132 THE CLOAK ANEMONE. 



on a fleet gala-day, — have the anterior legs much 

 elongated ; while the genera which live on the ground 

 or on fixed objects, as the great hairy Spiders {My gale, 

 Cteniza, &c.), the Wolf Spiders [Lycosa), and the 

 Jumpers [Salticus, &c.), have the legs very short. 

 Perhaps this parallel might he much extended; at 

 the same time I must confess the rule is not without 

 exception ; as witness the arboreal SquiiTels, whose 

 fore limbs are sufiiciently short. 



THE CLOAK ANEMONE. 



Among the singular disguises by which familiar 

 objects are sometimes rendered difficult of identifica- 

 tion, not the least interesting are some that arise from 

 the association of creatures very remote from each 

 other in structure, habit, and zoological position. 

 Many persons who know a Whelk as well as possible, 

 hesitate when they see the familiar shell tenanted, 

 not by the great black-spotted Mollusk, but by a 

 mongTel between Crab and Lobster, with stout, red, 

 pinching claws, and long, jointed, and pointed legs. 

 And still more mysterious does the thing look, when 

 two-thirds of the shell itself are enclosed in a thick 

 mass of purple- spotted flesh, through the midst of 

 which the busy Crab is poking his head and limbs. 

 In truth it is a strange affair, this threefold alliance 

 of Whelk, Hermit-crab, and Cloak-anemone. 



Let me describe the last a little more particularly ; 

 it is the Adamsia 'palliata of zoologists. All round 

 the mouth of the shell is firmly adhering a soft but 

 firm pnlpy mass of flesh, of which the upper part is 

 commonl}^ of a warm brown hue, but the under surface 



