THE HORSESHOE CRAB 



only occasionally thrown up on these sandy 

 shores. When I meet him I wonder why I 

 can always recall his elaborate name, Strongy- 

 locentrotus drohachiensis, with such readi- 

 ness, when for the life of me I often fail to 

 connect Mrs. Brown or Mrs. Jones with their 

 somewhat simpler cognomens. Strongylo- 

 centrotus, however, is an old friend of mine, 

 and years ago, when I combined the study 

 of marine invertebrates with ornithology as 

 a member of the Champlain Society at Mount 

 Desert, I used often to bring up a dredge 

 packed full of sea-urchins. 



These spiny balls suggest Shakespeare, for 

 Shakespeare calls a hedgehog an " urchin." 



" Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins,'' 



and to this day the dwellers in Warwickshire, 

 through which the Avon flows, call the hedge- 

 hog " urchin," and is not the sea-urchin as 

 bristly as a land-urchin? Broken pieces of 

 sea-urchins are not uncommon on the sides 

 of the marsh drumlins, where they have been 

 borne by crows and gulls and dropped from a 

 height to break their shells, a fate that is 

 abundantly meted out to the large sea-snails 

 by the same birds. 



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