Chap. 59.] 
VIPEES AND SNAILS. 
311 
and so, stopping up its hole at the side from which the wind 
blows, it leaves the other side open ; besides which, the tail, 
which is furnished with longer hair than the rest of the body, 
serves as a covering for it. It appears, therefore, that some 
animals lay up a store of food for the winter, while others 
pass the time in sleep, which serves them instead of food. 
CHAP. 59. (39.) VIPEES AND SNAILS. 
It is said, that the viper is the only one among the serpents 
that conceals itself in the earth ; the others lurking either in 
the hollows of trees or in holes in the rocks. Provided they 
are not destroyed by cold, they can live there, without taking 
food, for a whole year.^® During the time that they are asleep 
in their retreat, none of them are venomous. 
A similar state of torpor exists also in snails. These animals 
again become dormant during the summer, adhering very 
powerfully to stones ; and even, when turned up and pulled 
away from the stones, they will not leave their slfiells. In the 
Balearic isles, the snails which are known as the cave-snail, 
do not leave their holes in the ground, nor do they feed upon 
any green thing, but adhere to each other like so many grapes. 
There is another less common species also, which is closed by 
an operculum that adheres to the shell.^ These animals al- 
waj^s burrow under the earth, and were formerly never found, 
except in the environs of the Maritime Alps ; they have, how- 
ever, of late been dug up in the territory of Liternum ;^ the 
been some dijfference of opinion respecting the identity of the animal, which 
Pliny calls meles hy some it has heen supposed to be the polecat, or 
else the weasel. — B. 
This bears reference to what is said of bears in c. 54, and of Alpine 
mice and hedgehogs. 
This statement is contrary to the account given by Aristotle, Hist. 
Anim. B. viii. c. 15 ; he says, that while other serpents conceal themselves 
in holes in the earth, vipers conceal themselves under rocks. — B. 
9^ Cuvier remarks, Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 458, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 473, that 
nothing is more striking, either to the vulgar or to the man of s^cience, 
than the long abstinence from food which serpents are capable of 
enduring. — B. 
99 Cavatica. 
1 This is the case with the Helix Pomatia, and still more so with the 
Helix Neritoidea, which is very common in the neighbourhood of Nice, 
and which, at the approach of winter, is furnished with an operculum of 
gi-eat thickness. — B. 2 ggg 3. iii, c. 9. 
