JUNE, 1882. 181 



that this season has filled up the serious gaps made in 

 our community of small birds of recent years. We have 

 not known so many nests since we came to this part, 

 about our own place ; and it is a curious fact that the 

 most shy birds will crowd about the immediate vicinity 

 of a dwelling to nest probably from protection against 

 hawks and weasels while the redbreast, our most 

 familiar bird, is the shyest when nesting, and the most 

 secretive ! 



JUNE, 1882. 



The sandy bottom we have been rowing over is covered 

 with a forest of a peculiar character. This is composed 

 of the leathery tubes of annelids with their waving tufted 

 crowns, and yet the character seems strangely changed ! 

 We peer down at them once or twice ere we understand 

 the transformation ; for the annual seaweeds have attached 

 themselves by their spores to the tubes, and are now 

 waving their dark olive fringes above and around the 

 obtruded inmates. Anything that will permit of a spore 

 settling, in strong salt water, is in danger of having a 

 great growth to carry, beyond its own individuality, and 

 the tough noses of Mya truncata the burrowing shell" 

 fish whose siphon tube does not get properly accommo- 

 dated inside the shell frequently carry a tough frond of 

 some of the fuci. This, although apparently inconvenient, 

 is yet a distinct security, and makes the bearer more 

 difficult to be discerned on the foreshore. 



We are pushing off the boat with the skate-spear on 

 board, when the water alongside is rippled and dimpled 

 by many little noses, and it is obvious we have again 

 been visited by the little atherines or " sand smelts " that 



