all the summer night through, but its agility and colour render it difficult to be caught at any other time than the morning, when it appears to be resting from its labours. The great green grasshopper is capable of being to a great extent tamed, but the legs have a curious way of rotting at the Fig. 147.

Gryllus viridissima.

joints, and of falling off, unless care be taken with it. It is a sad enemy to the plant-lice, which it will devour by hundreds. It is also very pugnacious and cannibal, and if you place half a dozen together under the same glass it will not be long before they make "Kilkenny cats" of each other! The eggs still further carry out the "mimicry" which is so

useful to the mother, for they are of a brownish green, and look to all the world like certain grass seeds.

For the habits of hosts of other objects, the various species of wasps, bees, gnats, dragon-flies, &c., we refer our readers to the Rev. J. G. Wood's 'Insects at Home,' one of the best written and most popular works of its kind. We only pretend to select just such objects as we think offer themselves most prominently, and which no intelligent pedestrian can do otherwise than notice. There is no lack of works in each department, ready to the hands of the young entomologist. Among these, Mr. E. C. Rye's illustrated book on British Beetles' stands foremost. This we can say, in commencing the study of entomology, a youth will lay up many hours of pure unalloyed happiness, and have his thoughts drawn out into fuller communion with the life that fills land and air and sea with its presence, and which is thus the best assurance of the Love that evolved and the Care that supports its manifold forms!

CHAPTER VII.

THE SNAILS AND SLUGS OF OUR GREEN LANES.

E have already alluded to the numerous fresh-water snails to be found in every standing pool or tarn, and now proceed to describe objects allied to

them which are no less common. Nay, many of them are, in the opinion of horticulturists, only too abundant, and without doubt, these gentlemen would express no sigh of regret at their extinction. Here, however, we have not to do with the utility of natural objects. Our task is simply to draw attention to them, and if some of them are injurious to man, possibly we may extract some compensation by turning snails and slugs into objects of scientific interest.

Well do these creatures deserve their scientific name. Many people who call them "nasty soft things" little imagine that in the latter adjective they are applying to them the same epithet as is conveyed under the Greek word mollusca, which

naturalists employ to include them and their kind. Our marine shells, especially the larger and brighter coloured species from tropical countries, have long been objects of interest; whilst the thinner but similarly formed shells of our land snails have come in for all the contempt and dislike. But we have many species that construct really pretty shells, and we know of no collection of natural objects which looks better in the cabinet than one of snail shells. Any beginner wishing to have information how to commence collecting these common objects should procure the number of 'Science Gossip' for 1872, which contains an article on Collecting and Preserving Land and Fresh-water Shells,' by Mr. R. Tate. The work by the same well-known naturalist, with coloured illustrations, on 'British Mollusca,' will readily enable the student to acquire a good knowledge of our native species.

Let us take the more objectionable kinds of land mollusca first-the "slugs." You meet with them, black and white, in all your country strolls, especially in the early morning, or after a shower of summer rain. They need little or no description, as every one is familiar with their elongated and naked black and yellow bodies, with their "horns" or tentacles in front, curiously peering into and feeling everything the animal comes across. They belong to the family Limacidæ, and are air-breathing, although, perhaps, you would not think so at first. We have met with people who imagine that slugs are only

snails that have left their shells, and that they have the power of returning to them whenever they please. So far from this being the case, slugs make no shells at all, whilst the true snail cannot leave its shell, being attached to it by certain muscles. The Large Spotted slug (Limax maximus) is exceedingly common, and this may serve as an example of the general structure of the rest. Over what would be its shoulders if it had feet, is the oval-shaped mantle. Beneath this, you may find a thin shelly plate, so that the chief difference between snails and slugs is that the mantle of the former deposits shelly matter on the outside, and the latter inside. In both cases, the object is to protect the visceral organs. The shelly plates of the slugs were formerly called "snail stones," and were believed to possess a medicinal virtue when taken for the disease called "gravel." Like the fresh-water snails already referred to, the mouth of the slug is armed with rows of curved teeth, placed on a moveable ribbon. The mucus which slugs secrete so abundantly, and which is one reason for their being so generally disliked, is formed by glands which are situated in the skin. Our native slugs are divided into four genera, according to the relative position of the mantle, the shell, and the breathing orifice. The shell often exists in a very rudimentary state, as in the Black sług (Arion ater), where it is represented merely by granules of shelly matter diffused through the mantle. The latter species is perhaps the most