WONDERS OF THE SHORE 1361 



painted, of long pellucid tentacles, hanging like a 

 thin, bluish cloud over a disk of mottled brown and 

 gray. Here, adhering to this large whelk, is an- 

 other, but far larger and coarser. It is Sagartia 

 parasitica, one of our largest British species; and 

 most singular in this, that it is almost always (in 

 Torbay at least) found adhering to a whelk: but 

 never to a live one; and for this reason. The live 

 whelk (as you may see for yourself when the tide 

 is out) burrows in the sand in chase of hapless 

 bivalve shells, which he bores through with his 

 sharp tongue (always, cunning fellow, close to the 

 hinge where the fish is), and then sucks out their 

 life. Now, if the anemone stuck to him, it would 

 be carried under the sand daily, to its own disgust. 

 It prefers, therefore, the dead whelk, inhabited by 

 a soldier crab, Pagurus Bernhardi, of which you 

 may find a dozen anywhere as the tide goes out; 

 and travels about at the crab's expense, sharing with 

 him the offal which is his food. Note, moreover, 

 that the soldier crab is the most hasty and blundering 

 of marine animals, as active as a monkey, and as sub- 

 ject to panics as a horse; wherefore the poor anemone 

 on his back must have a hard life of it; being 

 knocked about against rocks and shells, without 

 warning, from morn to night and night to morn. 

 Against which danger, kind Nature, ever maximus 

 in minimis, has provided by fitting him with a stout 

 leather coat, which she has given, I believe, to no 

 other of his family. 



Next for the babies' heads, covered with prickles 

 instead of hair. They are sea urchins, Amphidotus 



