228 LOCH C RE RAN. 



numbers. At low tide, occasionally on shore, among the 

 seaware, but more commonly a yard or two out, they 

 were so remarkably comfortable and well grown, as well 

 as numerous, that our curiosity was aroused, and we 

 wondered where and how they obtained the required 

 nourishment to sustain their important-looking corpora- 

 tions. Here is one doubled up like a sea-urchin, brilliant 

 of hue, and when spread out quite 16 inches in diameter; 

 where, and oh where, can you obtain a prey ? The hoe 

 we carry is thrust out and the mass dragged shorewards, 

 when the rascal disgorges two large dogwhilks he has 

 been in the process of devouring. We feel a comfortable 

 glow of satisfaction to think that this enemy of our oyster- 

 beds is also the enemy of our other enemy, this carnivor- 

 ous borer. Here, quite close alongside, is another, only 

 inferior in size, and we drag him ashore likewise, to find 

 that the fellow has actually had the courage and audacity 

 to suck the contents out of a large horse mussel (modiola) 

 the strong muscle alone remaining undevoured. We 

 proceed along but a short way when we meet with still 

 another in the curled up condition in which they gorge 

 themselves, and as we drag it shorewards the shell of a 

 tapes pulastra drops from the relaxing grasp of the ogre. 

 Slowly the extended stomach returns to its place, and 

 the monster settles back to an uncomfortable after-dinner 

 siesta on a large exposed boulder ; for the star-fish wraps 

 its turned out stomach around the prey it has secured, 

 in place of attempting to devour the limey covering in 

 which most of its game is protected. Once the mouth 

 of the shell is enclosed in the stomach of the star-fish, 

 the creature soon sickens, the hinge spring relaxes its 

 hold, and the shell opening permits the star-fish to suck 

 out the gelatinous contents, and cast free the calcarious 



