6 THE LAND SNAILS 
we do believe that the careful study of a common snail will 
reveal the wonders of God’s Providence in as forcible a 
manner as the history of the higher forms of animal life. 
Before presenting an account of the different species of 
land snails to be met with in New England, we must 
first learn something about the habits and anatomy of the 
group in general. Land Snails are universally distributed 
throughout the world, occurring under stones in open 
pastures, beneath the dead leaves and prostrate trees of | 
the forest, in the interstices of bark, clinging to shrubs and 
spears of grass, lurking under damp moss, and occupying 
other positions of a similar nature. As they are depend- 
ant on the presence of a certain degree of moisture for 
their perpetuation and increase, they are more abundant 
in warm and damp regions, and are therefore found in 
greater numbers on islands, while in dry and desert places 
they are scarcely known to occur. 
The land snails attain their greatest size and beauty in 
the tropics ; the species diminishing in number and size as 
we approach the poles. Certain South American species 
attain the length of six inches, and the young when first 
hatched from the egg (which is as large as that of a pig- 
eon), is an inch long. 
We turn however with relief from the gaudy colored 
shells of the Equator, to our more humble representatives 
of the North, both modest and unpretending in size and 
color. The species native to the United States are essen- 
tially inhabitants of the forest, and there, dwelling under 
the damp leaves in continual darkness, do we seek the 
material for our study. 
Figures 9, 10, and 11, plate 1, represent the com- 
mon large snail of our woods, the white lipped snail or 
Helix albolabris. This snail is distributed throughout all 
ep ee ree ee E 
