we do believe that the careful study of a common snail will reveal the wonders of God's Providence in as forcible a manner as the history of the higher forms of animal life. Before presenting an account of the different species of land snails to be met with in New England, we must first learn something about the habits and anatomy of the group in general. Land Snails are universally distributed throughout the world, occurring under stones in open pastures, beneath the dead leaves and prostrate trees of the forest, in the interstices of bark, clinging to shrubs and spears of grass, lurking under damp moss, and occupying other positions of a similar nature. As they are dependant on the presence of a certain degree of moisture for their perpetuation and increase, they are more abundant in warm and damp regions, and are therefore found in greater numbers on islands, while in dry and desert places they are scarcely known to occur.

The land snails attain their greatest size and beauty in the tropics; the species diminishing in number and size as we approach the poles. Certain South American species attain the length of six inches, and the young when first hatched from the egg (which is as large as that of a pigeon), is an inch long.

We turn however with relief from the gaudy colored shells of the Equator, to our more humble representatives of the North, both modest and unpretending in size and color. The species native to the United States are essentially inhabitants of the forest, and there, dwelling under the damp leaves in continual darkness, do we seek the material for our study.

Figures 9, 10, and 11, plate 1, represent the common large snail of our woods, the white lipped snail or Helix albolabris. This snail is distributed throughout all

the Northern and Western States, and is a fair type of the family. The body is quite soft, and spreads below into an oblong, flattened disk. This disk is called the "foot," and forms their only locomotive organ. By means of numerous minute muscles distributed closely along this flattened surface, they are enabled to creep along, at times with an almost imperceptible motion, gliding smoothly over the roughest substances, ascending branches, and even burrowing in the ground. When we consider this sluggish, and too often despised snail, without legs, fins, or wings, and yet performing the important function of locomotion with as much certainty and ease as animals more highly endowed, we cannot but admire the versatility of the Great Creative mind in the various complete provisions made for the locomotion of all these humbler animals. During progression, the disk, or surface upon which they crawl, secretes a slimy, or viscid substance, which greatly facilitates their exertions, and they can often be traced to their hiding places, by following the silvery trail, which all snails leave behind, in their peregrinations. The English gardener, annoyed as he is by the depredations of certain species of snails, which nip the tender buds, and even devour the leaves of his plants, frustrates their destructive raids by encircling the plants with an earth work of dry sand; or better still, ashes. The snail, in attempting to pass this barrier, becomes completely entangled with the particles of sand adhering to its slimy body. Now, any irritation of this nature causes the snail to pour out this slime, or mucus, from all parts of the body, as can be easily proved by irritating the snail with the point of a stick, when shortly a ball of mucus will be formed on the stick, and the point finally rendered smooth. This provision to guard against such conditions, fairly ex

hausts the snail in its attempts to pass the barrier, for the more abundant the secretion, the greater the entanglement, and finally the snail dies from exhaustion. Protections of this kind would be of no use in rainy weather, as the sand adheres together, and the snail can then pass over it very easily.

Certain species of slugs (Fig. 13, Plate 1), that is, snails having no coiled shell, but alike in other respects,. have the singular power of lowering themselves from some projecting point by means of this mucus, which they throw off from the posterior end of the creeping disk; and we have seen a common slug (a species occurring abundantly in our garden and fields), lower itself from the back of a high chair to the floor. They have no power, however, like the spider, to retrace their course. They will often hang suspended in mid air for sometime, apparently for no other purpose than to enjoy themselves.

The snail has no power to leave its shell as many suppose. The shell is as much a part of the animal, as is the hard crust of a beetle a component part of the insect. And not only this, the snail is attached to the shell by a permanent muscular attachment, and cannot be withdrawn from it alive. In order to clean the shell of its contents, it is customary to scald it in boiling water, when the muscular attachment becomes separated from the shell, and the soft parts can be easily removed. The finding of empty shells in the woods, has oftentimes been cited as a proof that the snail can leave its shell, and the occurrence of certain species of snails which have no visible shell, has served to strengthen a belief in this error. When the creature dies, the soft perishable parts are soon decomposed, or else devoured by insects, leaving the more enduring shell as a monument to its memory. On the ap

proach of winter, or the continuance of a severe drought, the snail hybernates, that is, it ceases to feed, and withdraws itself far within its shell, leaving at the same time several barriers within the aperture of the shell, composed of the mucous secretions of the animal. In this condition it remains, motionless and apparently lifeless. The mode of forming these partitions is quite curious, and will interest the observer. As the snail withdraws within the shell it inspires a certain quantity of air; the creeping disk, and the parts of the animal bordering the aperture of the shell pour out a certain quantity of mucus, which stretches completely across the aperture of the shell. This soon hardens, and the snail by expiring most of the air in its lungs, and thus reducing its bulk, retires still farther within its shell, and again forms a barrier similar to the one just formed, and oftentimes several partitions are formed in this way, one behind the other, affording a complete protection against the inroads of cold and water, and apparently of heat as well, since they always do this when confined in a dry or hot place. In a certain foreign species, this partition partakes of a calcareous nature, and thus affords a more enduring barrier. In the spring time the snail resumes its activity, the barriers are forced through by the tail, and frequently the snail devours them, as if famishing after its long continued fast.

All species of land snails with few exceptions, are oviparous; that is, the young are hatched from eggs laid by the parent. The sexes are united in each individual, though the mutual union of two individuals is necessary to fertilize the eggs. They lay from fifty to one hundred eggs at a time. The eggs of most species are very small, white in color, and resemble homœopathic pills. If the conditions are favorable, the young issue from the eggs in

AMERICAN NAT. VOL. I. 2

the course of two or three weeks, furnished with a shell composed of one whorl and a half. The shell is increased in size by the addition of calcareous matter round the margin of the aperture. The successive lines of growth can be easily traced on the shells of most species. They attain their complete growth in from one, to two years. The number of eggs produced by an individual varies in proportion to the greater or less protection afforded to the animal; thus in the common slug, Limax, and allied genera, having no 'exterior shell into which they may withdraw in times of danger, the number of eggs produced is much greater, and according to Dr. Leach, who kept two specimens of the common garden slug in confinement, seven hundred and eighty six eggs were laid in one year. The vitality which the snail's eggs possess surpasses belief. Certain French naturalists assert that they have been so completely dried, as to be friable between the fingers. In this dried condition they have been kept for a long time, and yet a single hour's exposure to humidity and warmth, has been sufficient to restore them to their original form and elasticity. They have been dried in a furnace eight successive times, until they were reduced to an almost invisible minuteness, yet in every instance have they regained their original bulk in a moist situation. In all these instances the young have been developed, in the same manner as other eggs not subjected to this experiment. (Binney.) This wonderful vitality extends to the snail in all stages of its existance. We have seen certain species frozen in solid blocks of ice, and yet regain their activity when subjected to the influences of warmth. Their dependence on moisture naturally places them in moist situations, yet we have seen certain species attached to leaves, where the sun had shed its scorching rays for