1 1 6 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



throw the raked-up sand far behind them. So active 

 are they that a big strong hopper can bury itself out 

 of sight in a mound of clean sand in the course of a few 

 seconds. All Crustacea are voracious eaters, and when 

 nothing else is to be got they eat each other, apparently 

 without any compunction. Once, when walking on the 

 beach near St Clair, I fell in with a large sand-hopper, 

 and promptly dropped it into an empty bottle which I had 

 in my pocket. Shortly after, I came on a larger and much 

 rarer kind of crustacean, and dropped it into the same 

 convenient receptacle. Unfortunately I had no preserving 

 material with me, so I gave them a little sea water to 

 keep them moist. On reaching home an hour or so after 

 I took out my bottle, and lo ! there was only one specimen. 

 It seemed a case of the lion and the lamb lying down 

 together, but with the lamb inside ; so, picking up my 

 solitary specimen, I dropped it into a tube of alcohol, 

 when, to my surprise, the smaller crustacean emerged 

 from the body of the larger, only to succumb in a few 

 seconds to the effects of the spirit. Instead of the big 

 fellow having eaten the smaller, the little fellow had 

 actually eaten its way into the body of the big one until 

 it was lost to sight. I don't suppose these simple animals 

 ever suffer from indigestion. 



Besides the sand - hoppers, innumerable little Isopod 

 crustaceans, like small wood lice, may be seen running 

 about on the sand a little above the water-line, ready to 

 eat up the various specimens thrown up on the beach. 

 But as they are themselves liable to be picked up by the 

 countless gulls and petrels which roam up and down the 

 coast, they are coloured almost exactly like the sand, and 

 besides, when alarmed, they roll themselves instantly into a 

 ball, which completes their resemblance to a pellet of sand. 



There is perhaps nothing more remarkable on the sea- 

 shore than the extraordinary rapidity with which dead 

 and decaying material is removed. So much is this the 

 case that the collector who wishes to gather what the sea 

 has thrown up must do so promptly, or his material will 

 all be destroyed before he comes on the scene. 



