354 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
SNAILS AND SLUGS. 
The stell-less snails called slugs are in motion all the winter 
in mild weather, and commit great depredations on garden 
plants, and much injure the green wheat, the loss of which 
is imputed to earthworms; while the shelled snail, the 
(pspioiKog, does not come forth at all till about April 10th, 
and not only lays itself up pretty early in autumn, in places 
secure from frost, but also throws out round the mouth of 
its shell a thick operculum formed from its own saliva ; so 
that it is perfectly secured, and corked up, as it were, from 
all inclemencies. The cause why the slugs are able to 
endure the cold so much better than shell snails is, that 
their bodies are covered with slime as whales are with 
blubber. 
Snails pair about Midsummer; and soon after deposit 
their eggs in the mould by running their heads and bodies 
underground. Hence the way to be rid of them is to kill 
as many as possible before they begin to breed. 
Large, gray, shell-less cellar snails lay themselves up 
about the same time with those that live abroad ; hence it 
is plain that a defect of warmth is not the only cause that 
influences their retreat. 
snakes' slough. 
" There the snake throws her enameird skin.** 
Shakspeare, " Mids. Night's Dream." Act ii. sc. 1. 
About the middle of this month (September) we found in a 
field near a hedge the slough of a large snake, which seemed 
to have been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared 
as if turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off back- 
ward, like a stocking or woman's glove. Not only the 
whole skin, but scales from the very eyes, are peeled off, 
and appear in the head of the slough like a pair of spectacles. 
The reptile, at the time of changing his coat, had entangled 
himself intricately in the grass and weeds, so that the fric- 
tion of the stalks and blades might promote this curious 
fshifting of his exuviae. 
Lubrica serpens 
Exuit in spinis vestem." LucRExiua. 
