300 THE WORED OF THE SEA. 
suspended, and bite through the byssus, so that the mollusk may 
drop to the ground, and become an easier prey. 
It can scarcely be credited that other crustaceans which are 
great oyster eaters watch until the king of the mollusks opens his 
royal valves to enjoy the rays of the sun, or to make a repast, and 
then adroitly put a stone in the open shell; the mollusk, unable to 
enclose himself, becomes an easy prey to the artful marauder. The 
corophia about whom this strange tale is told, are found in large 
numbers on the shores of the Atlantic, about the autumn, beating 
the sands for the worms. They perform an eminent service in the 
mussel farms of La Rochelle. During the winter, the rough seas 
throw up vast mounds of mud about the douchots ; when the spring 
returns, before the cultivation of the mollusk can be proceeded 
with, these mounds must be removed. This would be a serious 
undertaking, but the corophia come out in vast hosts, and in their 
THE LONG-HORNED COROPHIUM. 
(Corophium longicorne.) 
anxiety to find worms, they harrow up the surface of these mud 
lumps. This loosened material the waves carry out to sea; so the 
agent which piled up the objectionable heaps removes them. 
We said the crustaceans were no respecters of persons, for | 
often the large ones will devour their smaller brethren— Xara 
concordia fratrum ! 
Professor Rymer Jones tells us he once put six crabs (Platy- 
carcinus pagurus) into his aquarium. They were of different sizes. 
One of them walked very imprudently, as the event proved, into the 
middle of the aquarium. It was immediately accosted by another, 
a little larger, who politely took it in his claws, and commenced, 
without further ceremony, to break its shell. This proved no very 
difficult matter, and he forthwith tore out the flesh and ate it. 
But there were other members of the group not content: for, 
as Horace says—and he was not the first to say it— 
** Nihil est ab omni parte beatum.” 
