THE ANIMAL LIFE OF OUR SEASHORE. 
I: 
THE SHELL-FISH OF THE COAST. 
ALTHOUGH it can scarcely be said that the New 
Jersey shores constitute favorite haunts of the 
molluscous animals, yet interesting forms of one 
kind or another can at almost all times be found. 
Apart from the commoner species that are habitu- 
ally met with on the sands, the ‘harvester of the 
seas’ who follows in the track of recent high- 
water, or gleans the product of a stiff south-easter, 
is almost sure to meet at this time with some of 
the rarer specimens, which are generally strangers 
to the visitors to the shores. Among these may 
possibly be a cuttle-fish, whose body has been hap- 
lessly cast upon the sands, and left by the retreat- 
ing waters as a food-offering to the gulls and other 
sea-birds that frequent the region. 
The cuttle-fishes of the New Jersey coast are not 
numerous, and they are rarely met with along 
the sands, except under the special circnmstances 
that have just been indicated. In the deeper and 
‘quieter waters of the numerous inlets, especially 
around the mouths of outflowing streams, where 
the chances of stranding are less imminent, they 
are not exactly uncommon, and have even been 
scooped up by means of the landing-net. The 
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