A LITTLE HOUSE BUILDER 161 
snails eat in their wild state makes them poison¬ 
ous to man; hence it is the custom to have snail 
gardens, where the snails are fed and fattened for 
table use. 
“ Slugs are close kin of the snails. Their 
4 house ’ is the merest apology, being simply a 
plate-like shell buried in the mantle on the back. 
The commonest kind is the small, dark-brown 
specimen seen hiding under boards and logs by 
day. Like the snails, slugs are nocturnal in their 
habits. Across the water they do no little dam¬ 
age to gardens, but in America, aside from the 
occasional ravages of pear, currant, and rose 
slugs, we are little troubled. Slugs are always 
vegetable eaters. They often ascend trees and 
bushes in search of food. When they are ready 
to go down, they spin out a little mucous rope by 
which to lower themselves. Slug eggs are about 
the size of buckshot, and are yellowish and semi¬ 
transparent. They are found in numbers of 
thirty or more massed together in the damp earth 
under a board.” 
