The Common Snail. 35 



appears to be a very serviceable kind of instrument 

 to Mr. Helix aspersa, who, if his character be not 

 aspersed, is very des'ructive to all sorts of greenery. 

 The lower lip is divided only in the middle, where 

 there is an opening of some width : it is not horny, 

 like the upper one. 



Snails lay eggs, which are about the size of very 

 small peas ; they are soft, and of a whitish colour. 

 Being semi, that is, half, transparent, or clear, their 

 contents can be partly seen ; and in those of a water 

 Snail, deposited against the side of a glass bottle, 

 the young were detected with partially-formed shells 

 upon their backs. 



To show how tenacious they are of life, it has 

 been mentioned that Mr. S. Simon, a Dublin mer- 

 chant, had a collection of fossils and other curiosities 

 left him by his father; among these were some 

 shells of Snails, and fifteen years after the collection 

 came into his possession, his son had the shells to 

 play with, and placed them in a basin of water, 

 when lo ! out came the slimy bodies and knobbed 

 horns of several of the Gasteropods, no doubt hungry 

 enough after their long sleep. 



We all know that our Common Snails hybernate, 

 or sleep through the winter. As soon as the chills 

 of autumn are felt, they seek out some snug crevice 



