SEPTEMBER, 1881. 57 



caused by such a sharp breeze at lowest ebb, is further 

 evident from the many shells of myae and astarte, and 

 vemts, all dwellers in the mud and sand, that have been 

 uncovered and thrown shoreward by the wash of the sea. 

 Here, too, is a fine specimen of rose star, and overgorged 

 five-fingers are plentiful enough. We wish we could 

 destroy them without so much trouble, as the only 

 security is to toss them high and dry ; but the foreshore 

 is too far off for 'a starfish to be thrown beyond it, and 

 as for lopping off the limbs of a heartless creature, with 

 sufficient life to exist in a fragment, it is only duplicating 

 the foe. 



In the quieter hollows the mysis is now to be found, 

 with its abdomen enlarged still further, and some of them 

 are quite dark, almost black, in colour. Great blotches 

 of striped red and white gelatine are sea anemones left 

 in the lurch , mostly huge specimens ot crassicornis ; and 

 close beside them are limpets, so rarely away from a 

 meal that they are of exceptional size and very fat, much 

 superior to those near the summit of tide mark. 



Why ! One is continually obliged to ask, why, even 

 concerning the commonest events that are daily occurr- 

 ing around us, and that still remain to our minds 

 unanswered. "Why are those rooks on the road at 

 present ? " asks our friend as the second rook we have 

 passed rises slowly and heavily, and flies unwillingly for 

 a short distance. " For some time back I have observed 

 them singly on the road, and they don't seem to be there 

 for food, and yet when they fly off they return at once to 

 the same spot in an uncomfortable, sickly sort of way. 

 What can be wrong with them ? " We ourselves have 

 observed this peculiar conduct on the part of individual 

 rooks of late, and attributed it to their desire to dust 



