THE WOODLOUSE AND THE BARNACLE. 



661 



crustaceaas to settle on her handkerchief, it was bitten to rags when 

 she took it up. It is very fond of worms, will eat any kind of carrion, 

 and sometimes, when pressed by hunger, 

 has no scruple in eating its own kind. 



The common Woodlouse is very 

 plentiful in all damp places, and es- 

 pecially exults in getting under logs of 

 wood or decaying timber. In cellars 

 and outhouses they are common, and are 

 generally to be found in dark and damp 

 localities. Fowls are very fond of them, 

 and there is no surer way of extirpating The Common Woodlouse {Por- 

 these sharp-toothed creatures than by ^^^^'^ scaber). 



allowing some fowls to scrape and peck about in the places where 

 they have taken up their residence. Under the bark of dead and 

 decaying trees is a very favorite residence with the Woodlouse, and in 

 such localities its dead skeleton may often be found, bleached to a 



porcelain-like whiteness. The color of the 

 Woodlouse is a darkish leaden hue, some- 

 times spotted with white. 



The well-known Pill Woodlouse, or 

 Pill Armadillo, when rolled up into a 

 globular shape bears a strong analogy to 

 the common hedgehog, and a still stronger 

 to the manis. As in the latter case, the crea- 

 ture is defended by horny scales that pro- 

 tect it just as the external skeleton pro- 

 tects the armadillo. AVhile rolled up this 

 creature has often been mistaken for a 

 bead or a berry from some tree, and in one 

 instance a girl new to the country actually 

 threaded a number of these unfortunate 

 crustaceans before she discovered that they 

 were not beads. 



W^e now come to the last members of the 

 Crustacea — creatures which were for a long 

 time placed among the molluscs, and whose 

 true position has only been discovered in 

 comparatively later years. Popularly they 

 are called Barnacles, but are known to 

 naturalists under the general term Cirrhip- 

 <:des, on account of the cirrhi, or bristles, with which their strangely 

 transformed feet are fringed. 



When adult all the Cirrhipedes are affixed to some substance, being 



56 



The Barnacle {Lepas ana- 

 tijera). 



