The Hungry Snails 



B. multilineatus, Say, with its seven yellow whorls wound 

 with varying bands of brown, ranges from New Granada to the 

 coasts of Florida. Length, i inch. 



B. alternatus, has irregular pale brown and drab longi- 

 tudinal bands traversing its spire. The white lip has a tooth 

 folded back over the colurnella. This Mexican species is abun- 

 dant on bushes in Texas. Dead shells often cover the ground 

 beneath. Length, i^ inches,. 



Buliminus, Ehrenb., is a large Old World genus correspond- 

 ing to the New World Bulimulus. 



Mr. Layard, an English field naturalist, who explored the 

 Comoro Islands, west of Africa, in 1854, writes: 



One day I took refuge from a shower of rain under a bushy 

 tree creeper. I observed that the branches were covered with 

 short, stout spines. As the rain ran down the branches 1 was 

 astonished to see some of the "spines" move along the bark! 

 On taking them in my hand 1 was pleased to find that they 

 were Bulimini ! They were covered with a thick, scurvy epidermis 

 exactly like the spines of the creeper. 



Here is a fine instance of protective mimicry. 

 Genus BINNEYA, Coop. 



Animal slug-like, blunt before, tapering behind; shell central, 

 of few coils, ear-shaped, covering the mantle, but not the body; 

 jaw and radula prominent. The shell contains the coiled visceral 

 parts. The foot is free and unprotected by the shell. 



B. notabilis, Coop., a Mexican species, wears its tiny, ear- 

 shaped, horny shell as a collegiate youth does his "ingrowing" 

 cap. In the hot summer this slug-like mollusk clothes its soft 

 body in a papery chrysalis attached to the shell. Length, J to J 

 inch. 



Habitat. — Santa Barbara Islands. 



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