The Banded Snails 



stripes, distinct, various and harmonious in colour. There are 

 often broad wavy bands crossing the whorls. 



The Stripped Liguus (0. fasciata, Miill.) is sometimes pure 

 white. Many are decorated only with pale green, spiral, pin- 

 stripes. Here is a white one wound with pink, lavender, olive, 

 yellow and black, arranged in a striking system of lines of varying 

 yvidths. Soft tints, hard to define, such as one sees in Japanese 

 prints, abound on the polished coils of these delicate shells. Few 

 tropical sea shells are half so attractive. To see them carried on 

 the backs of tree snails along the limbs and among the leaves and 

 flowers of tropical plants is worth a journey around the world. 



In winter they hibernate by attaching their apertures strongly 

 to the bark of the tree, by means of a viscid, opaque substance 

 like glue. In tearing off a specimen, the bark or the shell will 

 give way before this cement does. Sometimes the individual 

 retires into its shell and secretes a thin, pearly door as a protection. 

 In this comatose state many are devoured by tree crabs. The 

 slenderer, 0. virginica, Montf., of Haiti, shares with its gay com- 

 panions the danger of being seized by the bloodthirsty Glandina 

 if it chances to drop to the ground. Length, i J to 2 J inches. 



Habitat. — West Indies and Florida. 



274 



