iS4 



NATURE'S CALENDAR 



Aueust i8 



fishes being crab -eaters. Another bur- 

 rower, numerous in the wet sand at low 

 tide, is the porcelain-Hke hippa, about the 

 size and color of a pigeon's egg, which, 

 with its relatives the shrimps and isopods, 

 constitute the principal food of a long list 

 of carnivorous fishes ; and many lesser, or 

 ev^en minute crustaceans, may be dug out 

 of tubes and holes between tide-marks, 

 not to mention the various mud-crabs 

 {PiUiopeus), spider-crabs, squills, and so 

 on. 



Though an extensive catalogue of mol- 

 lusks has been recorded for our sandy 

 southeastern coast, the stroller upon these 

 beaches can pick up a comparatively 

 small variety of shells, few of which are 

 very attractive. The most common are 

 familiar " hard " or "soft"' clams, or quo- 

 hog and maninose, as they are called lo- 

 cally. The quohog is a type of heavy 

 shell that lives on the surface of the sand, 

 ploughing its way along from place to 

 place, and the little ribbed heart-shell is a 

 small and pretty cousin that is common. 



Like other bivalve mollusks they get 

 their food by sucking it in with the 

 sea-water, in minute floating particles, 

 through one of a pair of pipes; the nutri- 

 ment is abstracted in the stomach, the air 

 is taken up by the curtain-like gills to re- 

 vive the blood, and the useless water itself 

 spurts out of a second or outlet pipe. In 

 the quohog, the various hard, ribbed, 

 more or less brightly colored, heart-shaped 



August 19 



