_H. (Cepæa) nemoralis._--As already stated, this is the most brilliantly and variously coloured and diversely banded of all our English land shells with the exception of its very close connection _H. (Tachea) hortensis_. It is happily very common, and so the attention of beginners should first be directed to this. Thrushes and mice are its great enemies, the former smashing it on some stone which may be found surrounded by the broken shells. The "mouth" or peristome is normally black, the shell larger and stouter than _hortensis_, in which the mouth is white. When a white-mouthed _nemoralis_ or dark-mouthed _hortensis_ (both rare) is found, the shape of the internal flinty dart at once distinguishes them. In some places both live together: in most one is found and not the other. _Nemoralis_ is fond of sand-hills by the coast, but is chiefly a hedge-snail, and the edges of main roads are preferred because of the greater variety of food, because the traffic scares away their bird enemies, and because the dust gives them abundance of already prepared material for their shells. When, however, the collector comes to a wayside cottage where fowls are kept he need not waste his time in looking for snails in the neighbouring hedge. The more the chicken industry extends and the more the Bird Protection Acts operates, the worse it is for collectors of snails. The banding is probably protective, as in the case of the tiger and the zebra, and renders the shell less visible.
_Helix (Cepæa) hortensis._--Rarely found in gardens in spite of its specific name. A hedge-snail. White forms not uncommon, though almost unknown in _nemoralis_. Though the weaker form, the coalescence of the five bands into one broad one is more common here than in _nemoralis_. Also the variety with only one band, and that on the periphery, is very common in _nemoralis_ and rare in _hortensis_. It is more dependent on shade and moisture than its congener. Smells of garlic when immersed in boiling water to be killed. _Hortensis_ is a more northern, and _nemoralis_ a more southern, shell by origin and distribution. There are 89 possible band variations in any normally five-banded shell, and all have been noted in the case of _nemoralis_, but in _hortensis_ only 61. They are distinguished, for purposes of record and exchange, by numbers. Thus the type is 12345, the usual one-banded variety 00300, the common coalescence of the second and third band is 1(23)45, and when all bands unite (12345). The unicolourous or bandless variations would be 00000.