116 CRAB, SHRIMP, AND LOBSTER LORE. 



This is the Sea Flea, or Sand Hopper, as it is popu- 

 larly called, and because of its saltitary powers, young 

 ladies in dainty boots keep at a most respectful dis- 

 tance from the scene of its performances, and rival the 

 hopper himself in the agility with which they bound 

 off on unwittingly invading the haunts of that nimble 

 little gentleman. Lift but a tuft of half-dried weed, 

 fragment of stranded wreck, stone, or tenantless shell, 

 and up leap a whole army of Hoppers, like as many 

 peas on a drum-head. They appear more vegetarian 

 in their tastes than most other of their crustacean 

 family connexions, subsisting mainly on the various 

 weeds found scattered among the rocks. Fish and 

 many other marme creatures feed voraciously on them, 

 and the Cornish chough, in his black satin coat and 

 scarlet stockings, picks them with marvellous dexterity 

 with his coral- coloured, forceps-like beak, from amongst 

 the tangled web of sea-cords and ocean-ribbons in 

 which they delight to harbour. The poor, frost-beset 

 starling, too, when the white snow lies thick on the 

 pastures, and the pitiless north-east wind whistles 

 down the vale, finds amongst the oar- weed heaps cast 

 up at high-tide level. Sand Hoppers enough to pro- 

 long his wee-bird life till milder winds and better 

 times smile, on the land and him. So even the most 

 pigmy atoms of creation perform their allotted parts in 

 the great plan which an all-wise Providence has so 



