FOOD FOR VARIOUS CREATURES. 13 



on the stones, thus broke the shell. Land shells fur- 

 nish a few birds with a part of their sustenance ; and the 

 principal of these are the two well-known songsters, the 

 blackbird and the thrush. They break those on which 

 they depend in great measure when winter has destroyed 

 their summer food, by repeated strokes against some 

 stone ; nor is it uncommon to find a great quantity of 

 fragments of shells together, as if brought to one par- 

 ticular stone for this very purpose. 



Of fishes, molluscous animals are also the frequent 

 victims. Thus it is said : 



The prickly star creeps on with fell deceit, 

 To force the oyster from his close retreat. 

 When gaping lids their widened void display, 

 The watchful star thrusts in a pointed ray ; 

 Of all its treasures spoils the rifled case, 

 And empty shells the sandy hillocks grace. 



So well indeed does the star-fish know how to succeed 

 in this capture, and so destructive is he to numbers 

 of these creatures, that every dredger who observes one 

 of these animals, and does not tread on and kill it, or 

 throw it on the shore, is liable to some penalty. When, 

 indeed, we remember the vast and incalculable numbers 

 of molluscous animals which crawl on the bottom, or swim 

 on the bosom of the ocean ; and the indiscriminating 



