Most shells grow to the right, and a freak which does the contrary is so rare that of the millions of the common _H. virgata_ that I have seen and handled, only one delighted me with its left-handedness. If it is early summer (nearly all snails hide, burrow, and sleep during the winter), look about on the grass for some half-chalky, half-stony shields, which are the winter front doors of _H. pomatia_, now discarded; while sharper eyes might even descry the flinty little darts with which they have been love-making. The illustration on p. 15 shows three of these darts, much magnified. Only the most highly developed Helices possess these courting weapons, not unlike bayonets in form, sometimes rounded and smooth, and sometimes with two or even four lateral blades, so that the section of the dart of _H. pomatia_ is in the form of a Greek cross. Not many British shells have these darts, but in one case their study is useful, since _H. nemoralis_ and _H. hortensis_, though so closely allied that early conchologists considered them to be of the same species, have darts remarkably distinct one from the other, so that they become a court of final appeal if from outward appearance it is difficult to distinguish, say, a white-mouthed _nemoralis_ from a dark-mouthed _hortensis_.
[Illustration: Love-darts of _H. pomatia_, much magnified.]
Whenever you see a stone, a brick, a branch of dead wood, or even an old boot or a piece of newspaper in the hedge or on the grass, turn it over, for many of the smaller shells are thus found, and "leave no stone unturned" is eminently a motto for the conchologist. Some of the shells will be tiny, and must be studied under a magnifying glass--which all naturalists should always have in their pockets--or even under a microscope at home, in order to discover, not only their beauty of marking or sculpture, but even to what species they belong.
When you see a man sweeping herbage with a net, or beating hedges and shrubs over an inverted umbrella, he is probably an entomologist in search of caterpillars or beetles; but the same methods will often reward the snail-hunter.
Especially in the hedges will you find the two allied species _Helix_ (_Cepea_) _nemoralis_ and _hortensis_, to which the attention of beginners should first be directed, inasmuch as they are so common, so beautiful, and so varying both in colour and the number of the chocolate bands they usually bear. See the illustration of some of these at rest on hawthorn, p. 17. Canary-yellow, flesh-colour, chocolate, and almost white, are the prevailing ground-colours. Five is the normal number of bands on the largest or body-whorl, although sometimes all run into one, and often one, some, or all are wanting. Where only one band is found--throughout the Helicidæ--it is usually that on the periphery or middle of the whorl, and a shell in which this band is wanting, while others are found, is a rarity. People are usually astonished, on seeing a good series of the colour and variations of these two shells, how they vie with those of warmer regions.