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(Pirate 5.)
1 Sand-Cake 2 Sand-Dollar 3 Star-Fish.
4 Sea-Egg. 6 Brittle-Star. 6 Sea-Urchin,

THE

ANIMAL LIFE

OF OUR

SEA-SHORE.

WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE NEW JERSEY
COAST AND THE SOUTHERN SHORE
OF LONG ISLAND.

BY
ANGELO HETLPRIN,

Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology at, and Curator-in-Charge of, the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; Professor of Geology ut the
Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia.

AUTHOR OF

*Town Geology : The Lesson of the Philadelphia Rocks,” ‘‘ The Geographical
and Geological Distribution of Animals,” ‘‘The Geological
Evidences of Evolution,” etc. d

FOURTH EDITION.

PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1906.

Copyright, 1888. by AncxLo HerLprrn.

peUEENCOMy,

PREFACE.

In my official capacity as Curator of the Acad-
emy of Natural Sciences I have been frequently
requested to prepare a small hand-book on the
local fauna of Philadelphia and on the animal life
of the much-frequented New Jersey coast. For
a long time I hesitated, knowing what difficulties
the preparation of a work intended to meet the
requirements of the popular mind ana of the more
earnest searcher after nature’s truths would entail.
But finally, yielding to the imputation that scien-
tists, while asking much for themselves, are too
apt to disregard the claims of the scientifically-
inclined public, I consented in part, and now pre-
sent to my readers the following pages as a result
of my determination to assist in the cause of popu-
lar instruction. For a work on the sea-shore fauna
there has, doubtless, been considerable demand,
and I can but hope that the present volume may
in a measure fulfil the mission for which it is
intended.

The illustrations that accompany the text are in
3

4 PREFACE.

part original, but in the main they are culled from
the works of DeKay, Gould, Morse, A. Agassiz,
Tryon, Smith, Verrill, and Emerton, to whom,
consequently, I am placed under obligation. To
the last-named gentleman, author of a handy little
volume designed for the New England coast, “ Life
on the Sea-Shore,” do I particularly wish to ex-
press my acknowledgment. The student who de-
sires to enter somewhat more fully into the study
of our sea-shore fauna than is possible from the
following pages will do well to consult Dr. Leidy’s
paper, “Contributions towards a Knowledge of
the Marine Invertebrate Fauna of the Coasts of
Rhode Island and New Jersey” (published in the
Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia, vol. iii.), and Prof. Verrill’s report on the
“Invertebrate Animals of Vineyard Sound,” pre-
pared for the United States Commission of Fish
and Fisheries (1878).
ANGELO HEILPRIN.

ACADEMY oF NaTURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA,
June 18, 1888.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
I.—Tue SHELL-FISH OF THE CoAST......... 7
II.—Sqtirnts, Polyps, AND JELLY-FISHES ...... 54

III.—Srar-FisHes, Sza-UrcHins, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS 73

IV.—Ovur CaRcINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. .........- 81
V.—Worms, Moss-Potyrs, SPoNGES, ETC... ...-. 108
Vi.—Some CoasTWisEk FISHES ........+..-. 120

THE ANIMAL LIFE OF OUR SEA-SHORE.

I.

THE SHELI-FISH OF THE COAST.

ALTHOUGH it can scarcely be said that the New
Jersey shores constitute favorite haunts of the
molluscous animals, yet interesting forms of one
kind or another can at almost all times be found.
Apart from the commoner species that are habitu-
ally met with on the sands, the ‘harvester of the
seas’ who follows in the track of recent high-
water, or gleans the product of a stiff south-easter,
is almost sure to meet at this time with some of
the rarer specimens, which are generally strangers
to the visitors to the shores. Among these may
possibly be a cuttle-fish, whose body has been hap-
lessly cast upon the sands, and left by the retreat-
ing waters as a food-offering to the gulls and other
sea-birds that frequent the region.

The cuttle-fishes of the New Jersey coast are not
numerous, and they are rarely met with along
the sands, except under the special circumstances
that have just been indicated. In the deeper and
quieter waters of the numerous inlets, especially
around the mouths of outflowing streams, where
the chances of stranding are less imminent, they
are not exactly uncommon, and have even been

scooped up by means of the landing-net. The
is

8 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

common form, and the one that is almost alone
met with, is the squid or calamary,—the Loligo
Pealii of naturalists,—an animal measuring some
9 inches in the length of its body, or 18 inches
including the length of
its longest arms. None
of the fabulous mon-
sters that have wrung
from the poet and the
novelist their mythi-
cal conceptions of the
‘devil-fish,’ or any-
thing that at all ap-
proaches in dimen-
sions the famous 20-
foot specimen for-
merly preserved in the
New York Aquarium,
hag ever been noted
from this part of the
Atlantic coast. But
whether large or small
our animal is alike in-
ia ile ates teresting. The beauti-
ful tints of the body, which, chameleon-like, vary
as different patches of pigment-particles are ex-
posed to the surface, cannot fail to elicit admiration,
even though the general appearance of the creature
prove at first a trifle repulsive. There are, however, a
number of interesting points about this animal which
stamp it at once as being no ordinary specimen.
In the first place, a cuttle-fish, of whatever form

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 9

it may be, is next to the backboned or vertebrate
animals—the fishes, reptiles, birds, and quadru-
peds—about the most complex, or, if you choose,
most highly organized, of the entire animal series.
It takes precedence over the star-fish, insect, crab,
and lobster, and, among its own class, over the
snail, clam, and oyster. It alone among the thou-
sands—nay, hundreds of thousands—of invertebrate
animals, or those lacking a backbone, possesses a
distinct covering or capsule to its principal nerve-
mass, the brain, thus foreshadowing the structure
which is so distinctive a feature of all the higher
animals. The skull
of the cuttle-fish has
not yet, however,
been converted into
bone, but remains ina
cartilaginous condi-
tion, recalling in great
measure the condi-
tion of the skull in
some of the lower
fishes, the sharks
and rays and stur-
geon, for example.
Again, we note a
special development
of the sense organs. The great round eyes that
are situated on either side of the head have a per-
fection but little inferior to that of the eyes of the
highest animals, and are provided, although in a
somewhat different order of arrangement, with the

i

Ee@e-cases OF LOLIGO (‘SEA-GRAPE’).

10 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

various tunics and bodies which belong to the most
perfectly constituted eye.

Should you have succeeded in catching or finding
a squid, then follow me in the examination of its
parts. Observe the ten arms (or more properly feet,
as it is by means of these that the animal walks or
creeps about, head downward), two longer (ten-
tacles) than the remairing eight, and the peculiar
cup-like bodies with which they are furnished at
their extremities. These so-called ‘acetabula’ are
in reality organs of adhesion, each one acting on
the vacuum process which is familiar to all boys
who have experimented in brick-lifting with the
leather ‘sucker’ and string. The animal can, there-
fore, not only entwine its arms about the object of
its special search, but can stick to it by means of its
sucking disks. Look between the arms, and at their
base you will observe the mouth; gently separate
the mouth, and you will bring to light a pair of re-
markable jaws or beaks, almost exactly like those
of a parrot, only reversed,—ze., the larger beak is
below, and the small one above. On one side of the
animal—which would be the rear, if the creature
were held head downward—you will observe in the
gill-cavity, which is enclosed in a lap of the body-
mantle, the peculiar tubular organ known to nat-
uralists as the ‘funnel.’ Through this funnel much
of the water that is contained in the gill-cavity, and
is used in the aération of the blood, is periodically
passed out by the animal. The stream of ejected
water, reacting upon the surrounding medium,
causes a rebound in the animal, the extent of which

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 11

will naturally depend upon the force and quantity of
the water ejected. This retrograde motion appears
to be the more general form of movement of the
animal at such times when it is not actually creep-
ing about, head downward, along the oceanic floor,
although through a twisting of the funnel, or even
by means of the fin attached to the hinder part of
the body alone, the animal is enabled to pursue a
forward course as well. The funnel also serves as
an exit to that very remarkable ink-like substance,
known as sepia, or true India ink, which is secreted
by a special glandular body (ink-bag) lodged in the
body-substance. Most of the cuttle-fishes are pro-
vided with this inky material, which, indeed, consti-
tutes their principal weapon of defence. Instead of
boldly sallying forth to meet their would-be assail-
ants, wisdom has guided these animals to avoid their
more powerful opponents, which they do by cloud-
ing the waters with a heavy discharge of sepia.
Under cover of the darkness thus produced they
generally manage to escape. The effect of the
sepia-discharge not only suffices to discourage
the enemy, but frequently from its copiousness
proves deadly to it. I well remember my first
dredging exploits in the Bay of Naples, when, flushed
with the excitement attending a rare capture, I un-
guardedly dropped a cuttle-fish into a tub contain-
ing my choicest specimens from the deep. In an
instant the vision of sea-horses, star-fishes, sea-
anemones, etc., faded off into a cloud of increasing
blackness, through which no beam of life again
penetrated to the surface.

12 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

A form of squid very similar to the one just de-
scribed, and largely replacing it in the northern
waters, is the Ommastrephes
sagittatus, in which the ten-
tacular arms are of compara-
tively short length, and the
cornea of the eye perforated,
so as to permit of the entry
of sea-water to the lens.
While rare with us, this
animal sometimes appears
in the northern waters in
immense shoals, following
in the wake of the mackerel,
which constitutes its selected
food. In this condition it
does not hesitate to enter the
pounds and weirs, or to nav-
igate between the piles of
wharves, darting with the
swiftness of an arrow into
the midst of its prey, and
pouncing upon the neck of
a selected victim. In this
pursuit of the mackerel the
squid may be observed to
change color frequently, adapting itself in tone,
by an intuitive manipulation of the pigment-bodies
(chromatophores), to the surroundings which it
traverses. The squid, like many other cuttle-
fishes, is in a measure nocturnal in its habits, and
is thought to be fond of gazing at the moon.

OMMASTREPHES SAGITTATUS,

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

13

This habit appears to account for the numbers fre-
quently found stranded at the time of full moon, the
animal, while gazing at the luminary, incautiously

swimming backward

on the sands.

A word or two
about the cuttle-bone.
We frequently hear
of this substance in
connection with the
keeping of canary-
birds, but probably
there are not many
who associate it with
a creature at all re-
sembling our squid.
If we slice open the back of our animal,
or that side which lies opposite to the
funnel, we observe embedded within
the flesh a long, horny style, which is
usually designated the ‘gladius’ or pen.
It may be said to constitute a sort of in-
ternal skeleton, giving a certain amount
of rigidity to the body; but its exact
functions are not known. In some of the
cuttle-fishes, notably those which have re-

SEPIOLA ATLANTICA.

and befouling itself.

PEN OF
SQuID.

ceived the name of sepia, the gladius is replaced by
a limy plate, which is in reality the cuttle-‘ bone’

of the canary-bird cage.

It may be your good fortune in walking along
the beach to stumble upon a very beautiful and

2

14 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

delicate coiled shell, looking somewhat like that
of an ordinary snail, but differing in that the coil
is open, and that it is distinctly chambered, besides
having a pearly lining. This is the shell
4 of another member of the cuttle-fish
4g “oroup, known to fame as the Spirula.

found about favored coast lines, but, sin-
gular though it may appear, the sight of
the living animal is one of nature’s rari-
ties. The record of observed specimens
thus far indicates less than a dozen individuals. Ac-
cordingly, we know but little of the habits of the
animal inhabiting the shell, and equally little of its
distribution. This holds
also true of the ‘ Pearly
Nautilus,’ a not very dis-
tant ally of the Spirula,
whose beautiful shells are
offered for sale at nearly
all the marts along the
sea-shore, and are even
thought by many to have
been gathered in the vi-
cinity. But the home of
the Nautilus is a distant
one, and its cradle not
improbably the deep-sea.

Chance has on more than one occasion brought
to our shores a rare specimen in the shell of the
‘Paper Nautilus,’ or Argonaut, that singular crea-
ture whose Ulyssean journeys were supposed to

SHELL OF
BPIRULA.

SHELL OF PEARLY NAUTILUS.

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 15

have been performed under full sail. The broadly-
expanded, uplifted arms, which are seen on many
of the older illustrations, and which were supposed
to catch the gentle zephyrs of the purple sea, are
now known to be closely appressed to the side of

SHELL OF ARGONAUT.

the shell, which they in truth secrete. Far, there-
fore, from presenting the graceful outlines to which
we have been accustomed, the Argonaut in swim-
ming much more nearly calls forth the image of a
retreating sneak. But the shell, considered apart
from the animal, is perhaps the most beautiful and
delicate that has been fashioned by nature. Owing
to its great frailness it is but rarely found unin-
jured, the free margins usually exhibiting nicks
and cracks of greater or less extent. Hence the
value attached to perfect specimens. For one such
specimen of unusual size, formerly in the posses-
sion of the Boston Society of Natural History, it is
claimed that the purchase-money amounted to $500.
The shell belongs exclusively to the female, and its

16 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

sole purpose appears to be the protection of the
eggs which are deposited within it.

A live Argonaut was captured at Long Branch
in August, 1876, and its habits in confinement
watched for a period of some eight or nine days.
When not swimming, the animal frequently re-
verses its position, crawling about with its shell on
its back in the manner of a snail; at other times,
again, it is said to paddle about much like an
oarsman.

MARINE SNAILS.

The ocean has retreated, and upon the broad
strand that shelves grad-
ually to the still breaking
crest, myriads of shells
and shell-fragments lie
scattered about in curling
zigzags. Among these
we recognize the spiral
| shell of the snail, and the

7 half-shell of the clam and
its allies; more rarely,
both valves of the latter
are found, still firmly
united by the binding
ligament. Some of these
contain the living animal,
but by far the greater
number have been robbed

Prar-Concu (Fulgur carica). of their possessors by the
billows that consigned them to futurity.

Of the snails the form that is most apt to at-

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 17

tract immediate attention is the pear-conch, which
is about the largest shell of the coast,—indeed, one
of the largest shells of the entire North American
coast. Not uncommonly the animal is found within
the shell, where, it will be observed, it has closely
withdrawn itself, partially closing up the aperture
by means of a horny disk attached to its foot, known
as the ‘operculum.’ Thus shut up in its house the
animal is fairly secure from its enemies, and, if suf-
ficiently fortunate to regain the incoming waters,
may again rejoice in its favorite haunts. “But too
long exposure to the dry
atmosphere will prove
fatal to it, as it like-
wise would to the greater
number of marine snails.
The pear-conch, of
which we recognize two
species, one furnished
with tubercles on the an-
gles of its whorls (Fulgur
carica), and the other
practically devoid of tu-
bercles, and showing a ca-
nalicule running around
the tops of the whorls (Ff.
canaliculatus), inhabits the
tidal zone, where it buries
itself to the depth of a few
inches in the sand. Its FULGUR CANALICULATUS,
presence can frequently be detected by hollows in
the sand, into which it has introduced itself by bur-
5 ae

18 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST,

rowing. There are probably few visitors to the
beach who have not observed and pondered over
the coiled strings of parchment-like capsules which
here and there dot the shore. They have been
likened by some to the rattlesnake rattle, by others
they are loosely spoken of as ‘sea-weeds,’ under
which designation many a helpless animal form has
been compelled to fall. The capsules on the string
are in reality the egg-cases of the pear-conch,
and in order to satisfy yourself on this point
slice open one such, and note the number of
embryo conchs that it contains. In the dry cap-
sules probably only the minute shells will be
found, but in the ribbons that appear fresh and
elastic the tiny embryos present themselves in
full activity. It will be observed that toward one
end of the ribbon the capsules become smaller and
smaller, and more distantly removed from one an-
other, while toward the opposite end they become
larger and more crowded. The attenuated end, if
entire, will almost invariably be found to terminate
in a pebble or shell-fragment, to which, as to an
anchor, it has been secured by the animal imme-
diately after extrusion, and for the purpose of ob-
taining a firm base of attachment. It may appear
remarkable that such a large ribbon should ever
have been contained within a single body, for really
if wound up it would form a mass even larger than
the entire animal. It can only be supposed that
the capsules are a long time in making, appearing
gradually one after the other during a considerable
period of rilbbon-manufacture and extrusion. They,

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 19

doubtless, also to a certain extent become swelled
up by the water which they must necessarily imbibe.

The exact period of spawning of these pear-
conchs upon our coast has not yet been definitely
ascertained, but from the frequency with which
the fresh ribbons are found, it is not unlikely
that the spawning-scason extends over a considera-
ble part of the year. So secretly and quietly does
the conch attend to its
affairs, that it is only at
the widest intervals that
it has been observed in
the process of spawning;
indeed, it is well known
that there are but few
naturalists who have ob-
served it in this condi- 1 2
Hot. “Diere ne eo. Pe
kinds of ribbons found
on the beach,—one in which the individual capsules
have a sharp median edge, and the other in which
the capsules are doubly carinated or keeled, appear-
ing like a wheel with a double flange. The former
belongs to Fulgur canaliculata, and the latter to
Fulgur carica. Each capsule—of which there may
be some 75 or 100 on asingle ribbon—shows a round
opening at about the middle of its outer border,
through which the embryo conchs make their
escape.

A word may not be amiss here with regard to
the blue or blackish specimens that you have col-
lected. The suspicion has for some time existed

20 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

that these dark-stained conchs, and other shells of a
like character, have been washed out of a subma-
rine deposit, or from some clay-bauk containing
fossil remains. That there is some reason for con-
sidering all such as fossils is indicated in the fact
that, on and off, specimens not now known to in-
habit the New Jersey coast are thrown upon the
beach, some of which have been recognized as
fossils elsewhere. But for the present it is not
safe to accept the hypothesis for an established
fact, especially as a number of the more brightly-
colored shells, such as the scallops, have at least in
part the distinctive deep-blue tinge.

Among the rarer shells of the coast is the whelk
(Buecinum undatum), whose habitat is more prop-
erly the region lying north
of Cape Cod peninsula, ex-
tending thence eastward to
the European continent.
With us it is generally
found in a largely dilapi-
dated condition, indicating
considerable wear, and a not
improbably distant home.
It inhabits a zone extend-
ing from low water very
nearly tothe greatest depths,
where it plies its trade as
one of the most voracious
of the marine snails. Great
numbers of the whelk are
caught (more especially on the north European

WHELK.

Fia.
. Natica heros.

OMNAAAHL HON

Ct
SOPRA BRAR HON

PLATE 1.

. Melampus bidentatus.
. Natica pusilla.

«« duplicata.
Nassa trivittata.
“ vibex.

. Eupleura caudata.
. Urosalpinx cinerea.

10. Purpura lapillus.

. Nassa obsoleta.
. Scalaria multistriata.

a lineata.

. Triforis nigrocinctus.
. Crepidula fornicata.
. Columbella lunata (X 2).

ce avara.

. Turbonilla elegans (X 2).
. Cerithiopsis Greenii (>< 4).

Me Emersonii

(X 1}).

Fig.

21.

22.
23.
24.
26.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

31.
82.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.

Cerithiopsis terebralis
(X 1))-
Littorina rudis.
sh palliata.
Littorinella minuta (X 2).
Crepidula convexa.
plana.
Odostomia producta.
# fusca (X 8).
rf trifida.
Actzon puncto-striata
(X 3).
Cylichna oryza (X 2).
Crucibulum striatum.
Bulla solitaria.
Utriculus canaliculatus.
Odostomia trifida.
Eulima oleacea.
Odostomia impressa (X 2).

*,* The representation X 2, etc., indicates that the figure has been enlarged
to two linear dimensions.

PL. 1.

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. DAI

coast, where it is extensively used as an article of
food, and as fish-bait) by dropping dead cod in a
wicker-basket to a muddy bottom, where the ani-
mals are easily attracted. The whelk-fishery of
Whitestable flat, England, is said to have yielded
£12,000 yearly immediately prior to 1866.

The whelk is a favorite article of food with many
fishes, particularly the cod, and as many as 80 and
40 of its shells have been taken
from the stomach of a single
fish. Eventually these shells
may become the habitations of
one of the numerous species of
hermit crab. . Indeed, on the
New England coast it is rather
a rarity to meet with a fresh
shell of the Buecinum which is
not already tenanted by a hermit.

Cast your eyes for a moment from the glistening
sands towards the mud-flats and tide-pools which
have been left by the retreating waters. Tere, in
these quieter realms, you are almost sure to meet
with a number of interesting molluscan forms,
among which are two or three near cousins of the
whelk. They are small snails, whose shells barely
measure three-quarters of an inch in length. They
are figured on Plate 1, Figs. 5, 11, 6, and are known
as dog-whelks (Nassa trivitiata, Nassa viber, and
Nassa obsoleta). It will be seen that, while the
shells differ considerably from those of the true
whelk, they still have much the same general char.
acter, especially noticeable in the form of the aper-

EGG-CAPSULES OF WHELK.

99, THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

ture, and its direct truncature; but the base of the
inner side of the aperture shows more or less of a
fold, which is wanting in the whelk. These active
creatures of the tide-water pools, whose long and
slender foot constitutes so marked a feature of
their anatomy, offer an interesting study to the
lounger on the sands, and even if their habitat is a
little moist a pair of rubbers will readily bring you
to them without discomfort. Observe them gliding
along the surface of the mud, furrowing the soft
bottom with their extended foot. A: few, possi-
bly, are floating, with the foot directed upwards.
The dog-whelk is decidedly predaceous in its habits,
boring rapidly through the shells of other mol-
lusks in quest of animal food, and creating gen-
eral havoc in its neighborhood. Indeed, it feeds
not only upon live flesh but upon dead flesh as
well, acting the part of a scavenger. Hence the
use to which this little creature has been put to
clean out the foul animal matter from aquaria.
Its own shell appears frequently pierced with a
hole, and rumor points towards cannibalism on the
part of the animal. One of the foreign dog-whelks
(Nassa reticulata) is known to prove exceedingly de-
structive to the oyster-fares of the French coast,
and so numerous is it that a single tide has yielded
upwards of 14,000 specimens on a shore area of
about 100 acres. This species has been known to
bore through the shell of a three-year oyster within
eight hours, and to destroy an oyster of a single
month in a half-hour.

A large proportion of the dog-whelk shells of our

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 93

coast are inhabited by hermit crabs, which in many
cases, possibly, obtained possession through the right
of force of arms. Be this as it may, it is certain
that the hermit has been providentially provided
for, and that it has much to offer by way of grati-
tude to the dog-whelks. The Nassas are probably
all very tenacious of life; a specimen of Nassa obso-
leta submitted to me from Atlantic City survived
for a full year the dry atmosphere of a closet with
an artificially-heated wall.

The Nuassas are not the only inhabitants of the
tide-pools either, for with them we find associated
one or more forms of periwinkles, various small
fishes, and the ever-active hermit. Other organ-
isms, whose existence would scarcely have been
thought of, also lurk here. One of these is the
founder of a colony which has settled on the back
of old Nassa obsoleta, and there spread out a crisp
brown covering, much resembling dry moss, which
might be readily mistaken for the horny covering
(epidermis) which belongs to most
shells. The colony is one of polyps,
next of kin to the Sertularia or sea-fir,
whose delicate bunchy masses lie scat-
tered over the beach, or gently oscil-
late in the calmer waters of favored Peet

COLONY
localities. Indeed, our polyp is a near or Hypracri-
ally of the common fresh-water hydra, ***°#!NAT™.
and, what may at first sight appear incredible, also
of the free-swimming Medusa or jelly-fish. Under
a magnifier the brown covering is seen to rise up
into simple and compound spines, from between

24 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

which, in the living condition of the organism, the
tiny white polyps, with their circle of tentacles,
may be seen to rise to a height of perhaps a
quarter inch or so. Between these tentacular
polyps again, which are strictly those elements
of the compound organism which secure nutrition
to the colony at large, may be found at times a
number of smaller bodies, without tentacles, which
give origin to, and carry, the egg-capsules, in each
of which there are from one to five eggs. Thus
does this diminutive colony live in concert, dif-
ferent parts administering to the different wants of
the assembled multitude. Most of the crusts o€ the
Hydractinia echinata, for 80 the polyp is called, are
found on the hermit-inhabited shells, but naturally
where these have been exposed for too long a time

to the dry atmosphere only the crust remains.
Along with the dog-whelks, we find many of the
tide-water pools inhabited by a number of small
round-mouthed shells, known as periwinkles or
Littorinas, a northern species of which
(Littorina litorea), inhabiting both the
American and European coasts, is the
common periwinkle of the English
markets. These interesting creatures,
of which there are three species* on
e” the New Jersey coast, are truly marine
onthe aNd in habit, but still prefer for their habi-
tations localities that are only partially

* Since the above was written Littorina litorea has been found
at Atlantic City ; it is a much less elevated shell than the common
large periwinkle of our coast (L. irrorata).

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 95

covered by the sea. We find them clinging to rocks,
to old wharf-piers and other immersed timber, to
sea-weeds and the grass-culms of marshes, as well
as enjoying the more placid retreats afforded by the
sluggish waters of the tide-water marshes, pools,
and ditches. The positions selected by them, usu-
ally just within the reach of high-water, would
seem to indicate a positive aversion on the part of
the animal to the full waters of the sea, and they
appear rarely to venture into the embrace of the
surf. One species of our coast (Littorina rudis) has
been known to live a week out of water, while an-
other, from the West Indies, survived similar depri-
vation for a full year; a species from the North
European coast, again, has been found to bear with-
out apparent discomfort a submersion of eighteen
hours in fresh water.

The largest species of the New Jersey coast is
the big brown periwinkle (Litorina irrorata), which
not infrequently measures upwards of an inch in
length. It is readily distinguished by its robust,
deeply-colored shell, which shows numerous prom-
inent revolving lines on its surface. A much smaller
form is the somewhat flattened and obtuse Littorina
palliata (Pi. 1, Fig. 23), whose yellowish color, more
or less speckled with brown, serves to distinguish it.
It does not appear that the periwinkle is anywhere
extensively used for food on the American coast,
although prodigious quantities are periodically
brought to and sent from the British markets. It
is estimated that about the year 1865 the English
periwinkle-supply amounted to not less than 2000

B 3

26 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

bushels per week during the months of March to
August inclusive, and 500 bushels per week for
the remaining six months. At least 1000 persons,
mainly women and children, were employed in the
gathering.

All the periwinkles are vegetable feeders, and
are thus sharply defined in habit from the strictly
carnivorous forms that have been thus far consid-
ered. It may be said en passant that with compara-
tively few exceptions all the snails whose shells
have an even, round mouth are phytophagous in
habit, living exclusively on vegetable substances,
while those which have the shell aperture either
truncated or produced into a canal of greater or
less length are carnivorous. But both forms have
the mouth provided with a peculiar chitinous or
horny ribbon, known as the ‘lingual ribbon’ or
‘radula,’ which is closely beset with minute teeth,
and by its backward and forward movement serves
to rasp down objects that are brought in its way.
It thus largely assists in the process of mastication ;
but probably one of its functions is the boring of
the holes in ‘ foreign’ shells through which an at-
tack is made upon the enemy. The coiled lingual
apparatus of the common European Littorina litorea,
which has also been introduced on the New Eng-
land coast, measures two and a half inches in length,
and contains about 600 rows of teeth. The action
of this ribbon may be well observed in the case of
snails that creep up the glass walls of aquaria.

An exception to the rule which defines round-
mouthed snails to be vegetable feeders is the

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. o7

Natica (Pl. 1, Figs. 1, 4), one of whose best repre.
sentatives is the common globular shell, of about
the size of an apple, which is found almost every-
where along the beach. The natics, with strong
carnivore propensities, are markedly predaceous in
their habits, moving about rapidly in their sandy
homes in quest of food, which they usually find in
the shell-fish buried at some little depth beneath
the surface. The making of the larger round holes
which appear in such perfection on the shells of
many of the bivalves is commonly attributed to the
Natica, but the exact amount of guilt attaching to
this creature has never yet been determined. The

NaTICA EXTENDED,

Naticas have certain peculiarities of structure which
it will be well to notice. You will observe, if you
have succeeded in finding more than the empty
shell, that the animal is completely retractile, and,
further, that it has cased itself in by means of a
horny lid or ‘ operculum,’ which is attached to the
under surface of the creeping disk or foot. This
foot is greatly produced in front, where it is re-
flected back in the form of a hood, covering the

98 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

head and tentacles. It is a powerful excavating
implement, and by it the animal is enabled to bur-
row in the sand like a mole. The Natica is blind,
being destitute of eyes.

Of the three species of our coast the commoner
forms are the two large species known as Natica

heros (Pl. 1, Fig. 1) and Natica duplicata (Fig. 4):

Nibvus OF NATICA HEROS.

the first may be recognized by its larger size and
more globular outline, and in having a deep hole
(umbilicus) immediately alongside the aperture.
In Natica duplicata the shell is more depressed and

Nipus oF NaTICA DUPLICATA.

somewhat oblique, while the umbilical aperture
is closed by a thick ‘callous’ expansion. The
third species is Natica pusilla. In your rambles

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 99

along the beach you cannot fail to have noticed
peculiar gray, collar-like bodies scattered about,
some of them forming almost complete circles, and
measuring six inches or more across. Examined,
these collars are seen to be made up of minute sand-
particles glued together, and if held up to the light
exhibit an almost innumerable number of translu-
cent spots. These spots correspond to the positions
of egg-cases which are distributed throughout the
mass in a single layer, and in quincunx order.
The whole is, in fact, the egg-ribbon or ‘ nidus’ of
the Natica—a construction unlike that of any other
mollusk. Just how it is made still remains a mys-
tery, but it appears that as it is extruded in the
form of a viscous mass it is immediately moulded
over the external face of the shell, which gives to
it its peculiar spiral curve. The coating of mucus
then draws to it the sand-particles which line it on
either side. Two forms of this ribbon occur on
our coast—one, a simple collar with a constricted
neck, the other, sharply ruffled on its border. The
former belongs to Natica heros, the latter to N. du-
plicata. The crowded little pouches, each of about
the size of a spangle, which are frequently found
on one side of the collar, are the egg-capsules of
the dog-whelk (Nassa).

Of the several other species of marine snails
occurring on our coast a few are found only at rare
intervals, and not unlikely their shells have been
merely washed hither without the animal itself
living along the immediate coast-border. Among

these are the auger-shell (Terebra dislocata), a com-
3*

30 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

mon species of the Southern shore, wentletrap
(Scalaria, Pl. 1, Figs. 12, 13), and purple (Purpura
lapillus, Pl. 1, Figs. 9,10). By pressing on the oper-
culum of the last-named a fluid is released of a dull
crimson color, much resembling some of the purples
of antiquity; indeed, it was from one of the species
of this genus that the ancients obtained some of
their more highly prized dyes. The purple is a
rough customer among the oyster- and muscle-beds,
where its depredations extend as well to the dead
as to the live animal. It is not, however, satisfied
with these delicacies alone, but will also venture on
limpets, barnacles, dead fish, etc. If by habit a
pirate, the purple in turn suffers from the piracy of
other animals, and largely so from the seemingly
harmless hermit-crabs. These have on more than
one occasion been observed to sally forth under
protection of their borrowed castles, and clean out,
so to say, the purple, dragging their unfortunate
victim from the shell. In one such encounter, as
narrated by Mr. Crowther, of Whitby, England,
the attacking party were shielded by the shells of
four distinct species of snails—a dog-whelk, peri- ©
winkle, troque, and purple.

Partaking largely of the habits of the purple is
the ‘ drill’ (Urosalpinz cinerea, Pl. 1, Fig. 8), a name
suggestive of the metlods employed by this animal
to obtain its food. Like the last-named, itis a aoe
destroyer of the oyster.

Our description of this section of the shore-fauna
would not be complete without a special reference
to the sandal or slipper-limpet (Crepidula) and the

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 381

very common (cylindrical) small shell that is found
almost everywhere among the tide-water sedges or
grasses. The latter is the Melampus bidentatus (P1.
1, fig. 2), an air-breathing or pulmoniferous mollusk,
like the common garden-snail, but requiring a cer-
tain amount of salt water for its happiness. Why
this should be necessary is not exactly known, the
animal breathing by méans of a true lung, as in
the case of all true land-snails (Pulmonata). The
slipper-limpets are readily recognized by their some-
what boat-shaped shells, which are found either
loose by themselves, or attached to other shells and
stones, their outlines being largely modified accord-
ing to the receiving substance. This modification
extends in such varying directions that it is not yet
clear what proportion of the ordinarily accepted spe-
cific characters is founded upon it. For the pres-
ent, however, we recognize some three or four spe-
cies as occurring on our coast: Crepidula fornicata
(Pl. 1, Fig. 15), the largest form, which not rarely
measures an inch and a half, or more, in length;
Crepidula glauca or convexa (Fig. 25), a small humpy
shell, whose presence appears to be generally asso-
ciated with that of the small hermit and of Nassa
obsoleta ; and Crepidula plana or unguiformis (Fig. 26),
with a nearly flat shell, which is frequently found
within the apertures of other shells. The slipper-
limpets have the habit of crowding upon themselves,
or of ‘bunching,’ so to speak; they may accord-
ingly be picked up in accumulated masses, and this
is especially true of the more northerly shores.
Closely related to the preceding is the crucible-

32 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

shell (Crucibulum striatum, P|. 1, Fig. 32), which is,
however, rarely scen with us.

No true limpets, which are rock-loving animals,
are known to inhabit the New Jersey coast.

CLAMS AND THEIR ALLIES (BIVALVES).

We call these shells ‘ bivalves’ because they are
each made up of two pieces or valves, which lie on
either side of the animal, and are respectively desig-
nated the ‘right’ and the ‘left’ valve. But how
do we determine which is which? Barring the
case of the oysters, scallops, and a few of their
friends, the bivalves or headless mollusks have the
valves of the shell almost invariably equal, and,
with insignificant exceptions, the beaks of the
valves, known to systematists as the ‘ umbones’
(singular, ‘umbo’), are directed forward. Dearing
this fact in mind,—i.e., knowing which is front
and which back,—it is an easy matter'to determine
the two sides. Possibly you may have stumbled
across one of the hard-shell clams from which the
animal has been dislodged, but which still holds
both valves together. The valves in this case will
be wide open, and are pulled and held in this posi-
tion by an elastic ligament which runs along the
back of the shell. Look on the interior surfaces
of the valves, and you will observe, both in front
and in the rear, a nearly round, impressed scar, the
positions of which correspond in the two valves.
Uniting the scars of the opposite valves, there were
in the living condition of the animal two stout mus-
cular bundles, whose contraction, regulated by the

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 33

will of the animal, operated in the closing of the
shell. It is the action of these ‘adductor’ muscles
pulling together which renders the opening of clams
such a hopeless and discouraging task to the un-
initiated. But traverse the adductors with a knife-
blade, and the shell immediately opens. And so,
on the death of the animal, when the adductors no
longer possess vitality, the valves of the shell are
pulled apart by the elastic ligament, which always
suffers compression in the closed condition of the
shell. This accounts for the apparent anomaly that
dead shells are almost invariably open. |

If a living clam be carefully opened, it will be
found that a delicate membrane lines the shell on
each side, reaching almost to the free edge of the
shell; this is the so-called‘ mantle.’ Immediately
following the mantle we meet on either side with
a pair of membranous, leaf-like organs, the gills,
and between the gills again, occupying the cen-
tre, is the tough, fleshy mass which constitutes the
‘body’ and ‘foot’ of the animal, the part which is
so generously partaken of by all lovers of the
shell-fish. Into this fleshy mass the aperture of
the mouth opens, and in it is contained the greater
part of the alimentary tract. At the back of the
animal the mantle-margins are united to one an-
other, and the mantle is itself drawn out into a
double tube or ‘siphon,’ through which water
enters and leaves the interior of the shell. Not
all bivalves have these siphons, but where they
are well developed and rctractile, a peculiar inflec-
tion may be observed in the impressed line which

¢

34 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

on the interior of the shell connects the adductor
impressions. This sinual inflection, or ‘ pallial sinus,’
is one of the most important characters to be noted
in the shell, since it serves to indicate a prominent
feature in the structure of the animal.

We recognize two hard-shell clams on our coast,
one having an obliquely oval shell, the quahog
(Venus mercenaria), and the other, with a more nearly

SURF-CLAM (Mactra solidissima).

triangular or equilateral shell, the Mactra (Mactra
solidissima). The former is the edible species, al-
though by some the Mactra is not completely de-
nied a hearing. The latter, also known as the
‘sea-clam’ or ‘surf-clam,’ inhabits the sandy coasts,
where it lies buried just beneath the surface;
but it may be occasionally seen skipping about

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 385

by means of its active and greatly elongated foot.
It seems never to construct a permanent burrow,
thus differing from the ‘long-clam’ or ‘sand-
clam,’ to be noticed hereafter. The shells, which,
when full grown, measure as much as six inches
in length and four inches in height, were formerly
used by the Indians as hoes in the hilling of corn.
Two smaller species, Mactra ovalis and M. lateralis,
are abundant at some tides.

The round clam or quahog, which is the clam of
the New York and Philadelphia markets, inhabits
the muddy bottoms of bays more particularly from

QuaAHoG ( Venus mercenaria).

low-water mark to about 30 fathoms. Its habitat
extends along the entire American coast from Cape
Cod to Florida, but north of Cape Cod it is of
rare occurrence. The quahog is a large and pow-
erful shell, whose outer surface frequently shows
signs of considerable erosion. From the interior

386 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

purple margin the Indians cut their purple wam-
pum (shell-money), the white wampum being ob-
tained from the columellar axis of the pear-conch
or winkle (Fulgur). The word ‘ quahog’ appears

SAND-CLAM (Mya arenaria).

to be a corruption of the plural
Poquahock, or, as it is written,
‘Poquahauges.’

Careful observers of the
ocean beach will have noticed
from time to time little jets of
water issuing from scattered
holes in the sand; or fre-
quently the shallow waters of
pools may be observed twirled
round into eddies by suction
and ejection currents coming
from below. The author of this
play of water is the sand-clam
(Mya arenaria), which lies
buried a few inches below the
surface, whence it communi-
cates with the outer world by
means of its extended siphon.
Through this siphon, which is
in reality a double tube, water-
currents are passing both in-
ward and outward, bringing
necessaries to the secluded
creature, and carrying from it

the waste products. The depth to which the animal
burrows will depend closely upon the length of its

respiratory siphon.

Although it measures but a

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 387

few inches in our sand-clam, in other forms it con-
siderably surpasses a foot, and, indeed, in a species
from the Californian coast (Gilycimeris generosa) it
reaches a full yard, with a thickness somewhat ex-
ceeding that of a stout broom-handle. The sand-
clam, which is abundant almost everywhere in the
North in the tidal zone—estuaries, muddy inlets,
and sandy shores—is a broadly distributed species,
extending its range eastward to the British Isles
and the continent of Europe. In the New England
markets it is a common article of sale, but in New
York and Philadelphia its place is almost entirely
taken by the hard-shell clam or quahog. The In-
dians appear to have been very fond of these slams,
which were known to them as Sickishuog. John
Winthrop, in a communication made to the Royal
Society of England in 1634, thus describes the
species: “ Clams—white. Their broth is most ex-
cellent in all intermitting fevers, consumption, etc.
These clams feed only on sand.”

On the New Jersey coast the sand-clam is some-
times called, after the Indian name, ‘ maninose’
(corrupted to ‘nannynose’), and, to distinguish it
from the quahog, the ‘ soft-shell clam.’

It frequently happens as the result of a storm that
large cakes of a stiff gray or blue clay, more or less
firmly matted together by vegetable fibres, and in
some localities having a peaty aspect, are cast upon
the beach. These masses are the abiding-place of
great numbers of an interesting boring mollusk
known to conchologists as Petricola (Pl. 2, Fig. 20),
the ‘stone-dweller,’ which has forced its way in by

4

88 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

a process which has not yet been clearly made out.
The animal is provided with a double respiratory
siphon, which can be extended to a length consid-
erably in excess of that of the shell itself. When
placed in a dish of sea-water, the animal, after it
has fully recovered from its consciousness of danger,
slowly begins to thrust out this respiratory appa-
ratus, whose action can now be clearly followed.
If there should happen to be minute particles of
foreign matter in the water, it will be observed that
these are attracted in the direction of the lower
division of the siphon, while they are just as posi-
tively repelled from the upper. This indicates that
a current of water sets in through the lower or ‘in-
current’ orifice, and that a similar current passes out
at the same time through the upper or ‘ excurrent’
orifice. A perpetual circulation is thus kept up
about the body of the animal, feeding the gills, and
taking with it a certain amount of nutriment neces-
sary to the existence of the animal. This arrange-
ment is found in all the siphonated bivalves.

Like other shell-fish that bury themselves in the
sand or mud, the Petricola doubtless seeks its se-
clusion from motives of self-protection. By many
it has been supposed that the boring 1s accomplished
by a peculiar revolution of the shell, during which
the serrated ridges on the surface would act like a
rasp, wearing and tearing as the work of excavation
progressed. That this is not likely to be the true
method of operation is indicated by the fact that
there are a number of true stone-borers, which have
an ornamentation almost identical with that cover-

PLATE 2.

Fig.

. Solen ensis.

. Selecurtus gibba.

. Solenomya velum.

. Teredo navalis.

. Solecurtus divisus.

. Siliqua costata.

. Anatina papyracea.
. Cochlodesma Leana.

can Oanr wWN

. Pandora trilineata.

—
°

. Tellina tenta.

ee
NO =

« tenera.
. Teredo navalis.

_
oo

. Pallets of ship-worm.
. Saxicava Arctica:

_
io

. Corbula contracta.

_
oO

16. Lyonsia hyalina.

17, 18. Xylotrya fimbriata.
19. Pallets of Xylotrya.
20. Petricola pholadiformis.
21, 22, 23. Pholas costata.

nae : rapt >” pecewt irs

Cal
~%

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 39

ing the shell of Petricola pholadiformis, and in which,
after the completion of the work of boring, the
projecting points on the shell are perfectly clear and
sharp, and not rubbed down as we should naturally
expect to find them after the hard work. of rock-
abrasion. Such ashell is the Pholas, of which three
species are represented on the New Jersey coast.
The largest of these, Pholas.costata (Pl. 2, Figs. 21—
23), which measures about six inches in length, is
very generally represented only by fragments of the
shell, and it is still doubtful whether it normally
inhabits this part of the-coast. It is more properly
a species from the South (although observed as
far north as New Bedford), where it may be found
at some little distance beneath the surface in the
mud-banks which are exposed at low water. The
other two species, Pholas truncata and P. erispata
(Pl. 8, Figs. 1, 2), are very much smaller, and, while
their shells are ribbed anteriorly, they lack the full
series of spinose riblets which so regularly diversify
the shell of the larger form. In the latter species
the shell ‘ gapes’ broadly at the two ends, the pos-
terior opening permitting of the extension of avery
powerful and muscular siphon. It is a common
habit with Pholas crispata to bore into rock, and
specimens of bored-rock fragments in museums
are not rare. The collections of the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia contain a re-
markable block of gneiss which 1s bored in this
manner. It has been suggested that the process
of boring may be entirely performed by the foot
taking up particles of sand and rubbing these

40 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

against the rock in concentric lines. However this
may be, it is certain that the hole is very evenly
cut, and that it is increased in size in conformity
with the development within the rock of the animal
itself.

A rather remarkable form of borer, which was
first detected within the shells of the oyster at
Tottenville, Staten Island, is the Diplothyra Smithii,
avery much smaller shell than either of the pholads,
and perhaps more nearly recalling the true ship-
worms. The latter (Pl. 2, Figs. 4, 12, 13), by rea-
son of their depredations, are the most intcrest-
ing of the boring Mollusca. They are largely in-
habitants of the tropical waters, but have in the
timber of ships been introduced almost everywhere
over the wide sea. The body proper of this
singular creature is usually very small, but through
the great elongation backward of the siphons the
animal is made to appear worm-like (although it
has no near relation to the worms), and to attain a
length varying in the different species from one
to three or even six feet. The shell is compact,
ridged, and open at both ends, and only sufficiently
large to cover the anterior or body-portion, the
animal thus appearing naked. Beginning in very
early life, when frequently not over two weeks old,
and when only of about the size of the head of a pin,
the young ship-worm or Teredo puts itself to the
task of boring, selecting for its base of operations
all forms of wood or timber that may be immersed
in water, whether the belongings of ships, dikes,
piles, or piers; indeed, one or more forms even

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 41

attack the floating cocoa-nut. The rapidly-forming
burrow follows in a sinuous line the grain of the
wood, passing out of the way of knots, and con-
scientiously avoiding the burrows of confederate
workers. In this manner a piece
of wood is soon honey-combed.
The entrance is made by a minute
hole, the size of the barrow in-
creasing with the growth of the
animal. A lining of white calca-
reous matter usually extends along
the entire length of the burrow,
to the farther end of which the
two valves of the shell are at-
tached.

It is well ascertained in the case
of the ship-worm that the burrow
is largely, or even principally, ex-
cavated by shell-abrasion, although
perhaps the exact process has not
yet been clearly made out. Large
quantities of the wood-dust are
frequently found within the intes-
tine of the animal, and it appears
not unlikely that some of it is
intentionally swallowed, and even
used for nourishment. The rav- \
ages of the ship-worm may be such Woop BoreD BY
as to destroy within a very short ickdetind
time the stoutest timber; indeed, it is said that
piles that had been driven only six or seven weeks
on the Dutch coast were found at the end of that

4*

49 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

time to have been completely eaten through. It
seems not unlikely that some of the breakages in
the Tolland dikes are to be attributed to weakness
caused by.this enemy to wood. The metal casing
of ships’ bottoms has pretty effectually stopped all
attack in this direction, and much the same result
has been obtained from painting wood with creo-
sote oil.

The best-known species of ship-worm is the TJe-
redo navalis, which appears to have been introduced
upon our coast from Europe; its caleareous tube
measures as much as two feet, or ‘more, in length.
It breeds in middle spring, and the eggs are said
to be developed by millions from a single individ-
ual. The young are provided with eyes, which,
however, disappear in later life. Closely related
to this species is the form known as Yylotrya fim-
briata (P1. 2, Figs. 17, 18, 19), which differs mainly
in the outline of the minute stylets or ‘ pallets,’
which project from the posterior portion of the
siphonal tube.

Another form of borer, much rarer with us than
in the North, is the Saxicava Arctica (Pl. 2, Fig.
14), a small shell somewhat resembling the sand-
clam, which not infrequently attacks the softer lime-
stones.

Not the least interesting of our coast Mollusca is
an individual which has thus far escaped the clutch
of the epicure, but which, if delicacy of flavor counts
for anything, is not unlikely to gain a prominent
position on the table in the near future. This is
the razor or so-called razor-fish (Solen Americanus,

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 43

Pl. 2, Fig. 1), whose long and narrow parallel-sided
shell is familiar to almost every one on the beach.
The clean pinkish- or yellowish-white flesh, the
greater portion of which forms a narrow cylindrical
‘foot,’ is even now esteemed a delicacy by many.
The animal may be found at low-water mark, buried
almost vertically in the sand, and to a depth not
seldom of two or three feet. Where thus deeply
buried it comes frequently to the surface, so that
it may receive the necessary food-supplying water
through its short siphonal tube. It has been ob-
served that the razor takes cognizance of passing
shadows on the water, as when the hand is passed
over the position occupied by the siphonal orifices,
and this, too, when the rest.of the animal is com-
pletely covered over. The supposition that the
animal was by some means enabled to see from the
rear will to most persons appear erratic; never-
theless, careful examination of the siphonal margin
has revealed the existence there of minute black
specks, which appear to have the structure of visual
organs. Thus we are taught that the special sense
organs need not be situated in the head, a condition
which also obtains with many other forms of ani-
mals. A second species, allied to the preceding, is
the green razor (Solen viridis), which rarely attains a
length much exceeding two inches, while the for-
mer not infrequently measures full six inches.
Several other species of bivalves have more or less
the elongated form of the razor, but in none does
the shell attain the proportional length seen in that
species. Hye-specks, of an orange color, are pres-

44 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

ent in the siphonal region of Solecurtus gibbus, a
common mud-burrower of the ocean front (PI. 2,
Fig. 2).

Before finally parting from our siphonated friends
of the coast it may be well to turn our attention for
a moment to a number of small and insignificant-
looking shells, which are at times fairly abundant,
their fragments, indeed, frequently making up much
of the long white lines which define the boundaries
of the surf. These are the tellens and their allies
the wedge-shells (Donax, PI. 3, Fig. 13). In both of
these groups, as a distinguishing peculiarity, the
beak of the shell is placed nearer the posterior
margin than the anterior, thus making the front of
the animal very long in comparison with the back.
In by far the greater number of the bivalve shell-
fish the reverse is the case; in a few, again, the two
sides are nearly equal. The shells of Tellina (PI.
2, Figs. 10, 11) may be recognized by their rounded
outlines, the position of the beaks, and the minute
teeth by which the valves hinge. In the wedge-
shells, which, though small, are conspicuous by their
beautiful coloring, the skell is clearly wedge-shaped,
with nearly direct outlines.

One of the rarer shells of the coast, although ex-
tending in its range from Maine to Florida, is the
delicate Pandora (Pl. 2, Fig. 9), which can be almost
immediately recognized by the flatness of its beau-
tifully-arched valves, and their pearly structure.
Observe that one valve is considerably smaller than
the other.

PLATE 3.

SO HPIrrAneonp az

_
o

. Pholas truncata.

“ erispata.
Cardium Mortoni.
Cytherea convexa.
Astarte castanea.
Lucina divaricata.
. Cardita borealis.

. Anomia ephippium.
. Gouldia mactracea.
. Nucula proxima.
Yoldia limatula.

12. Arca transversa.

13. Donax fossor.
14. Tellina tenera.

15. Arca pexata.
16. Nucula proxima.
17. Arca ponderosa.

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 45

OYSTERS, SCALLOPS, MUSCLES, AND ARKS.

The oyster is so familiar to everybody that it
scarcely needs description. Still, there are a num-
ber of points connected with its structure and his-
tory which may not be generally known, and may
consequently be touched upon with advantage. In
the first place, let it be said that there are two gen-
erally recognized species or varieties on our coast,
—one ican as the Virginia oyster, of an elon pated
form, and the other, deeply scalloped, the Northern
oystce (Ostrea borealis). But the shell of the oyster
varies so greatly, depending for its form so much
upon the shape of the object upon which it immov-
ably attaches itself in later life, that it becomes a
matter of great difficulty to determine the proper
limits of specific variation; and, indeed, as far as
the two forms above noted are concerned, it is very
doubtful if they do not in reality belong to a single
species. In both, as in nearly all oysters, the left
valve is the larger of the two, and it is upon this
that the animal rests. The two are brought to-
gether by means of a single powerful muscle (ad-
ductor), whose attachment to the shell leaves the.
dark sub-central impression which is frequently
called the ‘ heart.’

Oysters are marine in habit, but they seem able
to endure a certain amount of exposure to fresh
water, as in the mouths of estuaries and bays,
which constitute their chief abiding-place. The
‘banks’ or ‘reefs’ rise to within a few feet of the
surface, and in many regions are even exposed

46 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

dry during low-water. One or more forms grow
on the roots of trees, such as the mangrove, on
which they remain exposed for hours at a time
above water. The great thickness of the shell in
many individuals indicates a long life-period for
the animal, which has been estimated by some, but
probably without sufficient basis, to be as much as
a hundred years. The different layers of the shell
indicate distinct periods of rest in its develop-
ment, but at what regular (if regular) intervals
these periods follow one another is still an open
question. In the east-coast oysters, whose most
extensive head-quartcrs appear to be Chesapeake
Bay, the shell rarcly attains a greater length than
one foot or 15 inches; but foreign and fossil species
are known which far excced these dimensions.
Thus, a species from the Middle Tertiary deposits
of Europe (Ostrea crassissima) measures nearly or
fully two feet in length; the Ostrca Titan, from a
somewhat later deposit in California, measures six
inches through the thickness of the two valves,
while a recent species (O. Tulienwanensis), from the
Bay of Taichou, Japan, grows to a length of even
three feet. Careful investigation has shown that
the American oyster will grow to a length of
nearly four inches in about two years, and it is
conjectured from this that in some four years after
its escape from the egg the animal is approximately
adult and marketable.

Oysters appear to thrive best in estuarine coves
and inlets where the bottom is not liable to shift
to any great extent, and where the depth of water

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 47

does not much excced 18 or 20 fathoms. Their
food consists principally of minute larvee, infusori-
ans, and the lowly-organized plants known as Di-
atoms, but they do not refuse either crustaceans
or mollusks, provided these be small enough, and
even the inorganic earths form part of their nutri-
tive material. In a gencral way they might be said
.o be omnivorous. The principal spawning season
about the Chesapeake extends through the months of
June and July, but some individuals may be found
with spawn throughout almost the entire year. The
eggs, which have been estimated to be contained to
the extent of 100,000,000 in a single large female,
measure about the one-five-hundredth of an inch in
diameter, and give birth to active little creatures,
the fry, which are early provided with a rudimen-
tary shell. It appears that under favorable circum-
stances the fry becomes attached within a day after
its liberation; in this condition the oyster young is
known as ‘spat.’ Spawning begins at about the
age of one year. The notion that oysters are harm-
ful during all but the so-called seasonable months
has nothing to support it beyond the fact that in
the warmer months the flesh loses in general deli-
cacy and flavor.

A near ally of the oyster is an irregular lustrous
shell, about one inch in diameter, which more gen-
erally occurs black or bluish-black on our coast, and
is known to conchologists as Anomia (Pl. 3, Fig.
8). It is rarely found with both valves attached,
the valve commonly found being the upper convex

48 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

one. The lower valve is nearly flat, and contains a
deep fissure or hole at one extremity through which
the animal passes a bundle of horny threads—the
byssus—for the purposes of attachment. Our Ano-
mia appears to be undistinguishable from the com-
mon European species (Anomia ephippium), and this
may also be the case with some of the varieties of
the oyster just described.

He who has but once trod the Jersey sands knows
the scallop, whose radiately-ribbed and symmetri-
cally-formed shell is one of the commonest objects
on the beach. Indeed, during recent years it has
been steadily growing in favor as an article of food;
and why it should be less palatable than its first
cousin, the oyster, is a little difficult to say. The
scallop, so called from the service to which the shell
was formerly put in ‘scalloping’ oysters, inhabits
the sub-tidal zone to a depth of some 250 feet or
more, frequently forming by its aggregations vast
banks. The animal rests on its right valve, which
is in almost all cases more convex than its fellow.
Beneath, or at the base of, the anterior ‘ ear’ of this
valve will be found a fairly profound notch, which
marks the passage of the byssal fibres secreted by
the foot. Considerable interest attaches to this
animal as being the first among the bivalve Mol-
lusca in which, it was claimed, the presence of
visual organs had been detected. If the margin
of the mantle be examined it will be found to be
double, the inner piece hanging like a finely-fringed
curtain. Along its base are scattered a number of
small black or blue specks, to which, for apparently

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 49

good reasons, the function of cyes has been ascribed.
Possibly, however, they may be only phosphorescent
or illuminating organs, without in themselves being
capable of receiving images.

ScaLiop (Pecten irradians).

The scallop of the New Jersey coast is the
Pecten irradians, a shell measuring some three
inches each way, and crossed by about twenty
elevated ribs. On account of its varied and beau-
tiful coloring, ranging from white through shades
of orange, brown, red, and purple, it is eagerly
sought after for mantel-ornamentation, the making of
card-holders, pincushions, ete. A much larger and
more northerly species (Pectcn Magellanicus), which
is almost entirely wanting on the sands, has been
dredged in abundance in Raritan Bay and else-

d é

50 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

where. The scallop, unlike the oyster, is a fairly
active creature, moving about with rapidity by
means of its finger-shaped foot. In the young
condition the animal swims freely through, and on
the surface of, the water, propulsion being effected
mainly by the sudden opening and closing of the
valves. A scallop placed high and dry will at slow
intervals open its shell, and then suddenly close it
with a peculiar thud, a performance that is re-
peated until the animal is wellnigh dry. The part
of the scallop that is used for food is the thick
white muscle which holds the two valves of the
shell together.

A few words about arks and their allies. These
can be immediately recognized by the large num-
ber of teeth on the hinge-line, by means of which
the two valves are kept firmly interlocked. In the
arks proper (Pl. 3, Figs. 12, 15, 17) these minute
comb-like teeth are arranged in a continuous linear
series, but in the pearl-lined Nucula (Figs. 10, 16)
and in Yoldia (Fig. 11) the series is interrupted,
and broken in outline. In the arks the shell, when
not badly worn, is coated with a heavy epidermis,
usually of a dark brown color. Many of the species
spin a stout byssus, which serves as an anchor-
line of attachment to the surfaces of stones,
rocks, etc. The shells of three species are found
on our coast, each well defined by peculiarities in
their outline. The rounded form (Arca perata,
Pl. 3, Fig. 15), which differs from most arks in
having a minimum of space between the two valves,
is further distinguished by the possession of red

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 51

blood; hence it has acquired the name of bloody
clam.

A visit to the muscle-shoals, which are to be
found on the borders of salt marshes, or where
along inlets the muddy bottom is exposed for some
time during low water, cannot but prove interest-
ing and instructive. Two forms of muscle will
very generally be found here, aggregated in large
numbers and clusters. One of these, pointed and
wedge-shaped in outline, with a dark blue epi-
dermis and a purplish or horn-colored shell, is the
edible muscle (Mytilus edulis), a common form of
both the American and
European coasts, and per-
haps the most widely dis-
tributed of all known
Mollusca. It occurs in
great clusters, matted to- EDIBLE MUSCLE.
gether by byssus, which also attaches it to stones,
piles, wrecks, and floating bodies of all sorts.
Although more commonly an inhabitant of the
tidal zone, it is also found in depths ranging to 300
feet or more. This species has been put to little
economical use in this country—although by many
considered to excel in flavor the ordinary clam
—but in various parts of Northern Europe it is
esteemed a very desirable article of food. The
annual muscle-consumption in the markets of
Edinburgh and Leith is estimated at 400 bushels
(about 400,000 muscles). In some of the German
waters the muscle-fishery is conducted by placing
boughs of trees in the shallows inhabited by the

52 THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST.

mollusk, and allowing the shells to accumulate on
these boughs for a period of several years. They
are then raised, the quantity sold by weight, and
distributed over the interior of the country.

The muscle when first hatched is an active
free-swimming little creature, which attaches itself
when no larger than the head of a pin. ~ But much
later in life it still possesses the power of disen-
gaging the attaching byssus, and securing a new
anchorage when such is needed. By alternately
passing forward its delicate threads, the animal
pulls itself along to a selected locality, much in
the manner that is adopted by many spiders in
securing their prey.

Readily distinguished from the edible muscle by
its rounded anterior outline and the plications or

HorRsE-MUSCLE.

radiating lines extending down the sides of the
shell, is the so-called horse-muscle (Modiola plica-
tula), like the former an inhabitant of the shallows
about tide-water. Here, in the somewhat peaty
soil, they are frequently found burrowing in vast
numbers, so closely packed together as to form a
true stratum. The shells are often much eroded

THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 53

over the beaks, and in acidulated waters sometimes
nests of the epidermis alone will be found, the
limy parts having been completely dissolved away.
This species enters freely into brackish water.
A second species, smooth, and of much larger size,
measuring as much as six inches in length, is the
Modiola modiolus, 4 common form of moderately
deep northern waters.

IL
SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

Some of the pleasant minutes whiled away in the
water can be advantageously put to collecting, and
the bather who loiters among the grass-grown piles
that here and there lift their hoary heads out of the
water, or examines the wreck of some unfortunate
merchantman, cannot fail to meet with a number
of curious and interesting objects, which otherwise
might have readily passed among the unknowables
of the sea-border. One or more forms of sea-
urchins or ‘sea-eggs,’ various squirts, polyps, and
corallines, and the goose barnacle, find here a con-
genial home, which already in olden time had
been discovered and made useful by the edible
muscle. Unfortunately, almost the entire New
Jersey coast is destitute of real rock, and conse-
quently lacks those cool rock-bound retreats which
on the New England shores delight the star-fish and
the sea-anemone. This deficiency is in a measure
made good by the enclosed areas of piers and
wharves, which offer a safe harbor to a number of
forms which, in the matter of home comforts, could
obtain but little encouragement from the arid sands.

Among these, perhaps the first to attract our
attention will be asmall rounded yellowish body, not

much more than a half-inch across, which is found
54

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 55

adhering to the piles. Press gently with the finger—
the animal contracts, and while contracting throws
out a double jet of water from two chimney-pot open-
ings situated on its surface. The animal is one of our
commoner forms of sea-squirts, known to naturalists
as Molgula Manhattensis. Through its pel-
lucid outer tunic the color of the viscera
can be indistinctly seen. This species
also frequently attaches itself to floating
sea-weed, and is then drifted in to shore; Moreura
or it may be found attached to the nod- eer
ding fronds which battle with the waves.

The sea-squirts are in many ways interesting
animals, especially since it has been shown that in
their young condition they present many points
of resemblance to the vertebrate or backboned
animals. Thus, the larva of most species has along
tail, a rudimentary spinal column, and a long nerve-
tract, terminating in a brain, which occupies the
same relative position to the spinal column that the
same tract does in the higher animals. Indeed, so
similar is the larva of
certain forms to atadpole
as to carry with it a con-
viction that the two can-
not be very far removed
from each other. But in the mature form of
nearly all squirts the tail becomes absorbed, and
with it disappears what there was to represent the
spinal column, and also much of the nerve appa-
ratus—a case of true degeneration. One of the
chimney pot openings on Molgula conducts into

LARVA OF TUNICATE.

56 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

a peculiar sieve-like chamber—whose walls are
made up of delicate vessels—into which food parti-
cles are carried, and through which the admitted
water passes into a second chamber,
which also receives the alimentary
canal. From this second chamber
the water, which bathes the blood-
vessels forming the meshes of the
sieve-like respiratory sac, is expelled
through the second chimney-pot
opening, and thus a constant circu-
me M, mouths, ation is kept up. A remarkable
ee ei fact connected with the circulation
of this animal is that the heart,
which lies near the base of the respiratory sac, after
beating a short time suddenly stops, and that with
each renewal of action the direction of the blood-
current is reversed. From the peculiar external
tunic which encases the animal, the group to which
the squirt belongs has been designated the Tuni-
cata.

A considerably larger form than Molgula is that
which has received from fishermen the name of
*sea-peach’ (Cynthia), in allusion to the similarity
in form and coloring existing between it and the
peach. Other species of nearly identical structure
and habit are the ‘sea-pears’ (Boltenia), which are
supported on long slender stalks, measuring as
much asa foot or more in length. These are almost
invariably covered with foreign associations of plant
and animal matter, presenting a coarse and untidy
appearance.

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 57

In the tangle of eel-grass which here and there
shows itself you may have had occasion to notice

that many of the blades are encased
in a gelatinous or slimy substance,
whose surface exhibits beautiful
stellate impressions or markings.
The whole encrusting mass is a
compound tunicate or ascidian, the
rays of the different stars being the
individuals that make up the colony.
The sharp eye, or, still better, a
magnifier, will detect in each ray a
minute speck, which corresponds to
the incurrent opening in the com-
mon sea-squirts, and through which
the water passes in the ordinary
fashion. In the centre of the star
is a second speck, which is the
common excurrent aperture for the
different individuals of the group.
Although much reduced in size,
this compound tunicate, known as
Botryllus, is constructed on the
same general plan as the larger

BoLtENIA.

forms above described. In color it varies con-
siderably, but generally it is of a livid green or
a slimy white. Another interesting form which
can be sometimes found in the grass occurs in
more or less globular or flattened jelly-like masses,
ranging in size from an orange to a big cake,
and having a color much like that of boiled salt

pork, whence the name ‘sea-pork.’

The stellate

58 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

markings are here similar to those seen on Bo-
tryllus.

There are a number of free-swimming or pelagic
tunicates, some of which approach our coast. One
of the commonest of these is Salpa spinosa, whose

BoTRYLLUs. *SEA-PORK’ (Amorectium).

compound chains, measuring as much as a foot in
length, of perfectly transparent individuals, some-
times cover the sea over a vast expanse. Another,
the Pyrosoma, a much rarer form in this region, is
highly phosphorescent, and lays just claim to being
considered one of the lamps of the sea.

POLYPS.

The same unsightly sticks of timber that offer
refuge to the squirts will probably also be found
to harbor quantities of the delicate feathery tufts
which are almost everywhere scattered over the
beach, and which in the popular mind are associ-
ated in structure with the ‘ sea-weed,’ a term that
has much to answer for in receiving under its wing
a multitude of objects that do not belong there.
These feathery tufts, which are familiar to many

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISAHES. 59

under the name of sea-fir, sea-moss, or Sertularia
(Pl. 4, Figs. 7, 10), are, indeed, far removed from
plants, and even far above the
lowest forms of animal life.
To those who are acquainted
with the little polyp of our
fresh-water streams and ponds,
the hydra, it is but necessary
to say that the sea-fir is prac- —Potyr or Serruzarta,
tically only a compound colony vere

of this animal, which has become covered over by, or
encased in, a horny sheath. Cast your eye over a
single twig of the Sertularian, and note the minute
scale-like bracts which run off at an acute angle
with it. These, when magnified, are seen to be
hollow sheaths or cups (thece), each of which,
during the life of the animal, contained a minute
polyp, to all intents and purposes identical with
the hydra. The different polyps were united
with one another by means of a common stalk
which occupied the centre of the connecting axis
or twig. But what is the polyp itself? A hollow
little body, with an opening at one end, the mouth,
and a circle of hollow arms or tentacles, an out-
growth of the body-cavity itself, surrounding the
mouth. It might be likened to a glove closed at
the bottom, and with a single rupture (correspond-
ing to the mouth of the polyp) at the base of one
of the fingers. This colony has become compound
through repeated budding, the individual polyps
after they have once budded out contributing by
way of nourishment to the welfare of the commu-

60 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

nity at large. Each little active polyp is situated in
its own chitinous cup, the different cups being ar-
ranged ina double series along the connecting axis.
Between these cups, at certain seasons of the year,
may be observed a number of larger and somewhat
urn-shaped bodies, the gonothecse, from buds con-
tained in which the eggs necessary for the perpetu-
ation of the species are developed. These liberate
minute ciliated bodies, known as ‘ planule,’ which,
after enjoying a short independent existence of their
own, attach themselves, and grow up into the grand-
parental form.

The commoner of the two forms of sea-fir found
on our coast is the silver sea-fir (Sertularia argentea,
Pl. 4, Fig. 7), so named from the general white-
ness of the fronds, and found from low-water
mark to a depth of 100 fathoms or more. It is
the common ‘sea-moss’ that is so extensively dis-
played in the shops along the sea-shore, and used
by florists for decorative purposes. A smaller spe-
cies, the dwarf sea-fir (Sertularia pumila, Fig. 10),
attaches itself to the ordinary brown rockweed or
fucus, also to pebbles, and to various dead ana
living shells.

Growing in bunches much like the sea-firs, but ap-
pearing thinned out by reason of the distance of the
polyps from one another, is the form known as Pen-
naria (Pl. 4, Figs. 3, 12), whose fronds can be easily
distinguished by the black color of the branches.
The polyps which terminate the branches are ex-
ceedingly minute, of a bright red color, and fur-
nished with three circles of tentacles. In probably

SOIR aARoOnNeE Ee

ee et
one ©

PLATE 4.

Aurelia flavidula.

Strobila of Aurelia.

Pennaria tiarella.

Early strobila stage of Aurelia.
Parypha crocea.

Dactylometra quinquecirra.
Sertularia argentea.

Young Aurelia.

Velella mutica.

Sertularia pumila.

. Obelia commissuralis (highly magnified).

Hydroid of Pennaria =“ es

. Tubularia indivisa.

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 61

all the animals of the class we are now considering
the extremities of the tentacles are provided with
peculiar ‘nettle-cells,’ which by a special arrange-
ment can discharge from their interiors small barbed
bodies or styles useful as weapons of both offence
and defence. In Pennaria nettle-cells similar to
those of the tentacles are also contained in the
axis of the body, but what their function is in
this position remains untold.

Many of the wrecks that appear on our coast
bring to us bunches of slender hollow tubes, meas-
uring as much as three or four inches in height, in
each of which lived at one time a delicate polyp.
Possibly your cluster is still alive, in which case
many of the tiny creatures will be seen expanded
at the summits of the tubes, their double circle of
tentacles spread out in the form of a double coronet
(Pl. 4, Fig. 13). Hanging from some of these,
like bunches of grapes, are the reproductive buds,
which ultimately detach themselves and, medusa-
like, swim about in the open sea. It is not gener-
ally known that a large number of ordinary jelly-
pads or jelly-fishes, whose graceful movements on
the oceanic surface have from time immemorial
challenged the admiration of the intelligent ob-
server, are the products of tiny fixed colonies such
as we have been considering. The discovery of
this fact—of the dual existence led by these lower
organisms—is one of the most surprising in the
entire range of zoological investigation, and one
that cannot but carry with it an impressive lesson

of the wonderful resources of the world of nature.
6

62 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

The delicate tubes which in Tubularia ensheathe
the elongated body-stalk are in a number of forms
expanded at their extremities into a cup or bell
for the reception of the body of the animal itself.
These are the bell-polyps, or campanularians, which
grow usually in shrubby clusters, some so small as
readily to elude observation, others attaining sev-
eral inches in length. JI am not sure that the bell-
polyp proper (Campanularia) has ever been officially
reported from our coast, but if not yet noticed it
will almost surely be found in the near future, and
it can but afford pleasure to make a sharp search
after it. Examine the piles, the stones, and the
sea-weeds, and let not even the grass-covered shells
escape you. Its near ally, the Obelia commissuralis
(Pl. 4, Fig. 11), has already secreted itself among
the time-worn timbers of ancient wrecks, where it
hangs in bunchy clusters three inches or more in
length. It is also found attached to stones and
sea-weeds, giving birth at certain seasons to deli-
cate free-swimming meduse, which may be recog-
nized by their sixteen tentacles.

A second species of Obelia (O. gelatinosa), differ-
ing from the preceding in its compoundly united
stems, also finds a favored home among the piles,
although it is not infrequently found growing from
the surfaces of oyster-shells. One of the most
beautiful and abundant of the pile-inhabiting polyps
or hydroids, especially where the water is in a meas-
ure brackish, is the Parypha crocea (PI. 4, Fig. 5),
which “forms large clusters of branching stems,
often six inches or more in height, each of which

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 63

is surmounted by a beautiful, flower-like, drooping
head of a pink or bright red color. These heads are
often broken off, or even voluntarily cast off, when
the animals are unhealthy, but new ones are soon
reproduced, and therefore this does not seem to be
a very serious accident, though certainly a very in-
convenient one, for the mouth, stomach, tentacles,
and most other organs are all lost when these
heads drop off” (Verrill). As in Tubularia, the re-
productive buds hang down in drooping (red) grape-
like clusters, but they do not develop into free
meduse.
JELLY-PADS AND JELLY-FISHES.

The favored few among the ‘dwellers by the
sea’ to whom a bright and warm summer’s day is
something more than a source of unmitigated
discomfort and complaint cannot easily pass a
more delightful hour than by navigating the quiet
waters in search of meduse. These exquisite creat-
ures, for all the world like water-
bubbles, will almost surely be out
in greater or less number; but
some of them are so minute, al-
most microscopic, others so trans-
parent, that, unless the sea is ac-
tually covered by them, a sharp MEDUSA.
watch must be kept, or else they
willescape us. A glass jar will be of service in a trip
of this kind, as through its aid a rapprochement may
be effected between us and the tiny creatures whose
habits we wish to study. Some appear nearly tor-
pid on the surface, dragging their tentacles wearily

64 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

after them ; others, again, are darting actively along,
propelled by successive pulsations of their trans-
parent bells. It is at first difficult to conceive that
these delicate films are indeed masses of organized
animal matter, so frail and evanescent do they ap-
pear as they noiselessly slip by. But scoop up a
Clytia, or a Dactylometra (Pl. 4, Fig. 6), and ex-
amine the animal leisurely in the jar that has been
brought for that purpose. Structures that escaped
our attention before are now distinctly visible. The
pulsating bell is the first object to attract our no-
tice. Its perfect transparency permits us to see,
suspended from the centre of the interior, a pe-
culiar pouch-like body, at the extremity of which
is situated the mouth. The water entering by the
mouth passes into the hollow of the pouch or manu-
brium, whence it is in great part distributed to the
four radiating canals which descend the sides of the
bell to its base and divide it into four equal parts.
These vessels, which constitute a part of the circu-
latory system of the animal, merge into a common
marginal ring which surrounds the base of the bell.
From this ring are given off a number of long pro-
cesses, known as tentacles, each of which is pro-
vided with the very remarkable stinging nettle- or
lasso-cells to which reference has been made in our
description of Pennaria.

This, then, is the substance of our medusa—a
quantity of water encased in a thin film of animal
matter. Place your finger gently on the bell, and you
will probably be unable to detect its presence there.
Take the animal from the water and expose it to

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 65

the sun, and in ashort time it will have almost com-
pletely disappeared through evaporation. Whence
came these singular creatures, and whither do they
go? The greater number of them begin life in a
quiet way as minute buds on the stems of the cam-
panularians and their allies. After expanding and
acquiring definite shape they drop off from the
parent, and pass into that stage which fits them for
a free existence on the oceanic surface. The me-
dusa thus formed for some time leads the life of
an independent rover, but after a certain period it
gives birth from eggs to elongate tiny bodies, known
as planule, which soon attach themselves and grow
up into the grandparental form of the hydroid
colony. Thus a complete cycle of changes is
brought about. Some of the meduse give birth
directly to other meduse, without passing through
any of the intermediate conditions that have just
been noted.

The transition from the delicate sea-bubbles,
whose existence, it would seem, could be wiped
out by a mere blow of the breath, to the large un-
sightly jelly-pads that lie scattered over the shore
after high-water, is an abrupt one, but yet the two
objects are much the same thing. One is merely a
large jelly-fish, while the other is a small one. But
on the open sea even the large Cyanea, whose disk
or bell measures two yards in diameter, and whose
wilderness of tentacles floats out to a distance of
a hundred feet or more, is a beautiful object, re-
flecting its brilliant tints of pink, yellow, blue, and

brown to striking advantage. When cast on the
é 6*

66 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

shore lifeless and tentacleless, deformed and decay-
ing, it cannot but present a more or less repulsive
appearance, and itis little wonder that, from what
is generally their first experience, most people want
to have little to do with jelly-fishes. In the case
of the Cyanea this aversion has much in its favor,
since the animal is a powerful stinger, and can in-
flict injury that few would like to have repeated.
The Cyanca arctica, which is the largest form of
jelly-fish known, is one of the commonest of the
Atlantic coast species, and some of its ill-shaped
pads can at almost all times be found upon the
shore. About equally common is the ‘sun-jelly,’
or Aurelia (Pl. 4, Fig. 1), whose disk, however,
rarely measures more than fifteen inches across.
Both species are the product of tiny attached hy-
droids measuring less than an inch in length.

Among the rarer species of jelly-fish occurring
on the New Jersey coast is the Portuguese-Man-
of-War (Physalia), which is wafted thither from
the southern waters on the current of the Gulf
Stream. In this species of remarkable form and
exquisite coloring we have a compound colony of
free-swimming hydroids and attached meduse, all
united, as it were, under a single roof—the large
swimming bell or float. Equally rare are the
closely-related Velella (Pl. 4, Fig. 9) and Porpita,
although the disks of the latter, particularly in the
southern parts of the State, have been thrown up
by hundreds as the result of a single storm. A
small round jelly-fish, of much the size and appear-

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 67

ance of a gooseberry, but of an exquisitely deli-
cate structure, is occasionally thrown on our shores.
It is the Pleurobrachia rhododactyla, the type of a
group known as the comb-
bearers ( Ctenophora), which
differ in some essential

PoRPITA.

points of structure from

the normal jelly-fishes.
Probably all jelly-fishes

are phosphorescent, and

PLEUROBRACHIA.

the glow of golden light
which they emit consti-
Ba tl tutes one of the splen-
dors of the oceanic waste.

From far and near, if the sea be agitated, the
mellow lights may be observed to illumine the en-
veloping darkness, while along the surf-bound coast

68 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

a continuous fiery crest is apt to mark the action of
the breakers. At other times, in a quiet sea, there
may be but little luminosity, unless the water is
stirred up by the passage of a boat or the dip of
an oar, when the scattered golden drops appear as
though cast in metal. How much of the phospho-
rescence of the sea is produced by these creatures
alone still remains to be determined, but that they
contribute very largely to the phenomenon there
can be no doubt.

a

SEA-ANEMONES.

In her charming description of the animals of
Massachusetts Bay Mrs. Agassiz says, “ Nothing
can be more unprepossessing than a sea-anemone
when contracted. A mere lump of brown or whit-
ish jelly, it lies like a lifeless thing on the rock to
which it clings, and it is difficult to believe that it
has an elaborate and exceedingly delicate internal
organization, or will ever expand into such grace
and beauty as really to deserve the name of the
flower after which it has been called.” And such
is the truth. Only when the animal has again ex-
panded, and thrown out its crown of delicate feelers
or tentacles, are we placed in a position to appre-
ciate fully the beauty and grace of the flower of the
sea. The rock-bound tidal pools and grottos are
the favored haunts of the sea-anemone, whose vari-
ously-tinted bodies of orange, purple, pink, and
white, placed in relief against the sombre walls,
produce an effect rivalling that of the artist’s pa-
lette. On our shores, unfortunately, the absence

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 69

of favoring conditions prevents the development
of these interesting animals, which only at com-
paratively rare intervals may be picked up adhering
to sheltered pieces of timber or to rocks that have
been cast into the sea. One of the species occur-
ring with us is of about the size of a carrot or a
turnip (Actinia rapiformis), of a pink or light flesh
color, and with a compound cluster of coarse ten-

ANEMONE IN DIFFERENT STAGES OF EXTENSION (after Agassiz),

tacles. The bands that are seen to run up and
down and across the body are the muscular bundles
which promote expansion or contraction on the part
of the animal. When cast up by the waves the
animal frequently draws itself into a more or less
globular form, which has been likened to that of
an onion or a turnip. A much more delicate, and
apparently rarer, species is the common form of

70 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

the New England shores, Metridium marginatum,
whose rich and varied coloring of pink, chestnut,
white, orange, yellow, and brown stamps it as one
of the gems of the sea.

The sea-anemones are next of kin to the hy-
droids and jelly-fishes, and, like them, their plan of
structure is that of the radiate type. Properly to
understand the organization of these animals you
have but to imagine a cylindrical tube, closed at
the bottom, and tucked back upon itself on top in
such a manner as to make a tube within a tube,
precisely as the finger of a glove is pulled within
itself when it does not readily leave the hand. The
smaller inner tube of the Actinia, which constitutes
the stomach proper of the animal, communicates
with the outer world by means of the upper open-
ing, the mouth, while it empties below into the
general body-cavity of the animal. This body-
cavity, into which sea-water freely penetrates, is
divided by a number of vertical partitions into
as many distinct chambers, from which, as out-
growths, arise the hollow tentacles. This practi-
cally represents the sum total of the organization
of a sea-anemone. Were we now to cut one of
these animals transversely across the body, we
should find an inner circle within an outer one,
and the two connected by a number of radiating
walls or partitions.

The majority of the sea-anemones attach them-
selves firmly by means of a stout muscular disk,
whose tight hold secures the animal against the
wash of the sea, A few are free-swimming on the

SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES. 7]

surface of the ocean, while still others bury them-
selves to considerable depths in the sand and mud.
The beautiful Cerianthus, whose purple-tentacled
crowns recall the asters of our meadows, is an abun-
dant form of the southern sand-shallows, which in
the north is replaced by the singular worm-like
and mud-inhabiting Halcampa. Like all other sea-
anemones, the Halcampa is an exceedingly vora-
cious animal, and, if unguardedly placed in a vial
of sea-water containing marine worms and like
treasures of the shore, will without compunction
almost immediately begin a meal. And it is won-
derful to what an extent their meal may be drawn
out.

Another sand-inhabiting form, frequently found
attached to the under surfaces of stones, is Sagar-
tia leucolena, also known as the ‘ white-
armed anemone.’ It is a much less

slender species than the preceding,
and differs in addition in the greater
number and length of its tentacles.

These animals multiply from eggs,
by budding, and by fission—ie., by
constriction and subsequent separa-
tion of the body into two or more
parts. The latter process is repeated
among many corals, although in the
greater number of cases their com- (6%
pound colonies are built up through ~ garcamps.
continuous budding. If you can con-
ceive of a budded or compound colony of sea~-
anemones with the individual animals reduced in

72 SQUIRTS, POLYPS, AND JELLY-FISHES.

size to the dimensions of small polyps, and each
individual polyp secreting for itself an outer cover-
ing of lime and an inner series of lime partitions
(septa) corresponding to the fleshy ones that have
been described, you have before you the struc-
ture of a true coral, such as we find among the
great reefs of tropical waters. A single species
(Astrangia astreformis), which forms encrusting
colonies on stone or shell from one to three inches
across, is found on our northern coast, and has been
occasionally picked up on the New Jersey shores.

ITI.

STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS.

Tr is not often that one has the pleasure of meet-
ing with star-fishes on the New Jersey coast, but
yet they are occasionally seen, perhaps more fre-
quently in the north, and thus they deserve a place
here. The commoner form (Asterias berylinus, Pl.
5, Fig. 8) is a fairly large species, of a more or less
greenish color, sometimes inclining to brown, and
roughly covered with tubercles. Its five arms, at
the extremity of each of which is situated a single
red eye-speck, are somewhat irregularly disposed,
and not rarely one is stumpy through breakage or
unequal development.

It is interesting to watch the movements of the
star-fish. From the under surfaces of the arms, at
whose union is situated the central mouth, a great
number of delicate tubules, each one terminated by
a minute sucking-disk, may be seen to be vigor-
ously in motion, the whole series undulating like
wind-swept grain. These tubules are hollow and
fed from within with sea-water, the increase or
diminution of which within the tubules, regulated
at the will of the animal, determines the length to
which they may be extended or protruded. At-
taching themselves to foreign objects by means of
their sucking-disks, the animal may in this way be

D 7 73

74 STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, ETC.

either drawn forward, or the object of its search
drawn to it. The system of vessels which supplies
the tubules with water, governing as it does the
walking apparatus of tube-feet, is known as the
‘ambulacral’ system. The area, again, along which
the tube-feet (ambulacra) are placed has been
called the ambulacral zone, and the intermediate
spaces—the sides and backs of the arms—the inter-
ambulacral. On the back of the animal, a little
sub-central, and in the angle between two of the
arms, is a tumid little body, of a bright orange
color, called the ‘madreporice tubercle,’ through
which the sea-water gains access to the ambulacral
system of vessels.

Star-fishes are voracious animals, and they have
a method of securing their food which is at once
novel, and, to say the least, effective. Seizing their
prey, which consists largely of shell-fish, they arch
themselves over it, turn their stomachs inside out,
so as completely to envelop the delicate morsel, and
then deliberately proceed to make a meal. Onsome
of our northern coasts the star-fish is the principal
enemy of the oyster and scallop, vast quantities of
the former being annually gobbled up by this five-
armed demon. According to the reports of fisher-
men the appearance of the star-fishes on the coast
is frequently dependent upon the earlier appearance
there of the scallop. Star-fishes are very tenacious
of life, and they will bear much injury without suc-
cumbing. Indeed, each individual ray, when torn
from the body, has the power of reproducing the
entire animal.

STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, ETC. 75

The brittle-stars, or, as some choose to call them,
feather-stars (Pl. 5, Fig. 5), are closely related to
the star-fishes, differing mainly in that the arms
radiate from a clearly-defined central disk, and,
being more nearly solid, do not contain prolonga-
tions of the stomach or of the ovaries in their in-
teriors. The tube-feet pass out from the plates
along the sides of the arms, instead of from the
under surface as in the star-fishes proper.

The brittle-stars are fairly active creatures, help-
ing themselves rapidly over the sands by means of
their long flexible arms. Their home is largely
among the tangle and eel-grass, where their pro-
tective coloring affords them a safe harbor.

SEA-EGGS AND SAND-DOLLARS.

Most visitors to the sea are acquainted with
the appearance, at least, of the ‘sand-dollar’ (or
‘sand-cake,’ as it is sometimes termed)—a thin
shelly piece, from an inch and a half to three inches
across, with a peculiar stellate ornamentation on
one side, and irregular grooves and channels on the
other. It immediately suggests a relationship with
the star-fishes through its well-made star, although
in a general way it appears to be a very different
animal. Many people, indeed, scout the idea when
informed that an animal inhabits this frail habita-
tion, so unaccommodating does it appear; but an
animal dwells within it nevertheless, and this ani-
mal is truly a near relation to the star-fish.

In its living condition, or when freshly removed
from the water, the sand-dollar (Echinarachnius, Pl.

76 STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, ETC.

5, Fig. 2) is of a reddish-brown color, and com-
pletely covered over with minute silken bristles.
These, on the death of the animal, are rapidly re-
moved, and then the flat disk can be plainly seen
to be made up of a large number of closely-fitting
polygonal plates, arranged in twenty series around
the circumference. The petals of the central star,
which now becomes visible, will be found to be
made up of transverse slits, and if the direction of
the petals is followed to the border of the disk, it
will be seen that the slits are continued by pores.
Through these slits and pores, which occupy five
pairs of plates, the tube-feet, similar in character to
those of the star-fish, pass out, and hence define
ambulacral zones. The intermediate five pairs of
plates, from which pores are absent, will then be
the interambulacral areas. Now, imagine the arms
of astar-fish turned over the back of the animal so
as to have the tips meet, the animal then flattened
out, and the sides of the arms so expanded as to
close in the interspaces: you would then have a
construction much as in the sand-dollar and in other
sea-urchins. This appears really to be the relation,
but just how the diverging modification has been
brought about still remains to be determined. The
eye-specks, which in the star-fish are placed at the
extremities of the arms, are in the urchin situated
centrally on top, or just where we should expect to
find them on the assumption above stated.
Alternating with the eye-specks are the ovarian
apertures, through which the eggs are passed out
from the body. In the cluster of small plates which

STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, ETC. 77

form the apical disk is also situated the madreporic
tubercle. The entire surface of the shell, seen to
better advantage in a second species of our coast,
the sea-egg (Strongylocentrotus, Pl. 5, Fig. 4),
bristles with spines, between which rise the very
delicate tube-feet, swaying to and fro in search of
objects to be placed within their grasp. The sea-
urchins like to conceal themselves, and they will
thus frequently cover their habitations with sea-
weed, grass, pebbles, and shell-fragments. In this
condition they can be readily passed over without
being noticed by their enemies. A southern species
when placed in a bucket of gravel and shell will
almost immediately disappear beneath the surface,
lifting the material over its back. Progression is
effected almost exclusively by means of the tube-
feet.

Two other species of sea-urchin occur on our
coast—one, the purple sea-urchin (Arbacia punctulata,
Pl. 5, Fig. 6), a convex form, readily distinguish-
able by its comparatively stout and purple spines ;
and the other, the sand-cake proper (Mellita quin-
quefora, Pl. 5, Fig. 1), a flattened species much like
the sand-dollar, easily recognized by the five slits
in its shell.

It would scarcely be proper to complete our
notice of these interesting animals without calling
attention to their peculiar five-toothed masticatory
apparatus and to the singular bird-beaked bodies
—pedicellarie—which rise up between the spines.
The full function of the latter has not yet been as-

certained, but that they in part assist in removing
T*

78 STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, ETC.

obstructions from the surface of the test, where this
is necessary, can be easily seen.

SEA-CUCUMBERS. ~

The sea-cucumbers, or holothurians, constitute an
interesting group of animals whose members live
both upon the rocks and buried in the sand ur mud.
Although so different in gen-
eral appearance, they repre-:
sent only extreme modifica-
tions of the structure seen in
the star-fish or the sea-urchin.
Take for example that singu-
larly attractive creature the
Synapta, whose elongated
leech-like body can be se-
cured from the mud-flats by
the aid of agarden-trowel, and
examine it. The transparent
cylindrical form, permitting
the yellow intestinal canal to
be clearly visible in the in-
terior, shows at first little to
connect it with either star-fish or sea-urchin, but
soon you will perceive five well-defined bands
traversing the length of the body from one ex-
tremity to the other. These are indeed the am-
bulacra, although in this instance the tubes are
closed and, so far as locomotion is concerned, func-
tionless. In its fundamental structure, therefore,
the sea-cucumber is only a greatly elongated sea-
urchin, being pushed out axially, as it were, to its

STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, ETC. 79

farthest limit. But it differs in many details of
structure. The mouth in the Synapta is surrounded
by a wreath of branched tentacles, into whose in-
terior the sea-water is admitted through a system
of vessels connecting with a madreporic tubercle.
The latter structure, as in all other sea-cucumbers,
is placed near the mouth.

Closely examined, the transparent wall of the
body will be found to be speckled with minute
wart-like processes, giving the animal a rough feel
when taken in the hand. These processes under a
microscope reveal most extraordinary forms, which
are most nearly likened in outline to an anchor:
hence we speak of the anchor-like spicules em-
bedded in the body-substance, which of themselves
frequently offer good characters in the determina-
tion of species. In some forms, as in the remark-
able pangolin-like Psolus of the New England
coast, these processes, or rather their representa-
tives, are developed into an armor of stout over-
lapping scales or plates.

Placed in a dish of sea-water, the habits of this
interesting creature can be studied at leisure, the
regular rhythmic or wave-like motion of the body
proving a never-failing source of surprise to those
to whom the animal is a novelty. At some mo-
ments it has contracted into a nearly perfect ball,
at other times it has straightened itself to double
its usual length. Frequently it throws off parts of
the posterior end of its body, accomplishing this
curious freak either by close constriction, or by the
forcible expulsion of its intestines. In feeding, the

80 STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, ETC.

Synapta takes in large quantities of fine pebbles,
sand, and shell, from which it doubtless extracts
considerable nourishment. These objects are dis-
tinctly visible through the walls of the body and
intestine.

A much stouter form of the sands is the Caudina,

ae
xs
aN

CAUDINA ARENARIA.

which is sometimes thrown up in considerable num-
bers after a storm. Its color is light yellowish, the
texture is tough, and in a distant way the animal
might be likened to a cucumber greatly attenuated
at one extremity.

IV.
OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

Amone our first acquaintances of the sea-shore
are sure to be a number of those merry sprites
which have not yet mastered the lesson of how to
walk straight—or rather, we should say, walk
straight ahead, for if many of the crabs have
failed to acquire the habit of following in the
direction towards which the head points, they have
well acquired the art of diverging straight from it
at aright angle. It is certainly one of the most in-
teresting sights of the shore to observe these appar-
ently one-sided creatures hurrying off in their lat-
eral progression, making probably for their burrows
in the sand or mud; pass them, and note how rap-
idly some of them reverse their motion, without
even so much as stopping to glance at their pur-
suer. The machinery appears to have given out at
one end, when they immediately reverse, and travel
back over their old course. Among the more pro-
nounced offenders against the commonly accepted
law of proper walking are the little ‘ fiddlers,’ or
‘calling crabs’ as they are sometimes termed.
Their burrows, indicated by holes about as large
as would be made by a thrust from an umbrella-
point, are scattered all over the salt marshes and
mud-flats at about high-water mark, and from

St 81

82 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

them you can frequently see the little animal
peeping forth, preparatory to a sally. At another
part of the flat, where the thud of your footsteps
has not given advance signals of danger, hundreds
of these merry crablings are probably busily occu-
pied with their out-door labors. Approach them,
and away they scamper to their habitations. There
are both males and females in the throng, the for-

FIppier (Gelasimus vocator)

mer recognizable by the very undue development
of one of the claws, which is carried transversely
in front of the head. When provoked, the animal
brandishes this claw in a somewhat threatening
manner, which has been likened to the pulling
of a violin-bow—hence the name of ‘ fiddler’—and
by others to the action of beckoning or calling
(hence ‘ calling crabs’).

Taking the necessary precaution to hold the big

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 83

claw, examine somewhat more closely one of these
animals. Observe the two bead-like compound
eyes, supported on long stalks, which can be read-
ily withdrawn into the protecting shield of the
carapace. The manner of this support, allowing
of vision in almost every direction, has given to
the group in which this structure is found the
name of the stalk-eyed crustaceans, to which, in
addition, the lobsters, crayfishes, hermits, and
shrimps, etc., belong. The two pairs of feelers in
front of the eyes, known as antenne and anten-
nules, are of peculiar interest as examples of
combined organs, for, apart from acting in their
capacity as feelers alone, they seem to subserve the
functions of smelling and hearing, the auditory
apparatus being lodged in the base of the smaller
pair. The feet are ten in number, a feature dis-
tinctive of the so-called ten-footed or decapod crus-
taceans. At first sight a crab appears to have no
tail, but if the animal is turned over on its back,
the tail—it is true, a comparatively short one—
will be seen to be safely tucked under the body.
If we take by way of comparison in our studies
a lobster or a crayfish, we soon perceive that there
is an entirely different disposition of this part of
the body—that the tail, or more properly the abdo-
men, is stretched out beyond the body proper, and
that it is greatly elongated in relation to the length
of the animal. We thus recognize two distinct
groups of ten-legged stalk-eyed crustaceans: the
short-tailed forms, or crabs (Brachyura), and the
opposite or long-tailed forms, such as the lobster,

R+4 OUR CARCINOLOUGICAL FRLENDS,.

the shrimp, ete. (Macrura), An intermediate typo
ix represented by the hermit-crabs, with some of
whose habits we have already become acquainted.

There wre two species of fiddler found on our
coast, much resembling one another in both color
and ornamentation, The more common form ( (ela
simus vocator) has w smooth and shining carapace,
whereas in the second (Cedasimues minar) the cariupnce
ix minutely granulated and in purt tubereulated ;
in both the back appears impressed with a figure
much like that of the letter IT,

The second species, which appears to be a vegeo-
table fecder, is much the larger of the two, and its
burrows are not infrequently one and a half inches
across, or even more. It inhabits the estuarine re-
gion, in immediate proximity to fresh water, rather
than the tidal flats, and, indeed, it appears to be
able to get along for weeks, or even months, with-
out absolutely requiring salt water.

In excavating, the fiddlers throw or push up the
pellets of moist carth by ineans of their anterior
walking legs, depositing their burden usually at
some little distance from the mouth of the burrow.
At the approach of winter they close up the domi-
ciliary apertures, and pass into a condition of tor-
pidity until the advent of spring.

Leaving to their capers the noixeless musicians
of the shore, let us examine somewhat more closely
the forms that nature has fashioned with a Tittle
nearer approuch to symmetry. The ‘regular’
crabs, in a general way, look very much alike, dif-
fering seemingly only in the proportion of parts

PLATE 6.

Fia.
1,
2.

Som

Cancer irroratus.
Libinia canaliculata.
Carcinus meenas.
Callinectes hastatus.
Platyonichus ocellatus,
Gebia affinis.

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 85

and ornamentation. This is, however, a false con-
ception, for they differ among themselves not only
in important structural characters, but largely also
in habit. Some are habitually walkers of the sand,
others burrowers in the mud, a few parasitic on dif-
ferent animals, and others, again, good swimmers.
A number use the floating sea-weed for their home,
drifting far into mid-ocean. The famous Sargasso
Sea is a carcinological world of itself. Down to
a depth of several thousand feet in the sea the
lonely crab lurks about in the darkness, finding
companionship with the mollusks whose shells it
frequently robs. Again, on mountain heights. of
4000 feet elevation or more the land-crab (Birgo) is
not uncommonly met with on its travels,

Look at the extremities of the last pair of legs
of the soft-shell crab (Pl. 6, Fig. 4)—the crab par
excellence of the Atlantic coast—and compare them
with the similar parts of the spotted or sand-crab
(Cancer irroratus, Pl. 6, Fig. 1), the common trans-
verse species, whose empty ‘boxes’ are to be found
at almost all times on the beach. In this species,
which can be readily recognized by the nine blunt
teeth projecting from each side of the anterior edge
of the carapace, they are merely pointed blades, but
in the soft-shell, the edible form, they are flattened
out into paddles, forming efficient swimming organs.
The soft-shell (Callinectes hastatus) is thus the type
of a group of swimming crabs, of which the beau-
tiful ‘lady’s crab’ (Platyonichus ocellatus, Pl. 6,
Fig. 5) is another representative. It is not to be

assumed that these swimmers constantly float on
8

86 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

the ambient waters, for they appear to delight in
the mud-flats as much as the other species; but
they possess, in the art of swimming, one advan-
tage over their fellows.

When the embryo crab escapes from the egg it
is liberated in the form of a very remarkable little
body known as the Zoea, whose real nature was for

ZOEA OF CRAB (magnified), MEGALOPS (magnified).

a long time a sealed chapter to the naturalist. This
Zoea is furnished with a big head and an elongated
body, but the features that most readily arrest one’s
attention are the three or four long spines which
appear to be carelessly thrust out from different
parts of the body and head, and which give to the
tiny creature a singularly uncouth aspect. For
many years before the connection between the Zoea
and the crab was known, the former was looked
upon as a mature animal, and naturally regarded
as a distinct species. From the Zoea the crab
passes by gradual stages to the Megalops con-
dition, when, as the name indicates, the eyes are
developed to a disproportionately large size. In
this process of growth to maturity the crab is com-
pelled at repeated intervals to cast its skin or shell,

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 87

so that it may acquire a néw one conformable to
its progressive stature. This process of sloughing
the shell appears to take place annually; the length
of time required for its full accomplishment—z.e.,
from the moment of the throwing off of the old
shell to the proper cementing of the new—being
in the neighborhood of forty-eight hours. In this
interval the crab is known as a ‘soft-shell’ or
‘shedder,’ in which condition it is by many highly
prized as an article of food.

The common edible crab or ‘ blue crab’ delights
in the sheltered muddy shores of coves and bays,
and in the brackish waters of estuaries, where it
can be frequently seen in numbers swimming up
and down with the advancing and retreating waters.
The young, more particularly, frequent the tangle of
shore-line grass and weed, whence in case of alarm
they swim out to deep water. The food of this spe-
cies consists largely of fishes, certain forms of which,
in turn, destroy great quantities of the crabs.

Two interesting hole-inhabiting crabs somewhat
related to the fiddlers, but with nearly equally de-
veloped claws, are Sesarme reticulata and Ocypoda
arenaria. The latter, which is also sometimes
known as the ‘sand-crab,’ is interesting from the
close approximation of its coloring to that of the
sand in which it dwells—an instance of true pro-
tective resemblance. It is carnivorous in habit,
and is said to spring upon the beach-fleas much
as a cat springs upon mice.

There are two species of so-called ‘ oyster crab’
on our coast, which possess widely different habits.

88 OUR CARCINOLOGIOAL ERLENDS,

Ono of these, 0 yellow-brown species Whose cirnpree
measures wbout an inch across, purtakes Komowhut
of the character of the fiddlers in living the claws
unequally developed, but the largo claw ix carried
in the normal way and without tho throntening
exercise of tho fiddler, Tho Kpocios, aldo known a1
‘mud-eraly’ (Panopeus Herbsti), in un habitué of the
oyslor-beds, where it in said to destroy large quinn
tities of the oyster spawn. The second Kpecios
(Pinnothercs ostrcum) 16 womuch amaller form, not
measuring more than a halfineh in
either length or width, and is habitu-
ally associated with the oyster within
the lutter’s shell,
Pinna ee ee, A fow words about, that forbidding
looking creature the sea-spider (II.
6, Fig. 2). This crab, of seemingly morose habits,
lacks the vivacity of the other specick, Tt in a
somewhat rare visitor to the open shore, preferring
the quict of the deeper waters, where, in apprrent
meditation, it leisurely walks over the encumbrances
that may be placed in its path, Tt secs to wlan
observation, and frequently allows itself lo be over-
grown by plants of various kinds, hydroids, ete.,
which completely mask its identity. Although by
strangers usually given a» wide berth on account
of the long claws, the animal is but a feeble repre-
sentative of a group whose members in other parts
of the world are giants in comparison. A. speci-
men of the Japanese Macrocheirw in the posses-
sion of the British Museum measures home eighticen
fect in expanse of legs,

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 89

HERMIT-CRABS.

These sprightly little animals, which are usually
of small size, are a source of never-failing delight
to the student of nature. They have truly habits
of their own, which stamp them at once as being
original and distinctive. It is well known that the
‘hermits’ derive their name from the seclusion
into which they cast themsclves as inhabitants of
the shells of other animals, but it is probably not
so generally known that the rights of tenantry are
frequently exercised in a very arbitrary manner.
Thus, the hermit-crab is-not always satisfied in the
choice of a dead shell, but will raid upon a living
possessor and attempt to drag it from its strong-
hold; and in this operation the assailant will fre-
quently receive the assistance of a number of its
fellows, cach one carrying his castle as defensive
armor. It is true that the attack is probably in
many cases made for the double purpose of obtain-
ing the enemy as well as its belongings; but, how-
ever this may be, forcible possession is by them
considered to be no misdemeanor.

In the greater number of the hermit-crabs the
body is unprotected by a carapace, and, being soft
and liable to injury, the animal secks protection
nnder cover usually of a snail-shell, winding itself
about the coils of the shell, to the inner extremity
of which it attaches itself by means of its modified
posterior feet. In this position the animal is only
with difficulty withdrawn, retracting itself farther

and farther within cover of the shell. A sudden
g*

90 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

fracture of the apex of the shell, under which ap-
pears to be the most delicate part of the animal’s
body, will generally effect an immediate dislodge-
ment, the terrified crab dropping from the aper-
ture. With its progressive development in size the
hermit requires frequent changes of abode, and its
methods in securing a new habitation are among
the most interesting of the special habits acquired
by animals. The creature is very circumspect, and
will make several reconnoissances before he feels
fully satisfied with the size, manner, etc., of a pros-
pective habitation, retiring after each visit to the
old shell. The Rev. Mr. Lockwood thus graphi-
cally describes the line of operations involved in
house-hunting :

“But the hermit grows, while the shell which he
occupies does not. Hence, like many bipeds, he
has his first of May, so he goes house-hunting.
This must be understood literally. He finds a
shell. Willitdo? First, then, is it really to let?
He will inquire within. This he does, if not most
courteously, very feelingly. Satisfied on this point,
the next question is, will the house suit? He turns
it over, then turns it round. You sce, the weight
of one’s house is quite an item in the reckoning to
him who has to carry it on his back. One inspec-
tion more. How is itinside? Is it certainly empty
and of the right size? Up goes one of the slender
limbs of the second pair, and the interior is thor-
oughly explored. All right! Just the house he is
after. Ilis mind is made up to move. Look at
him! Quick! or you will miss it! Out comes the

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 91

body from the old house, and pop 1t goes into the
new one. The resolution to move was taken, the
surrender of the old house was made, and the oc-
cupancy of the new was effected, and all within a
fraction of a second of time.

“‘Sometimes this matter goes on less pleasantly.

*WartTy HERMIT’ IN PEAR-CONCH.

Two house-hunters may find the same tenement.
Should both desire it, then comes the tug of war.
Live together they neither can nor will. The affair
is settled by a battle, in which the stronger proves

1y OER CUROINOLOGTOLE RRERVDIS

Win elatinn eleht by the Curly totine topele and natal,
Ving Mihi Quite ation from: Cheae eneounterr a
forri ble tudtation reantia "Poca He fen rad adele
to nee Che The Herndi@ when ditt (ive Teta eonie, ane
The owe d6; Chiat ing when Miapigieua ninat atia
However droll Tht cnrecr may dive been, (be Hale
Hermit de prnve then. And whit ae atrinnge thet ut
Jal Who om explain ia? Rhea poor Htthe fallow
vomed ont oof Tika hone to dle. Yea, di order to
Hie, Poca Tamia home da the only ellie place
fo dio dn. Bit for Mapagens temie Tin ie Gin
Fiona it (ila olen (ine. Poor fellow £ withe ay evel
look aod melineholy movement heof dia awa will
quita the houte for whieh he fought ao well, Mowe
woe or feelers, (hat often atoad out ae pire
Volcingty nnd were ao often poled Hite every body ia
Dusinen, new Te prone and harness Tha eyes
Hive Tosh (hele porta, Mewe Here Ghee Tea tiseal egy
Hernh on Cae mvasy wood, ate eevee
The two spec of herniit oeouerelig on one ensued,
cu be readily diatingilabed from nel other by
Qhele sive aed (he diver
eneo dn the shape of the
a ee
Wert’ (Aigargivin pal
Hearii), (he larger spe
thoy Willits the shelly
of thier Vilpe Navtieviee aie
the alpine, diel ew die
CEES RDA I oxi taney Iromedintely Peed yee
hy connie bend alawa,
whieh in pret part clone up the apertine of Ube

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 93

shell occupied by it. In the more common form
of the small shells (Zupagurus longicarpus), which
rarely attains a length much exceeding one inch,
the legs are all much elongated, giving the animal
a very slender appearance.

SHRIMPS AND PRAWNS,

Of the long-tailed ten-footed crustaceans (Ma-
crura) the best-known representatives are the lob-
ster, shrimp, and prawn. The first, which is too
familiar to require special notice, can scarcely be
considered to be a true member of the New Jersey
coust fauna, having been introduced with the build-
ing of the Delaware breakwater, where it has se-
cured somewhat of a permanent footing. Its rarity
otherwise must be attributed to the absence of an
environment suited to its living and development.
The rocky shores of the North constitute its true
home, and although stray individuals are found
farther south, they rarely appear below the East
River. The species sometimes attains an enormous
size, individuals frequently weighing as much as
fifteen to twenty pounds, and occasionally passing
much beyond this limit. An animal somewhat re-
sombling the lobster, although considerably smaller
in size—measuring only three or four inches in
length—is the Gebia affnis (Pl. 6, Fig. 6), a pro-
found burrower of the mud-flats.

The shrimps and prawns, which much resemble
one another, are abundant in the bays and harbors,
passing up to considerable distances in the tidal
sireams and crecks, They are active little creatures,

94 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

of a light-green color, or nearly colorless, and often
quite translucent. In this country they are not so
highly esteemed as an article of food as they are
in either England or France, where the prawn-
fishery constitutes an important branch of industry.
Our common shrimp (Crangon vulgaris, Pl. 7, Fig.
8), which can be distinguished from the prawn
(Palemon, Pl. 7, Fig. 9) by the terminal joints of
the two anterior pairs of legs being undivided, and
by the filiform structure of the succeeding legs, does
not appear to differ from the ordinary European
species. It is abundant in the waters of the sandy
flats, where by reason of its har-
monizing coloring it escapes ready
detection. Both shrimps and
prawns are frequently infested
with a loathsome parasite, which
attaches itself as a round black
mass on one side of the neck of
the victim. This parasite is in
itself a crustacean, known to nat-
uralists as Bopyrus.

A so-called shrimp, not to be
confounded with either of the pre-
ceding, is the Mysis stenolepis (P]. 7, Fig. 1), which
appears more abundantly about our coasts during
the winter months. It may be distinguished from
the true shrimps by its cloven or double feet, and by
the external position of the gills. From the cireum-
stance of its carrying its eggs in a pouch underneath
the thorax it has received the familiar name of
‘opossum shrimp,’ by which it is generally known.

PANDALUS,

Fic.
. Mysis stenolepis. .
. Limnoria terebrans (X 7).

PHAR AR Ow oO

=
S

Caprella geometrica (> 24).

. Idotea irrorata.

Gammarus ornatus.
Orchestia agilis (< 4).
Amphithoé maculata.
Crangon vulgaris.
Palemon vulgaris.
Unciola irrorata.

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 95

A. common object—indeed, one of the commonest
objects of the sands—is the cylindrical mole crab
or ‘sand-bug’ (Jlippa emerita),
whose vertical burrows open
up in great number, partic-
ularly in the lower tidal re-
gion, The animal is a remark-
ably rapid burrower, pushing
itself downward in a reversed
Imanner,—te., tail foremost.
As a rule, but little organic
matter is found within the ali-
mentary canal of the mole crab,
which appears to subsist largely
upon the nutriment extracted from the swallowed
sand. It constitutes a favorite article of food with
many fishes.

HIPPA EMERITA,

BEACH-FLEAS, HOPPERS, AND SOW-BUGS.

A walk at almost any hour along the sandy beach
is sure to stir up a number of the little hopping
crustaceans to which the name of ‘ beach-flea’ or
‘sand-flea’ has been applied (Orchestia agilis, Pl. 7,
Fig. 6). They hop up in front of your footsteps,
and leave with cqual celerity the seat that may have
been selected for you, but not until you have turned
over the long line of sea-wrack (dried sea-weed)
which fronts the ocean at high-water mark can you
have any just conception of the multitudes that are
here busily engaged in performing the offices of the
public scavenger. Decayed and decaying parts of
both plants and animals are equally acceptable to

96 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

the beach-flea. Examine the legs of one of these
animals, and you will observe that they are disposed
on either side in two dissimilar series; hence the
name of Amphipoda, double-footed, that has been
applied to the broad group to which the hopper
belongs. Two closely related, but larger, species,
of a gray rather than of an olive or brown color,
constitute the genius Talorchestia.

A form much like the preceding, but with aquatic
habits, is found in both salt and fresh waters,
largely frequenting the meshes of the rock-weed
(Fucus). The Gammarus (PI. 7, Fig. 5), for so the
animal is known to naturalists, is a helpless creature
out of water, shuffling along on its side in a vain
endeavor to elude its pursuers or to regain the
water. It occurs in vast numbers in favored lo-
calities, contributing largely to the food-supply of
many of our coast fishes.

Another interesting amphipod of our coast is
found abundantly on the surfaces of submarine
plants, and also on sponges, where it may be seen
moving about in the manner of the ordinary meas-
uring-worms, arching over its body, and advancing
alternately the two extremities. From this close
resemblance to the progression of the geometer
worms it has received the name of Caprella geo-
metrica (Pl. 7, Fig. 3).

Of the less attractive group of the sow-bugs,
many of whose members, such as the Bopyrus,
already mentioned, are parasitic on the tissues of
other animals, but few forms are likely to come
to the notice of the visitor to the sands. One of

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 97

these (Idotea ceca) is the little creature whose ser-
pentine tracks over the sand have so frequently
called forth the query, What animal made them?
The species is found all the way from Massachusetts
to Florida. A second form (Stenosoma irrorata, PI.
7, Fig. 4), of a deep-purple or sea-green color, will
probably be recognized by many as the active spirit
of the quieter waters, whose gyrations strongly sug-
gest a scheme of self-imposed perpetual motion. A
third species (Limnoria terebrans, Pl. 7, Fig. 2) can
generally be found only beneath the water-surface,
where it attacks almost any timber—piles, piers of
bridges, wharves, etc.—that may be brought within
its reach. It is asserted that piles lose as. much as
an inch in diameter annually through the ravages
of this pest. Coating with verdigris or creosote,
or sheathing with metallic copper, has proved effi-
cacious as a preventive of destruction.

In all these forms the body is largely symmetrical
in outline, and the numerous pairs of legs are of
nearly equal size and equally disposed along the
sides of the body; hence the term Isopoda, equal-
footed, that has been applied to the group in general.

SQUILL.

Our description of the Crustacea of the coast
would not be complete without reference being
made to a somewhat rare species, the squill, which
is figured on the following page. The animal can
be immediately recognized by its greatly elongated
and flattened body, measuring from four to six,

or exceptionally ten, inches in length, the great
E g 9

98 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

delicacy of all its ambulatory appendages, except
the first pair, and the greatly developed swim-
merets of the posterior part of the body. The
exterior (?) pair of feelers (antenne) have also a
peculiar structure, being spread out into an oval
ciliated plate. 7

The animal, which is a close relative of a com-

SQUILLA EMPUSA.

mon European species, is in many regions highly
esteemed as an article of food. It is a true bur-
rower, but as yet little positive is known of its
general habits.

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 99

THE HORSESHOE CRAB: IS IT A GIANT SPIDER-FORM ?

Those among us to whom the horseshoe crab, or
king-crab as it is frequently called, in 1 allusion to

its large size, is known
only in its general de-
tails, would probably
searcely think it worth
while to consider the
question as to its posi-
tion in the animal
world. What should
it be other than the
‘crab’ that it has al-
ways been considered ?
With our carcinologi-
cal friends it agrees
in the possession of a
crusty envelope or
shield, it breathes by
means of gills, inhabits
the water or mud like
them, and has, more-
over, the end-joints of
the legs pincered (che-
late). Further, it peri-

HORSESHOE CRAB.

odically sheds its shield like the crabs. But relent-
less and pursuing science has shown that in many
points of structure the animal is closely related to
the scorpions, and perhaps even more closely than
to the entire group of crust-bearing animals as such
‘crabs, shrimps, lobsters, etc.). This relation is seen

100 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

in the nature of the walking legs, in the disposition
and origin of the nerves supplying the legs, in the
structure of the eye, and in the manner of develop-
ment of the embryo. As against this evidence we
have the presence of true gills, and the absence of
the peculiar breathing-tubes- (tracheze) of the scor-
pion; but whether these important points of dis-
similarity are of greater value than those of affinity
above indicated, must still be considered an open
question.

The crust of the horseshoe crab is divided into
three distinct parts, an anterior rounded portion,
known as the cephalothorax, which protects the
more vital elements of the animal’s body—mouth,
stomach, heart, and legs; a median portion, the ab-
domen, on the under side of which are the gills, a
series of thin plates disposed in the fashion of the
leaves of a book; and a greatly elongated spine or
tail. The cephalothorax carries on its back two
pairs of eyes, of which the two big eyes situated
on either side of the shield are compound, while
the others, small and placed medially to the front,
are simple.

Although it would seem from tne general vaulted
appearance of the shield that the body of the animal
is of considerable thickness, the reverse is actually
the case. The under surface of the carapace follows
closely upon the inner face of the upper surface,
except along the medial region, where the body-
space is considerably expanded. In this central
part is situated the alimentary tract, the mouth
opening between the bases of the second of the

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 101

six pairs of legs. The food, which consists of va-
rious small animals, largely worms, is conveyed to
the mouth by one or more of the foot-pincers, where
it is closely rasped and triturated by the rubbing
together of the spiny basal joints of the legs.

The horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) prefers
for its habitat the protected bays and estuarine
waters, where it burrows in the sand or mud just
sufficiently to cover its body. In this operation of
burrowing the head is the excavating organ, while
the feet and tail, firmly pressed backward, are the
force. When placed on its back the animal has
some difficulty in at first righting itself, but by
arching upward the carapace, at the same time re-
ceiving assistance from the tail, it soon recovers
itself.

The horseshoe crab so closely resembles in ap-
pearance and structure the ancient trilobites, whose
remains are so numerously buried in the older rock-
deposits of our earth, that there are strong grounds
for concluding that the latter were the true pro-
genitors of the modern race, a conclusion that has
been strongly reinforced by the embryologi .al study
of the two types. The young Limulus, in fact, so
nearly resembles the young of certain forms of
trilobites as to be barely distinguished from them;
at this period the spine is still wanting. Subse-
quent moulting of the carapace is preceded by a
splitting of the latter along its border, the animal
drawing itself through the opening thus made.

This species is found abundantly along the coast

from Maine to Florida. Where left exposed on
g*

102 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

the beach for some time, the gill-sacs are apt to
become infiltrated with the sand, when their pe-
culiar accordion-like disposition becomes apparent.
When thus distended in irregular rolls they are com-
monly supposed to represent egg-capsules strung
together on a ribbon.

Before dismissing the sub-
ject of spider forms, it may
be well to call attention to
the singular slender (eight-
legged) creatures that are
frequently met with on hy-
droid colonies and on
sponges. From their dis-
tinctive forms, and their habit of living in the
oceanic waters, they have been named ‘sea-spiders’
(Pycnogonoids); but their exact relationship has
not yet been determined.

SEA-SPIDER.

THE GOOSE BARNACLE, AND BARNACLES IN GENERAL.

Of the remarkable traditions which have invested
the life-histories of many of our animals none is
perhaps more indicative of a fertile imagination
than that which ascribes to the barnacle the power
‘of giving birth to a fowl (barnacle goose). How
such a notion could ever have attained currency,
and met with a firm acquiescence on the part of
scholars of even a high degree of learning and
intelligence, is almost inconceivable. Yet we have
not only acknowledgment of a full belief in this
miracle, but positive assurances from otherwise re-

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 108

spectable eye-witnesses as to the exact stages by
which the miracle was accomplished. And even
to-day some people, with child-like simplicity, ask
if there exists any connection between the two
animals.

The following passages from “The Herball or
Generall Historie of Plantes,” a voluminous trea-
tise of 1500 pages by John Gerarde (edition of
1636), may prove interesting in this connection:
“. . . we are arrived at the end of our Ilistory ;
thinking it not impertinent to the conclusion of the
same, to end with one of the marvels of this land
(we may say of the World). The history whereof
to set forth according to the worthinesse and raritie
thereof, would not only require a large and peculiar
volume, but also a deeper search into the bowels
of Nature, than my intended purpose will suffer me
to wade into, my sufficiencie also considered; . . .
in the meane space take it as it falleth out, the
naked and bare truth, though unpolished. There
are found in the North parts of Scotland and the
islands adiacent, called Orchades, certaine trees
whereon do grow certaine shells of a white colour
tending to russet, wherein are contained little living
creatures; which shells in time of maturity doe open,
and out of them grow those little living things, which
falling into the water do become fowles, which we
eall Barnacles; in the North of England, brant
Geese; and in Lancashire, tree Geese; but the
other that do fall upon the land perish and come
to nothing. ...

“ But what our ees have seene, and hands have

104 OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

touched we shall declare . . . when it is perfectly
formed the shell gapeth open, and the first thing
that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next
come the legs of the bird hanging out, and as it —
groweth greater it openeth the shell by degrees,
till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only
by the bill: in short space after it commeth to full
maturity, and falleth into the sea, where it gather-
eth feathers, and groweth to a fowle bigger than a
Mallard, and lesser than a Goose. . . .”

The goose barnacles are common objects about
the shore, being thrown up in bunches along with
the foreign bodies to which they
are generally found attached. They
locate themselves on piles, below
the water-line, to the bottoms of
ships, to drift-wood, sea-weed, float-
ing fruit, and, indeed, to almost
any object that comes in their way.
The peduncle or stalk upon which
the encased body of the animal is
supported has its origin in one of the
pairs of larval feelers or antenne, which through
modification and additional deposition of matter
undergo such transformation as to permit of the
new function to which they are now applied. The
shell, or ‘capitulum,’ consists of five pieces, four
lateral and one marginal (the keel or carina). On
the margin opposite to the keel it is open, permit-
ting of the extrusion of the six pairs of (double)
long, feathery feet, whose continuous motion cre-
ates currents in the direction of the shell, which

wae
ee

GoOOSE BARNACLE.

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 105

serve to carry the necessary nutritive particles to
the mouth.

As we find it in its adult condition the barnacle
is a much altered or metamorphosed animal, wholly
unlike what it was before it became attached. In
its earlier stage it is a free-swimming, active creat-
ure, with well-developed legs and a hinged bivalve
shell, on the whole much like some of our so-
called fresh-water fleas (Cypris). But it soon fixes
itself by means of suckers developed upon the
first pair of antenne, exudes a slimy substance
which helps to make the stalk, and thus, head
downward, passes through those subsequent met-
amorphoses which lead up to the mature animal
and almost completely mask its true character.
Indeed, until within a comparatively few years the
barnacles were classed with the mollusks, even the
great Cuvier mistaking their affinities.

It might naturally be supposed that an animal
so tightly closed up in its shell as is the barnacle
would have little use for organs of vision, and that
accordingly these organs would be found wanting.
But careful investigation of the tissues has revealed
the presence of a single eye-speck, of a duplex
origin, not far from the region of the mouth, which,
though thus deeply hidden within the shell, still
permits the animal to distinguish at least between
light and darkness. Allow your hand to pass over
a pan of sea-water containing barnacles, and ob-
serve by their actions how readily the animals dis-
tinguish between the different intensities of light.

Several species of stalked-barnacles are found on

106 OUR UARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS.

our coast, the two commoner being Lepas anatifera,
in which the stalks grow to a length of from four
to six inches, and Lepas fascicularis, in
which, as the name indicates, a consid-
crable number of individuals are closely
bunched together or fasciculated, The
former species, found on the bottoms of
Leras rascic- ships, is probably not indigenous to tho

men’ yegion. It is an erroneous notion, which
is shared by many, that the barnacles in any way
injure the holds of vessels to which they may be
attached. They merely impede navigation through
the resistance which their enormous numbers offer
to the water, and hence the necessity of keeping
vessels clear of their colonies. An effective method
of removal, frequently practised by sailing-masters,
is to drive a barnacled vessel into fresh water, where
the animals soon die and drop off.

Belonging to the same order of animals as the bar-
nacles proper are the acorn-shells, those crater-like
eminences that are found so abun-
dantly encrusting rocks at about
high-water mark, and scarcely loss
Reet Oe abundantly on the surfaces of shells,

anus balanoides), Avift-wood, ete. They have the same
general structure as the goose bar-
nacle, but are devoid of the stalk or peduncle, and
are hence known as ‘sessile’ barnacles. Where
attached to a rock they leave a peculiar circular
stamp of lime, which is not infrequently taken for
a coral impression.
The shell of the acorn is usually conical in out-

OUR CARCINOLOGICAL FRIENDS. 107

line, made up of six plates in its circurnference, and
with a lid of four plates covering over the central
orifice. The feathery appendages of the animal
are thrust out from the top of the shell, instead of
from the side, as we found it in the goose barnacle.

Our commonest species is Balanus balanoides, an
exceedingly variable form, which makes dense
crusts on rock-masses, piles, etc. In the typical
variety the acorns or cups are comparatively low
and broad, but in the more aberrant forms they are
greatly elongated and more nearly tubular in ap-
pearance. A much larger species 13 Balanus ebur-

BaLasvs BALANOIDES. BaLaNvi EBURNEUS.

neus, the ‘ivory barnacle,’ which can be readily dis-
tinguished from the preceding by its smooth broad
form and its shelly base. It is abundant on all
kinds of floating or submerged timbers, and not
rarely accompanies the shells of various Crustacea.
Much less frequently seen about our coast is the
coronated acorn (Coronula diadema), whose seat of
habitation is the skin of the whale, with which
animal it performs long journeys over the sea.

Vv.

WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC.

Worms are in a general way not very attrac-
tive animals, vet they present much that is at the
same time interesting and beautiful. This is par-
ticularly the case with the marine forms, whose
burrows can be traced almost everywhere over the
expanse of tidal flats which the retreating waters
leave behind them. At these times the animals
remain well within their habitations, from which
they can be readily extracted through the use of
a long-bladed garaen-trowel. The many-footed
Nereis, whose superb iridescence rivals in metal-
lie effect the lustre of the tropical beetles, is of a
type of beauty that is distinctively its own; and the
same may be said of the medusa-like Cirratulus (PL
8, Fig. 6), of the green Euchone, or of the gordian
Amphitrite (Plate 8, Fig. 1), with its crown of
fiesh-colored tentacles and blood-red gills. Some
of these forms, like the Serpule, inhabit more or
less permanently calcareous tubes of their own se-
cretion; others, by exudation of a binding cement,
construct their tubes of agglutinated sand-parti-
cles. Both of these types are known as tubico-
lous worms. Toa third group, represented by the
beautiful Nereis (Pl. 8, Fig. 9) and its allies (Lum-
briconereis, Pl. 8, Fig. 3, and the brush like Eunice),

108

WORMS. MOSS-POLYPS. SPONGES, ETC. 109

the habit of frequently running about or sallying
forth has viven the name of the - ranvers (Erran-
tia) The Nereis itself is a nocturnal anim:!. and
sometimes appears in large numbers swimming
about near the surface or the ocean.

All the forms thai have here been noted have
the body made up of a considerable number of
rings or annul. ranging to several hundred. which
on either side give origin ta two rows of epines
or bristles, whence the term Chetopoda, - bristle
footed.’ as applied to the members of the group
collectively. The crooked tubular habitations of
Serpula dianthus can be seen on almost all ob-
jects that have drifted down to
about low-water level—on old
pots. pebbles. the under and
lateral faces of rocks. surfaces
of shelis,ete. When disturbed
or irightened. the animal with-
draws itself into its tube, which
it closes by means of a plag or
operculum, and thus places it-
self in a position removed from
its enemies. When extended
it presents a beantifal appear-
ance, with its distended crown of brilliauily-tinted
branchis—red, yellow. purple, and brown—con-
sisting of some thirty or more delicate feathery fila-
ments. The brown sea-wrack occasienally brings
to as. although less frequently than on the New
England coast. small rounded bodies, not much
larger than a pin’s head, which to every appearance

10

110 WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC.

resemble flattened snails. They are the circular
tubes of a worm, Spirorbis, whose relationship is
immediately with the Serpule.

Of the group of worms in which the body is not
distinctly annulated, known as false annelids, may
be mentioned the earthworm-like Sipunculus (PI. 8,
Fig. 2), which can be easily recognized by its thick,
fleshy, and irregularly constricted body, and by the
long attenuated anterior extremity, designated the
proboscis. It burrows in the sand and mud-bot-
toms, like the majority of the marine worms.

The free surface of the wide ocean, no less than
the sheltered bays of the seaboard, harbors a very
interesting worm-like animal, about an inch in
length, and shaped somewhat like a lance, which
disports itself in rather characteristic fashion, mov-
ing by rapid jerks through the water. It has long
been familiar to naturalists as the Sagitta, or dart
(Pl. 8, Fig. 5), but to this day nothing positive is
known concerning its relationships. The body is
white, translucent, and permits the alimentary canal
to be distinctly seen in the interior. Laterally it is ex-
panded into a sort of fin-like membrane, and a some-
what similar fin rounds off the tail region. Two dark
pigment specks, the eyes, can be readily detected on
the head.

MOSS-POLYPS.

Much of the sea-wrack that is drifted to our
shores shows on its surface peculiar pitted incrus-
tations which sometimes occur only in scattered
patches, at other times in more or less continu-
ous ramifications. The same structure can fre-

be
CHONDA RHODE B

_
S

PLATE 8.

. Amphitrite ornata.

. Sipunculus Gouldii.

. Lumbriconereis opalina.
. Siphonostomum affine.
. Sagitta elegans.

. Cirratulus grandis.

. Clymenella torquata.

. Lepidonotus sublevis.

. Nereis pelagica.

Autolytus cornutus.

ee:
iS

WORMS, MOSS-POLY PS, SPONGES, ETC. 111

quently be seen on the insides of shells, around
pebbles, over the tubes of the serpula, etc. From
each of the tiny pits, which are often no larger
than a pin-point, protruded during the life of the
compound colony a minute polypide, delicately
crowned with tentacles, in many ways reminding
one of the polyps of the hydroid colonies with
which we have already become acquainted. But
these so-called moss-polyps or lace-corals—the
Polyzoa of naturalists—show a considerable ad-
vance in structure over their hydroid brethren, in-
asmuch as they are provided with a distinct ali-
mentary tract—stomach, intestine, etc.—clearly
marked off from the rest of the body, a central
nerve-mass, and other specialized organs which are
wholly wanting in the other group. The mouth is
situated at one side of, or within, the crown of ten-
tacles, receiving its full complement of nourishment
from the water-currents which are constantly being
impelled towards it by the vibrating
hairs (cilia) on the tentacles.

Perhaps the commonest of our en-
crusting forms is Escharina, whose
delicate tracery can frequently be
seen interwoven in concentric layers j
among or over the serpula tubes, Escuariva
making rounded masses from two to atc
six inches across. In this condition they may be
easily mistaken for pebbles, but their comparative
lightness, and the numerous minute holes which
become visible on closer examination, soon disclose
their true character.

112 WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC.

Other encrusting forms, but with the pores or
cells arranged in only a single tier, are the ‘ sea-

MEMBRANIPORA (magnified). POLYPIDE (magnified). ALCYONIDIUM.

mats,’ which are usually found on the fronds of the
sea-weed. One of these (Membranipora) makes
small scale-like patches, while another (Flustra)
occurs in ramifying or spreading branches. A less
readily recognizable form of polyzoan, the Alcyo-
nidium, making fleshy crusts a third of an inch or
more in thickness, is frequently
found enveloping small stones,
twigs, etc.

While perhaps the most distince-
tive polyzoans are the ones which
make crusts like those above de-
scribed, others grow in erect,
branching colonies, and thus still
more closely resemble the swaying
fronds of the true polyps. One of

Bueuna. these is the common Bugula, whose
tree-like forms, bearing tiny cups

on their upright branches, strongly recall the ser-
tularians or sea-firs. They are of particular interest
to the microscopist since they show to special ad-

WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC. 113

vantage certain structures that are not present in
all the members of the class. These are the ‘ bird-
head processes’ (avicularia), little snapping bodies
of the general shape of a bird’s head, which are
found attached to the cells, but of whose real
functions we as yet know very little. That they
seize by a sort of instinctive movement little aquatic
objects has been long since demonstrated, but the
wherefore of this action still remains to be as-
certained, since the particles thus caught can-
not readily be turned to account by the animal.
Other forms have in place of these avicularia long
lashes or whips (vibracula), which are in almost
constant motion, and may, at least in part, serve to
keep the colony clean from adhering particles. The
movement of both of these or-
gans can be easily followed in the
field of the microscope.

A beautiful rosette-formed poly-
zoan, Orisia eburnea, whose attach-
ment is the frond of the sea-weed,
is not rarely found scattered over
the sands; it is easily distinguished,
apart from its manner of growth,
by the calcareous or limy character of its ivory-
white habitations. Another white form (Pedicellina
Americana), with minute club-shaped individuals,
weaves a delicate tracery around the branches or
stems of other polyp colonies, hydroids, ete.

ri 10*

114 WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC.

SPONGES.

Among the lowest forms of life that drift to our
shores are sponges of one kind or another, many
of them, doubtless, wafted northward on the cur-
rent of the Gulf Stream, and then distributed by
local storms. Some of these are of the horny
character seen in the ordinary sponge of commerce,
but usually they are of a much looser texture, and
with a distinct disposition to branch. In the living
condition of the animal this fibrous mass is envel-
oped in a soft jelly-like substance, frequently most
brilliantly colored in tints of yellow, brown, and
red, which constitutes the active or vitalized mat-
ter of the organism, the horny fibres themselves
being merely an accessory in the way of an internal
support or skeleton. The entire mass is then per-
meated by innumerable canals, into which the sea-
water gains access by a multitude of external pores,
and from which it is expelled into a number of
larger channels, into which the canalule open,
and thence into the open sea again. A series of
perpetual circulations is thus kept up within the
substance of the animal, the cilia lining the chan-
nels helping along the water, and with it the
microscopic food-particles that may be contained
therein. The excurrent orifices (oscula) are of
much larger size than the incurrent pores, and are
frequently situated, crater-like, on special emi-
nences. In our ordinary wash-sponges their posi-
tions are clearly indicated in the larger spaces left
on the surface between the fibres.

WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC. 115

There are few objects more interesting to watch
than a sponge in action, but with us, unfortunately,
the only native sponges of consequence are either
thinly-branched or encrusting forms, which scarcely
permit of observations being made upon their man-
ner of living. One of these is the Microscionia
prolifera, a rather scanty creeper on rocks and
shells, having when fresh a bright red color.
When full-grown it rises up into bunchy masses,
measuring six inches or more across, which may
be found scattered between the sedges of the sand
where the latter has been left exposed at low-water.
A much more delicate species, readily distinguished
by its long and slender ‘ oculated’ branches, is the
Chalina arbuscula, whose habitat appears to extend
along the greater part of the Atlantic coast.

The -‘ sea-bread’ or ‘ sea-crackers,’ rounded yel-
lowish masses of an exceedingly light texture, which
sometimes appear after a storm, are also skeletal
parts of sponges, but their closely-packed and re-
markably fine fibrous threads are composed princi-
pally of silica instead of horn, and thus approxi-
mate the type of the large and important group of
silicious sponges, to which the ‘glass rope’ and
‘‘Venus’s flower-basket,’ two of the most exquisite
of nature’s objects, also belong. The sea-bread
(Suberites) has been dredged alive on the Massa-
chusetts coast, and it has therefore been conjec-
tured that its home must extend to that region.

Much more insignificant than the preceding is
the form (Cliona) that attacks oyster- and clam-
shells, burrowing into their midst from ll direc-

116 WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC.

tions, and soon reducing them to powder. Such
sponge-bored shells and rock-fragments may be
readily recognized by the numerous small holes
that open upon the surface.

FORAMINIFERA.

Still lower in the scale of organization than the
sponges are a number of animal forms whose exist-
ence is not very generally suspected by the visiting
public. We walk leisurely over the sands, little
suspecting that in so doing we may be ruthlessly
crushing to powder thousands of minute shells that
lie buried beneath our feet. To the ordinary ob-
server the sand appears to be a mass of nearly
homogeneous particles, little granules of white
and black quartz, through which are scattered at
intervals scales of mica, and exceedingly minute
fragments of another mineral known as _ horn-
blende. These are all derived from the destruc-
tion of certain rock-masses—the granites and their
allies principally—situated somewhere within the
continental border, and merely accumulated by the
sea after it has received the products of destruction
from the various rivers discharging into it. Buta
more critical examination of the sand shows that in
addition to the mineral substances above mentioned
it contains at times—and it may be said, at almost
all times—great quantities of tiny rounded shells
whose dimensions barely exceed those of the sand-
particles themselves. Without the aid of a magni-
fier these shells are almost undistinguishable; but
the lens and a practised eye will soon pick out the

WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC, 117

interesting mites whose life-history we are now
prepared to read.

Placed in the field of a microscope, these shells
exhibit on their surfaces innumerable puncte or
dots, which are in reality minute pores leading
through the shell into the interior. Through these
pores the animal substance that is contained within
may be extended in the form of delicate processes,
known as false feet (pseudopodia), by means of
which the currents of food-particles may be di-
rected to the organism. The bulk of the animal
itself consists of a tiny bit of jelly-like substance,
known as protoplasm, which shows none of the
organs that are common to the higher animals;
that is to say, there is neither mouth, stomach,
heart, nor nerve. But despite these deficiencies the
animal passes through the cycle of life with a free
and satisfactory performance of the usual processes
of assimilation, growth, and reproduction. There
are few kinds of animals that are simpler in struc-
ture than these so-called pore-bearers (Forami-
nifera), and one of these is the almost universally
distributed proteus-animalcule of our fresh waters
(Ameeba), which differs only in the absence of a
shell.

The simplest form of foraminiferal shell is a
hollow sphere, in which the protoplasm, or active
animal substance, is lodged. In other forms this
primitive sphere buds out into a number of addi-
tional spheres, which gradually increase in size
from the oldest to the newest, and may develop
either one in advance of the other in a straight

118 WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC.

line, or, what is more usually the case, in one or
more circles around the initial sphere. A com-
plex arrangement of chambers may thus be built
up, especially if the system of development has
proceeded along more than a single plane. Of
such a complex character is our little Rotalia of
the ocean sands, the different chambers in the shell
of which can be clearly traced out with the aid of
the microscope.

The Foraminifera lead an apparently very inde-
pendent life on the ocean wave, tossed hither and
thither among the seething waters: their home is
not merely the surface, but extends to the gloomier
shades of the abyss. At the bottom of the sea the
shells of the dead animals accumulate in prodigious
numbers, forming there a deep white or gray mud
known as the ‘ Atlantic ooze.’ It is this same sub-
stance compacted which constitutes true chalk, and
likewise much of the hard limestone and marble
which we see everywhere about us. At one time
the areas where we now find chalk and marble
were beneath the sea, but through movements of
the earth’s crust of one kind or another they have
been brought to their present inland positions.
The so-called ‘ greensands’ or ‘ marls’ of New Jer-
sey are largely a foraminiferal composition, the
little green pellets of the mineral glauconite,
which give the distinctive appearance to the sand,
representing principally the fillings or casts of an
endless number of foraminiferal shells, from which
the lime has been removed through solution.

WORMS, MOSS-POLYPS, SPONGES, ETC. 119

Some idea of the vast numbers in which these
minute organisms occur may be gathered from the
fact that an ounce of sand taken from the beach of
Atlantic City, despite the breakages to which the
minute shells were liable in being tossed and rubbed
about, was estimated to contain fully 18,000 indi-
viduals of a single species of Nonionina, and that a
similar measure taken from the sands of Cape May
yielded by computation upwards of 38,000 individ-
uals of the same species.

Vi.
SOME COASTWISE FISHES.

Amona the odds and ends that the incoming
flood casts upon the beach are the peculiar pillow-
shaped objects with long-drawn-out corners which
are generally known under the name of ‘sca-
purses.’ Great is the discussion attending the
finding of one of these sea-purses, and many are
the conjectures regarding their true nature. The
specimens found on the sand are usually dry and
split in the purse portion, showing nothing within ;

‘BEA-PURSE,’

but when freshly drawn from the sea-weed to
which they were at one time firmly attached, they
contain each a solitary egg, or, if development has
proceeded sufficiently far, an embryo in place
of the egg. This embryo is the young of the
skate or ray, that common representative of the
shark tribe of fishes, whose broad fleshy masses,
with a grinning mouth on the under surface, are
120

SOME COASTWISE FISHES, 121

frequently exposed on our market-stalls. The
purse, or ‘shark-barrow,’ as it is termed in Eng-
land, is the egg-capsule of this singular creature,
by whom it is deposited in the forest of sea-weed,
to be there safely anchored by one or more of its
filamentous processes.

The rays or skates (Raia) are not uncommon
along our coast, where they occupy the bottom
water, skimming about just over the sand or mud.
Their flabby masses are occasionally stranded on
the beach, where they are soon picked to pieces by
the ever-watchful sea-fowl in search of such deli-
cacies. Of the remaining cartilaginous skeleton,
the jaws, whose small pavement-like teeth emi-
nently serve the purposes of grinding, generally
remain the longest, and are often found still at-
tached to each other when nothing else remains.

Somewhat similar jaws, but with the teeth sharp
and pointed, instead of flat and pavement-like as
in the rays, are the belongings of true sharks, sev-
eral species of which wander about our shores. The
commonest of these is the sand-shark or shovel-
nose (Carcharias Americanus), an exceedingly vora-
cious animal, measuring when full grown some
six or seven feet. The teeth are sharp and awl-like,
whence the name Odontaspis applied to the genus
by many naturalists. In the majority of the sharks
the teeth are disposed in several distinct series, but
only those of the outer row are functional at any
one time. When these are lost they are imme-
diately replaced by the teeth of the second series,

which, as well as the remaining teeth, are articu-
¥ 11

122 SOME COASTWISE FISHES.

lated to the jaw in such a manner as to permit of
their erection when necessary. In this manner the
different series are successively brought into play.
It is impossible in the scope of a work of this
kind to enter into anything like a general descrip-
tion of the New Jersey coast fishes, since their his-
tory is largely the history of the fishes of the
entire Atlantic border. But reference to a few of
the more striking forms—such, more particularly,
as by their peculiar outlines are apt to attract at-
tention—may not be amiss in this place. One of
these is the toad-fish (Batrachus tau), a rather fierce

ToaD-FISH.

and repulsive-looking animal, having somewhat the
appearance of a toad, whence its name. The de-
termination with which it holds on to any object
that it may have seized has given to it the name
of ‘sea bull-dog.’ It inhabits largely the oyster-
beds, where the young make free use of the empty
shells for their domiciles.

The fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius), also so
called from its resemblance to a batrachian, but

SOME COASTWISE FISHES, 123

representing a family very distinct from that of
the toad-fish, is certainly one of the most interest-
ing of the coast-fishes. Its greatly expanded body
and head, with broad transverse mouth—whence
the names ‘kettle-maw,’ ‘ wide-gut,’ ‘ all-mouth,’
etc.—and the peculiar ‘angling’ appendages rising
from the back, impart to the animal an individ-
uality which is, to say the least, striking. It was
the supposition of the earlier naturalists—a suppo-
sition, doubtless, resting chiefly upon a fable that

FISHING-FROG (ANGLER’.

had been handed down from antiquity—that the
purpose of the foremost of the filiform append-
ages on the back was the securing of food, the fish
being ‘actually credited with a knowledge of the
art of angling. Hence to this day it is still com-
monly known as the ‘angler.’ But there can be
little doubt that these peculiar whips, as well as the
various other membranous appendages that belong
to the body, and the coloring of the surface, are

124 SOME COASTWISE FISHES.

part of a scheme of gencral deception by which
the animal succeeds in making itself almost undis-
tinguishable among the rocks and grasses which it
inhabits.

The angler is an exceptionally voracious fish, its
ungovernable appetite being well ministered to by
a superabundance of mouth and stomach. It is
stated on authority that seven wild ducks have been
taken from the stomach of a single one of these
animals. The eggs are deposited in a long float-
ing gelatinous ribbon measuring some thirty feet or
more in length, and weighing, it is said, as much
as forty pounds.

The ‘moon-fishes’ (Selene) and ‘ dollar-fishes’
(Vomer), which can be recognized by their rounded
and greatly compressed upright bodies, are inter-
esting little animals, much appreciated for their
brilliant sheen.

There are a number of long-beaked fishes found
on the coast, one or more of which can generally
be picked up in the grass-covered shoals that ex-
tend along a part of the shore. Among the better-
known of these are the pipe-fishes (Siphostoma)
and sea-horses (Hippocampus), which differ princi-
pally from one another in the shape of the body,
the former being greatly elongated, while the latter
is gracefully flexed or coiled, the head and anterior
part of the body recalling the knight of the chess-
board. The males of both species are provided
with peculiar pouches placed on the under surface
of the body, in which the eggs, deposited there by

SOME COASTWISE FISHES, 125

the female, are cared for. The pipe-fishes are
rather slow in their movements, and can be readily
picked up by the hand or net; they are
frequently stranded.

Of comparative rarity with us, al-
though more abundant in the southern
waters, is the tobacco-pipe fish (Pistularia
labaccaria), which can be immediately
distinguished from the pipe-fish proper
by its generally flexible body, its greatly
elongated beak, and the singular lash-like
tail.

A widely differing form, but yet char-
acterized by a prominent beak, is the half-
bill (Hemiramphus),
so called from the
unequal development
of the two jaws, the
lower onealone being
specially elongated.
Here also belong the
gar-fishes or thread-
fishes (Belone).

The two remain-
ing forms with which
we close our sketch
of some of the more
striking of the New
Jersey coast fishes
are known as puffers, from the habit they have of
inflating their bodies by rapid inspirations, whether
of air or of water. The swell-toad or egg-fish

11*

SEA-HORSE.

PIPE-FISH.

126 SOME COASTWISE FISHES.

(Tetrodon turgidus) is an interesting little animal,
very common on some parts of the Atlantic coast.
When hauled from the water it immediately in-
flates itself, and sometimes several inflations, ac-

SWELL-TOAD (PUFFER).

companied by as many collapses, will follow one
another in rapid succession. This procedure is
especially noticeable when the animal is irritated.
Of much larger dimensions, and strongly armed

ZEBRA-FISH (RABBIT-FISH).

with spines, are the porcupine-fishes (Diodon) and
the rabbit-fishes (Chilomycterus), the latter beauti-
fully ornamented with regular wavy lines and spots
of a dark color.

Acorn-shell, 106.
Actinia, 69.

Aleyonidium, 112.

Amorecium, 58.
Amphitrite, 108.
Angler, 123.
Anomia, 47.
Arbacia, 77.
Argonaut, 15.
Ark-shell, 50.
Asterias, 73.
Astrangia, 72.
Auger-shell, 29.
Aurelia, 66.

Balanus, 106.
Barnacles, 102.
Batrachus, 122.
Beach-flea, 95.
Belone, 125.
Birgo, 85.
Boltenia, 56.
Bopyrus, 96.
Botryllus, 57.
Brittle-stars, 75.
Buccinum, 20.
Bugula, 112.

Calamary, 9.
Callinectes, 85.
Campanularia, 62.
Cancer, 85.

INDEX.

Caprella, 96.
Carcharias, 121.
Caudina, 80.
Cerianthus, 71.
Chalina, 115.
Chilomycterus, 126.
Cirratulus, 108.
Clam, 82.

Cliona, 115.
Corals, 71.
Coronula, 107.
Crabs, 81.
Crangon, 94.
Crepidula, 30.
Crisia, 113,
Crucible-shell, 32.
Ctenophora, 67.
Cuttle-fishes, 8.
Cyanea, 65.
Cynthia, 56.

Dactylometra, 64.
Diodon, 126.
Diplothyra, 40.
Dog-whelk, 21.
Dollar-fish, 124.
Donax, 44.

Drill, 30.

Echinarachnius, 75.
Egg-fish, 125.
Escharina, 111.

127

128

Euchone, 108.
Eunice, 108.
Eupagurus, 92,

Feather-stars, 75.
Fiddler-crab, 81.
Fishes, 120.
Fishing-frog, 122.
Fistularia, 125.
Flustra, 112,
Foraminifera, 116.
Fulgur, 17.

Gammarus, 96.
Gebia, 93.
Gelasimus, 84.
Goose barnacles, 104.
Halcampa, 71. ©
Half-bill, 125.
Hemiramphus, 125.
Hermit-crabs, 89.
Hippa, 95.
Hippocampus, 124.
Hoppers, 95.
Horse-muscle, 52,
Horseshoe crab,,99.
Hydractinia, 24."

Idotea, 97.
Jelly-fishes, 63.
King-crab, 99.
Lace-corals, 111.
Lepas, 106.
Limnoria, 97.

Limulus, 101
Littorina, 24.

INDEX.

Lobster, 93.

Loligo, 9.

Lophius, 122.
Lumbriconereis, 108.

Mactra, 34.
Medusa, 63.
Megalops, 86.
Melampus, 31.
Mellita, 77.
Membranipora, 112.
Metridium, 70.
Microscionia, 115.
Modiola, 52.
Mole-crab, 95.
Molgula, 55.
Moon-fish, 124.
Moss-polyps, 110.
Muscle, 51.

Mya, 36.

Mysis, 94.
Mytilus, 51.

Nassa, 21.
Natica, 27.
Nautilus, 14.
Nereis, 108.
Nonionina, 119.
Nucula, 60.

Obelia, 62.
Ocypoda, 87.
Ommastrephes, 12.
Ophiura, 75.
Opossum-shrimp, 94.
Orchestia, 95.
Oyster, 45.

Palamon, 94.
Pandora, 44.

Panopeus, 88.
Parypha, 62.
Pear-conch, 17.
Pecten, 48.
Pedicellina, 113.
Pennaria, 60.
Periwinkle, 24.
Petricola, 37.
Pholas, 39.
Physalia, 66.
Pinnotheres, 88.
Pipe-fish, 124.
Platyonichus, 85.
Pleurobrachia, 67.
Polyps, 58.
Porcupine-fish, 126.
Porpita, 66.

Portuguese man-of-war, 66.

Prawns, 93.
Psolus, 79.

Puffer, 125.
Purple, 80.
Purpura, 30.
Pycnogonoids, 102.

Quahog, 35.

Rabbit-fish, 126.
Ray, 120.
Razor-fisn, 42.
Rotalia, 118.

Sagartia, 71.
Sagitta, 110.
Sand-clam, 36.
Sand-dollar, 75.
Sand-flea, 95.
Saxicava, 42.
Scalaria, 30.
Scallop, 48.
a

INDEX,

Sea-anemones, 68.
Sea-bread, 115.
Sea-cracker, 115.
Sea-cucumbers, 78.
Sea-eggs, 75.
Sea-fir, 59.
Sea-horse, 124.
Sea-peach, 56.
Sea-pear, 56.
Sea-pork, 57.
Sea-purses, 120.
Sea-spider, 88, 102.
Sea-urchins, 75.
Selene, 124.
Sepiola, 13.
Serpula, 109.
Sertularia, 59.
Sesarme, 87.
Sharks, 121.
Ship-worm, 40.
Shrimps, 93.
Siphostoma, 124.
Sipunculus, 110.
Skate, 120.
Slipper-limpet, 30.
Solecurtus, 44.
Solen, 42.
Spirorbis, 110.
Spirula, 14.
Sponges, 114.
Squid, 9.

Squill, 97.

Squirts, 55.
Star-fishes, 78.
Stenosoma, 97.
Strongylocentrotus, 77.
Suberites, 115.
Surf-clam, 34.
Swell-toad, 125.
Synapta, 78.

129

130

Talorchestia, 96.
Tellina, 44.
Terebra, 29.
Teredo, 40.
Tetrodon, 126.
Thread-fish, 125
Toad-fish, 122.

Tobacco-pipe fish, 125.

Tubularia, 61.
Tunicates, 55.

Urosalpinx, 30.

Velella, 66.

INDEX.

Venus, 34.
Vomer, 124.

Wedge-shell, 44.
Wentletrap, 30.
Whelk, 20.
Worms, 108.
Xylotrya, 42.

Yoldia, 60.

Zebra-fish, 126.
Zoea, 86.

THE END.