12 FOOD FOR VARIOUS CREATURES. 



when pressed by hunger, will eat mussels and other 

 bivalves ; and the racoon, whose fur approaches in value 

 to that of the beaver, lives much on them, especially 

 on oysters, when near the shore. We are told that 

 it will watch the opening of the shells, dexterously 

 insert its paw, and tear out the contents ; or else it 

 will break the hinge with its teeth, thus loosen the 

 shells, force them apart with its fore paws, and then 

 hook out their contents : it appears to relish them ex- 

 ceedingly. Crabs, fish, and insects are also acceptable. 

 In some parts of England, snails are considered to con- 

 tribute much to the fattening of sheep. 



Among birds, the mollusca have also many enemies. 

 Several of the duck and gull tribes derive from them 

 at least a portion of their subsistence. The pied oyster- 

 catcher takes its name from feeding on oysters and 

 limpets ; and its bill is so well adapted to the purpose 

 of forcing asunder the valves of the one, and raising 

 the other from the rock, that Derham remarks, " The 

 Author of nature seems to have framed it purely for that 

 use." Several kinds of crows find here their food. A 

 friend of Dr. Darwin's, it is said, saw above a hun- 

 dred of them at once, on the northern coast of Ireland, 

 preying on mussels. Each crow took a mussel up in 

 the air, twenty or forty yards high, and letting it fall 



