12 NATURAL HISTORY OF OUR SHORES 



dry these treasures, and put them aside for further manipu- 

 lation and for microscopic mounting methods for doing 

 which will be given in the proper place. 



Of course, for the appreciation of this particular branch 

 of zoology a microscope is needed, but to the young reader, 

 interested even thus far, the possession of this engine of 

 science cannot be a remote event 



Now who are, or rather who were, in the case of the dead 

 ones, the dwellers in these shells ? 



Firstly, the name Foraminifera changed into familiar 

 English is " door-bearers," and the name is given them, 

 because all, or nearly all, the little shells are perforated 

 with minute holes, through which the inmate can protrude 

 long threads of his substance ; for his is not of " muscle 

 and nerve miraculously spun," but is, as we have seen, a 

 speck of the glairy white of - egg - looking substance 

 protoplasm. 



And this is how he dines. A morsel suitable for a meal 

 being within reach, some of the threads are extended, and 

 coalesce into a blob. This envelops the morsel, digests and 

 assimilates the good portion, and rejects the remainder. 

 Then, enriched by the meal, the foraminifer withdraws its 

 substance into the shell. 



These semi-fluid threads also serve the purpose of loco- 

 motion ; hence they are termed Pseudopodia (" false feet "), 

 and by their extension in one direction and their with- 

 drawal in the other the little animal proceeds. 



When an individual has reached size limit some of the 

 extruded protoplasm breaks off, secretes lime from its 

 solution in the sea- water, and becomes a new individual. 

 Thus they multiply. 



In speaking of the contents of the cell as a " simple " 

 speck, I say so guardedly, for a living cell is more complex 

 than was formerly supposed, of which more anon. 



I said just now that the Foraminifera had a history 



