88 On the Land and Fresh-water Sheik of Wilts. 



prefer dense coppices, walls and trees, where ivy and other para- 

 sitical plants grow : sometimes (and this is more especially the case 

 with the smaller kinds) they are to be found under stones, decaying 

 pieces of timber, at the roots of small shrubs, in the bulbs of tulips, 

 &c. ; indeed, as a rule they choose decidedly moist spots, and why ? 

 Is the reason to destroy vegetable life wantonly ? Certainly not. 

 The object is to eat — not carrion, which is the food of certain birds, 

 but just what in vegetable life corresponds to it — garbage of the 

 lowest kind, which would soon render our woods and gardens any- 

 thing but as pleasant as they are. This will account for the fact 

 that in wet weather and gloomy autumnal days, snails are so much 

 more easily found than before, they sally forth tempted by moisture, 

 to find fresh food and residence. Of course no pretence is made to 

 deny the fact that snails frequently do consume food which is not 

 in a state of decomposition, but they do so principally in the spring 

 and summer months of the year when the air is not favourable to 

 decomposition ; and then the very food they select is succulent^ 

 such as youthful sweet peas, lupins, &c, a fact which helps to prove 

 what was to be shown, that snails and slugs are of service to us 

 instead of being an injury. 



There is another popular mistake with regard to snails, which is 

 that they can with ease leave their own shell and crawl into another 

 adapted to them. They no more can do so than any of us can get 

 out of our own skin, find another about our size, and get into it. 

 There is a very strong ligament which secures the animal to the 

 shell, as may be proved by a large snail which has just been killed : 

 considerable force will be necessary to detach it from its covering. 

 The error no doubt has arisen from a supposed difficulty with 

 with regard to growth, how in short, a small snail with a small 

 skin could become a large one — moreover the mistake may have 

 originated also from the idea that because caterpillars, spiders, 

 lobsters, prawns, &c, cast their skins, therefore snails do so ; but 

 the analogy does not hold good : soft skinned creatures should not 

 be compared with hard skinned ; you would not judge of a silk- 

 worm by a hippopotamus, nor a leech by an elephant. Snails have 

 the power of discharging a fluid which eventually hardens into the 



