea. No marine specimen ever exhibits more 

 intelligence or agility than the little bladder snail that lives on 

 plants in ponds and ditches. Put a few in an aquarium jar in 

 spring. The eggs, then the young, will hold your interest like 

 a play. Through their eventful youth these little gymnasts will 

 migrate in straight lines, at various angles, from one part of the 

 tank to another, on threads of mucus, fine as a spider's web. 

 Their tricks are amazing and amusing, in infinite variety. 



The inlander has at hand all the air-breathing mollusks, the 

 land snails of his region. The forest snails hide under loose bark, 

 and under decaying logs. Sun-enduring kinds hide among grass 

 roots, and among more luxuriant vegetation, and fare forth in 

 damp weather or only by night. The number of the land snails 

 is very great, even in our temperate zone. 



Little is yet known about the life history of many of these. 

 The limits of distribution are vague and inaccurate for many. 

 When does this snail lay its eggs? How long do the young require 

 to reach maturity ? When does that species seal up its doorway 

 and go into the ground to spend the winter? The young con- 

 chologist can ascertain the correct name of a specimen by sending 

 it to one of the scientific institutions named on page 8, where 

 a specialist will answer his inquiry. The careful observer, if he 

 keeps a note-book, may discover and pass on to conchologists 

 valuable facts in the life history of little-known species. The 

 study of our land mollusks is very incomplete. It is a worthy 

 and enjoyable opportunity that is open to earnest young natural- 

 ists to-day. 



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