16 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
is very glossy and slightly convex. Theophrastus^ in his 
treatise upon animals which live in holes^ states that 
snails have the habit of burying themselves. He says : 
— Snails live in holes during the winter, and still 
more in the summer, on which account they are seen in 
the greatest numbers during the autumn rains. But 
their holes in the summer are made in the ground, and 
in the trees.^^* 
Helix nemoralis is also eaten, and at Toulouse sells 
for 5 or 10 centimes a dish ; but by some, snails with 
striped shells are not considered good, as they have a 
bad taste and smell. M. Moquin-Tandon purchased, 
in 1847, in the market at Toulouse, a basket containing 
400 specimens of Helix aspersa for 60 centimes; and 
another, with 1503 specimens of Helix nemoralis, for 75 
centimes, — making 15 centimes the 100 for the former, 
and a little less than 5 centimes for the latter. Helix 
nemoralis and Helix hortensis are known by various 
names in France ; for instance, at Bordeaux they are 
called demoiselles, mogne at Libourues, molimorno at Li- 
moges, limaio at A gen, limaia at Montpellier, livree in 
the north of France, and caracolo in the Pyrenees.^^f 
Helix Pisana, w^hich is a very local species with us, 
and only found at Tenby (where I have seen it in pro- 
fusion), at Manorbeer, in Cornwall, Jersey, and Ireland, 
is greatly prized as an article of food abroad, and is 
larger than it is with us, — indeed, almost as large as 
Helix nemoralis. 
At Alarseilles, the average sale of Helix Pisana and 
Helix rhodostoma is about 20,000 kilogrammes, at 3 
francs the 50 kilogrammes, which makes the sum of 
1200 francs. By the sale of our common garden snail 
* Athenseus, Deipn. vol. i. p. 104. f Di’- Ebrard, ‘ Des Escargots.’ 
