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The shrimp is a crustacean with a long body and a substantial 
tail by which it is able to dart very swiftly through the water. 
The acorn shell or barnacle may be found almost everywhere. It 
differs from the true barnacle (which was once connected with a 
most absurd superstition) in not having a stalk, so that the body is . 
all enclosed in the little shell. This shell is composed of several 
pieces and is firmly fastened to the rock. The little animal is 
called a cirrhopod, because its feet are so beautifully cut in feathery 
fashion. 
Some of my readers will be wondering why not a word has been 
said about shells and the animals that live in them, The reason is 
that, working upwards, we have only just reached the soft-bodied 
animals or, as naturalists call them, the Mollusca. They rank first 
amongst invertebrate animals, the highest amongst them being the 
cuttle-fish and its allies. A short time since a cuttle-fish was 
brought up in a mackerel net at Sandgate, and the writer has seen 
a living octopus that had found its way to our rocks. Just fancy 
what a scare there would be if these delightful creatures -were to 
become ‘‘ common objects of our coast.” Animals that have feet 
growing out of their heads, as these have, are not very likely to 
win favour, but, when we come to the suckers, it is time to talk 
about something else. Please notice a very, very common washed- 
out looking thing, often called a sea weed, but correctly Flustra, 
one ofthe sea-mossesor sea-mats. Itisaskeleton, athingthatwasthe 
abode of innumerable tiny animals now classed as molluscoida. 
They rank much higher than the little hydra-like animal, and are 
akin to the proper molluscoida. An examination with a magnifier 
will show us that the surface of the flustra is not smocth, but is 
covered with little holes in which the animal lives. About 150 
years ago, a great botanist studied the flustra, the alcyonium and 
*the tabalaria, and declared them all to belong to the animal kingdom. 
Until that time everything of the-kind, coral included, was believed 
to be vegetable. A learned man had proved to his own satisfantion 
that coral was a plant, and that the eight tentacles of the polype 
were the petals of the flower. In the field of natural history, as in 
many another, it is very interesting to see how slowly but surely 
truth has won the day. 
There is a whitish thing that is often seen on some the finer 
sea weeds, nearly covering them with a scaly crust. Itis one of a 
large vumber of things allied to a flustra and is called Lepralia 
-Very many of the soft-bodied animals live in shells, as see our 
friend the snail. A shell is, to my mind, a thing which, even when 
not elegant in form or bright in colour, may well fill us with wonder 
and admiration. Its value toa soft defenceless creature is evident, 
_ but how is it made? Molluscs are provided with a kind of thick 
